Reno Air Races and Air Racing History: Ge Ge II / Habu

at 382.114mph, with #81 finishing in next to last in 6th place at 358.129mph. Ketchen was well enough to jump back in the saddle the next day, to pilot Habu in Saturday’s 6-lap, all-Mustang Heat-2A, which turned out to be one of the most exciting and closely competitive Unlimited races in history. This barn-burner began with intense drama when Dan Martin’s #7 “Ridge Runner” shot ahead of the starting cluster of seven P-51s to take the lead through the pace lap, and coming up on Pylon 1 at the start of the first official lap, #7’s Merlin blew and caught fire. Martin pulled-up and tried an gear-down emergency landing on a dirt road, which resulted in a crash landing - from

which he escaped, unhurt, as a spectacular race ensued without him. For the first five laps, the first four Mustangs were practically tied together: Jim Orton in #28 “Tipsy Too”, Skip Holm in P-51B #68 “Shangri-La”, Earl Ketchen in #81 “Habu”, and veteran war ace Bob Love in the #2 Hovey Mustang, drove the crowd (& the pylon judges) crazy, while Steve Hinton in the POF- #0 “Bud Light II” and Ralph Rina in John Marlin’s #102 “Day Dreamer” were having their own battle behind the leaders. Orton squeaked by the finish line to win at 362.903mph. It looked to all like Love had second place just barely nailed-down, when Holm & Ketchen- flying wing tip to wing tip, aced-out the old Ace right at the Home Pylon in a 3-way photo-finish in the following order: Holm - 360.608mph, Ketchen - 360.412mph, and Love - 360.10mph, with Hinton and Rina finishing at 352.52mph and 351.67mph, respectively. It was truly a- “race of races”!

Dan Martin’s misfortune, opened up a slot for Mike Wright and Tired Iron’s #82 Corsair in Sunday’s 9/19/82 Bronze Race. Mike had a lot of fun in a tail-end Charlie- USN mini-battle with Howard Pardue’s- #5 FM-2 Wildcat, and the Corsair beat-out the little Grumman kitty for 5th place at a blistering 275.610mph to Howard’s 275.15lmph speed (- about 80mph slower than the winning Mustang!). The Bronze also was the first Reno race to feature three Corsair entries in a race, with Wart Hog joining Bob Yancy’s- #101 “Old Blue”, and Bob Guilford’s- #93 “Blue Max”, around the pylons. Mike Wright also took third with Wildcatter in the T-6 Silver. Reno ‘82’s- 8-lap Silver Race, with six P-51s and a Sea Fury, was almost as exciting as Saturday’s spectacular silver heat the day before. Earl Ketchen and Habu kicked-butt by running away with it all, in taking the Silver Trophy (and $4950 bucks of prize money) at a winning average speed of 378.087mph. Behind Ketchen, there was a vicious battle for second place fought by Lloyd Hamilton in his Hawker- #16 Baby Gorilla and Skip Holm again in the razorback P-5lB- #68. The same feisty fifty-ones of Love, Orton, Rina and Maloney tangled up to complete the finishing order.

Though Reno ’82 went down in the books as- “the Year of Dago Red” - the new hot kid on the block, it was the Silver Gang that provided the most memorable racing moments of that year’s event. The Tired Iron Air Race Team left the past behind them, and came from behind to make their mark as one of the top teams in the Unlimited Class and showed a lot of class in doing it. They won a place in everyone’s hearts, and proved they belonged. These guys were racers!

Reno ’83 - Holding Your Own

For Reno ’83, which would be the first year featuring four race days instead of three, Don Davis’ Tired Iron team decided to return again with just the P-51 and their T-6, and leave the big slow Corsair at home. #81 Habu was still running a Zeuschel race motor, and the only change in looks, was a switch from the tinted D-model Mustang sliding canopy over to the low-profile clear racing canopy, which came with the plane when purchased from previous owner - Scott Smith. Dick Wright permanently replaced Jack Swartz as crew chief for the team that year.

The hot weather promised faster speeds, and the large field of Unlimited entries once again included two more new Gold-class racers: the formidable P&W R-4360-motored corncob Sea Furies - the formidable-Frank Sanders’- #8 Dreadnought, flown by Neil Anderson (which was top qualifier and ultimately won Reno ’82), and Lloyd Hamilton’s- #15 “Head Gorilla” (a.k.a. - “Havnaught”). The ’82 Gold bracket was indeed a heavy-duty one for competition, but the field for the Silver bracket, where Ketchen and Habu hoped to shine again, was way over-stacked with competition this time. Ketchen qualified #81 in 13th position at 374.937mph to be again be right in the middle of the big field of 28 aircraft- where they wanted to be, to get into a groove for Silver competition.

