CoolPix - Racers: Rare Bear In The Sunshine At Reno 2009
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 10:31PM 
(click pic for hi-res)
Another new CoolPix category, this time it’s ‘Racers’... and what a sweet racer this is! This is a pic I took at Reno 2009 as the sun made the colors in the new paint come alive. I’ve been a huge fan of this airplane for many years, and I think this new scheme takes the airplane to a whole new level. Be sure to click the pic to see it big and up close. This is definitely desktop material : )
The clear air and bright sunshine make the Reno Air Races an excellent event to get perfect pictures of amazing airplanes. This fact alone should be enough to convince you to make plans to be at the races in September.
Rare Bear has had a long and interesting race history that began in 1969 as ‘Able Cat’, followed by the name ‘Phoenix l’ in 1971. It didn’t pick up the current name until 1980. I’m guessing she’ll be Rare Bear forever now.
The airplane looked hot in the new paint, but the engine wasn’t quite up to the task in 2009. The crew, along with John Penney as pilot were able to snag second place in the championship race, helped by the fact that VooDoo had to mayday before the end of the race. In theory, 2010 should be a stellar year for unlimited racing with a stronger Bear, scorchin’ hot P-51’s in VooDoo and 2009 Gold winner Strega, and there might be several surprise contenders show up as well. Awesome stuff indeed.
To learn more about the Bearcat with the cool paint, check out the official Rare Bear website, as well as this indepth article at AirSpaceMag.com. The Bear is definitely back… watch out Reno 2010!
Reader Comments (3)
Oh Yeah! I have pics of them working on "Bear" right up until race time early in the week. Such a rush to be in the pits with those warbirds!
WOW!
what a cool plane! perfect to exhibition and make tricks, of course that xlpharmacy is one of the companies that make the most great effort to keep this competition as a tradition.