Reno 2014: Sunday 9-14-14 - Voodoo 1st, Czech Mate 2nd, And Precious Metal Disqualified??
Sunday, September 14, 2014 at 10:13PM 
(click pic for hi-res) Thom Richard and Precious Metal on the Unlimited Gold race takeoff
With a 2,050 mile drive ahead of me, I left the 2014 Reno Air Races just minutes after the Gold race on Sunday. But I stopped about an hour down the road to post a picture to celebrate that I watched Precious Metal easily capture third place behind another win for Steven Hinton (in Voodoo) with Sheman Smoot in Czech Mate taking second place... Strega was unable to race and Rare Bear was out of the race after just one lap. But when I checked the race results at reports.airrace.org I saw that they were showing Precious Metal disqualified in the Gold race with this note: "DQ by Contest Committee for showline cut".
Uncertain of what was going on and confused by how such a thing could have happened, I decided to just continue home and post once I understood the situation. I'm home now and I still don't understand how Precious Metal was disqualified (which moved Dennis Sanders and Dreadnought into third place) and in fact my quick research of the situation makes me think there is a really big mistake taking place here. Hopefully soon there will be some info available that will either clarify what really happened, or maybe even reverse the situation.
Regardless, Team Precious Metal did a fantastic job of getting the airplane into the Gold race and they have so much to proud of for their efforts. It was a great experience for me to be so close to the action in the PM pit, and I can verify that the team worked really hard and effectively in the quest for the Gold race.
I'll have more info on this confusing situation once it's available.
Reader Comments (3)
After reading and watching video of Sundays race I completely concur there has been a mistake by both the judge who called the deadline cut, and RARA for enforcing the bad call. RARA did release a short response in regards to the situation, but I found it to be just a pilotical statement severely lacking in any solid evidence to defend their situation. As we all know the racers pour huge amounts of time and money into the event and therefore deserve better than this. I'm a long time fan of Reno Air Racing and like many can't wait for September to arrive every year. We the fans then travel from all over the globe to watch this amazing spectacle. We to, the fans, also deserve better then this.
Jeff- I agree obviously, but I specifically wanted to agree with you that the official RARA statement was ineffective at providing evidence for their stance. I'm not anti RARA in any way, but the goal here should be an open pursuit of the truth in this situation, not just a stance that we've made a decision and it won't be changed. I feel the racers and the fans deserve to see the conclusive evidence that Thom was operating outside of the rules, and if it can't be provided then we've got a real problem here.
Thanks for supporting the PM Team. Thom was extremely upset at the DQ as it questioned his Pilotage, and we Know he is a Great Pilot. The Cockpit Video was immediately Presented to RARA and reviewed. We Do Not Believe We Overran the Showline and have Video to Substantiate this. This regards only ONE Judge and NO Video that supports his DQ Call. Very Upset that we Killed it and didn't receive our Reward. We are a Minimalistic Budget Team, No One is Paid, And we spend our own money to get to Reno. WE Overcome Tremendous Challenges EVERY Year to Make our Presence and have not disappointed since we've purchased PM. Thom and the Crew Design and Build Every Single Part of PM in order to Refine Her into the Awsome Machine she is today. I wish you would've ID'ed yourself as the AirPigs Moderator so we could've chatted in the pit. Take care' Hope to see you next year. Don.