In their first outing in Friday’s Heat-1B on 9/16- Ketchen battled briefly with his rival Skip Holm, who was flying Joe Kasperoff’s- P-51D #39 “The Healer”, but had to settle for a 5th place finish at 371.129mph behind Skip in the 6-lap race, which was handily-won by Bill Destefani, in his super-stocker Mustang- #72 “Mangia Pane”, at a winning speed of 383.702mph. During the next day’s Heat-2B, at Home Pylon at the start of his fifth lap and running in second, Ketchen got some exciting experience, while attempting to get around Steve Hinton’s- big #1 Super Corsair in a daring effort to take the lead. At that moment- an oil line let go in Habu, covering most of #81’s canopy with oil and obscuring Ketchen’s visibility. Earl called a mayday, and managed to expertly execute a safe deadstick landing after he pulled out of the race.

The Tired Iron crew had their Mustang back together and ready for Sunday’s six-lap Bronze Race, which ended-up being the fastest Bronze in Reno’s history. Ketchen and the Tired Iron Team ran a good race running a solid second, and inherited the first-place win through a fluke, thanks to Jimmy Leeward. Leeward had purchased the former- #69 Jeannie (N79111) from owner Wiley Sanders prior to Reno ’83, and brought her to race with a flashy color scheme, bearing the Roman Numeral- ‘X’ (signifying- Race #10) and named- “Specter”. When Leeward got her, she came with her wings radically clipped by the Zeuschel shop down to 29-ft. - shortest-ever on a Mustang! Through a timer’s glitch, Leeward’s qualifying run in Race #X was disallowed, and he fried his engine when forced to try again and as a result- he failed to get the plane qualified. Relegated to flying his slower stock #9 Mustang, a

frustrated Leeward entered Specter in place of #9 in Saturday’s- Heat-2A, and in the Bronze on Sunday as well. Though Leeward won the Bronze hands-down at around 415mph, he was disqualified for his switcheroo of aircraft and the win went to Earl Ketchen and Habu at a winning speed of 400.717mph. It was a strange way to wrap up the race week, but if it meant going home with a first-place trophy - the Tired Iron Team was happy to take it!

Moose Jaw ’84 - Final Curtain Call

The June 1984 air racing event staged at the Canadian Forces Base near the town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, would turn out to be the last air race for Earl Ketchen and Tired Iron Team’s- #81 Habu, and they distinguished themselves well. Though it was a small venue, a sufficient number of entries and dedicated race fans made the long pilgrimage to the Canadian northland to attend, and had a great time. On Saturday, 6/16/84, Earl Ketchen qualified #81 at 414.241mph as the second-fasted of 12 aircraft, behind Rick Brickert in #4 Dago Red, who led the field at a speed of 420.904mph. Brickert finished first during the Gold Race on Sunday at 384.450mph, but due to multiple pylon cuts the official finishing order was juggled, and penalties were dispensed, to give Skip Holm a surprise 359.152mph win in P-51D #39 “The Healer”, and Earl Ketchen and #81 “Habu” took second place at 349.644mph. The two old rivals had gone at it once again.

Then tragically one month later, after performing at an airshow in Aspen, Colorado on July 14, 1984 - on the following day, while enroute going back home to Wyoming, pilot Earl Ketchen and his passenger- T-6 race pilot & friend- James Cuseo were both killed when #81 Habu crashed at Carbondale, Colorado where Cuseo lived. The NTSB Report and eyewitness accounts stated that after the Mustang performed a sequence of several aerobatic maneuvers, the pilot put the plane into a vertical climb. At about 3000-ft., the P-51 went into a nose-down spin from which it never recovered. One account noted that the plane was doing a loop and was coming out of a second loop and failed to pullout. Both men died on impact, and the racer was totally demolished. Needless to say, the tragedy was a major blow to the Tired Iron Air Race Team and a tremendous loss to friends and family of the pilots and to the sport of air racing.

Though surprisingly, Tired Iron’s- Corsair and T-6 showed up the following September to be raced again by Mike Wright, and Wright and Don Davis came back again at Reno ’85 to race Davis’ A-26 #85 “Puss ‘N Boots” and the T-6 - the spirit and energy had understandably dwindled after their great loss, and most all the team members left air racing and moved onto other endeavors. Former Tired Iron team member - pilot/mechanic- Jim Good still lives in Casper and runs the Good Warbirds Museum there, and keeps the team banner flying in spirit by continuing to race the old #77 Wildcatter T-6 at Reno and elsewhere. According to Good, Don Davis moved to Denver not too long ago, while Mike Wright runs American Eagle’s flight simulator in Nashville, and brother Dick works as an A&P mechanic out of Tucson. Though Earl Ketchen and N5449V never got to realize their potential for winning the Unlimited Gold through further modification and more experience, the air racing exploits of their team will likely live-on forever - anytime air racers reminisce about Unlimited warbird air racing in the early eighties, and that- “stealthy-looking black P-51 Mustang”.

The author would like to dedicate this article to the memory of
- Earl Ketchen -
For His Racing Spirit & Encouraging Words