To all Fansponsors,
Fans and friends of the "Rare Bear"

We have done it! All of you are a part of History in the making.

For those of you who have not heard yet, we placed a solid second in the Sunday Gold race at the National Championship Air Races.

For any of you who are disappointed in the second place showing, please don't be. When you consider that two years ago the "Bear" didn't even have an engine and no conceivable way to get one, then with mostly $20.00 bills donated by fans of the "Rare Bear", hard work by our team of volunteers and crew, goods and services donated by over 30 different businesses, tunnel vision and dedication, we were able to place second just 4 seconds behind Dago Red, we should all be extremely proud. Also, WE HAVE JUST BEGUN!

One other piece of news that we can be very proud of is, We were able to qualify the "Bear" into first place at 495.039. Dago Red qualified at 492.722 for second place.

The best news of all is, we came out of all this with a healthy engine, and some operating money, which should help us to achieve the next step in our march toward total victory, some work on the airframe, and the beginnings of a second engine.

I'm sorry this is so late in arriving, but since I got home from Reno, I have been VERY VERY busy. We sold out of merchandise, so I have been working with Charlie Brand of TUNA GRAPHIC'S and Brian Dixon of SCOTT'S T'S, to replace items, working on the cylinder deal we made, finishing up the insurance, figuring out all the bills, plus getting ready for the Nellis Air Show in Las Vegas. On top of this I had a number of personal items that needed tended to.

The week began Friday, the 5th, with getting organized (which didn't last very long) and getting all of our equipment in place.This included rounding up water for our ADI System from CRYSTAL SPRINGS WATER, equipment from HOOD MACHINE for welding problems,making sure we had all the oil and solvents from AERO SHELL,checking the radio system donated by GARMIN AVIONICS, setting up deliveries of merchandise coming in with AVIATION CLASSIC'S help, setting up the fuel supply with VP RACING FUELS, checking all room reservations with the SILVER CLUB and making sure CHAMPION SPARK PLUG was on board.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Lance Lopez of HOOD MACHINE for the endless hours of welding he contributed in preparing the "Bear" for race week.

Among the things that had to be covered was getting our "Rare Bear" trailer transferred from it's storage area back to our assigned pit area. Scott Litster, one of our crew members, finally just went down to the local truck stop and started asking truckers if they could help.One of the first truckers he asked knew about the "Bear" and presto!, the trailer was back in the pits.We forgot to get the truckers name, but if he is reading this, Thank You!

Saturday was spent polishing the "Bear" to the nines and waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. Did you know that the crew can't even stand fingerprints on the prop? Plus, she had to look nice to show off the new paint job donated by SHERWIN WILLIAM'S. We also had to polish off a spot to add the Logo for TUNA GRAPHIC'S. Charlie Brand and his family have earned a spot! We also had to polish off a spot on the gear door to add the logo for CANNON AVIATION, who have been very helpful in helping us to meet our insurance needs.

Saturday evening, Chip and Donna Crawford, crew members, held a get together at their beautiful home just west of the Stead Runway, for all crew members. This was a nice way to be able to talk shop and relax a bit at the same time.Of course, most of the talk was about strategy.

RARA's waiver allowed for one afternoon slot for the Unlimiteds on Sunday, to have a practice session. John and the "Bear" took advantage of this.Everything went well so we thought we were all set. NEVER with the "Bear".

John took the "Bear" up in the afternoon slot Monday with the intention of qualifying if Dago and Skip decided to go for it. Skip did go on the clock and turned a 492.722. However, as is the case with the "Bear" she still wasn't in the mood. The tail wheel wouldn't retract! John brought her back in and the crew wheeled her back to the hanger to fix the problem. As is their usual custom, while she was there, they ran a compression check. It was discovered that the #2 cylinder was trying to go south. It was decided that a cylinder change was in order. We had on hand one extra front bank cylinder and one back bank cylinder. The crew went to work and got it done, but it took all night and this after they had been up all day. When I got there Tuesday morning, the "Bear" was being towed to the flight line so John could do a run-up, and all the crew members were still on point, but all with this blank vacant stare. John looked them all over and said "Welcome to air-racing"!

The run-up went just fine so it was decided to go up in the afternoon unlimited slot and put a little time on the new cylinder and if it looked ok to John, drop down and take the clock. By the time John and the "Bear" dropped down on the course all other unlimited had been on the clock and the course was all ours. Everywhere you looked, including the unlimited pits, all eyes were on John and the "Bear".It was even strangely quiet, like everyone was holding their breath. I can tell you, one person who forgot to breath until reminded, ME.

John turned two laps increasing the power settings each lap and by the 3rd lap he was down in the grove and ready to go. He called for the clock and got serious.One of my jobs for RARA is to run a clock for the announcing stand, so I am usually pretty accurate, but in this case my nerves got the best of me, plus forgetting to breath, so I didn't trust my time, but I did have us going at 494.???. Had we bettered Dago and Skip or not? I climbed on the golf cart and headed for the Chief Scorers office. When I stuck my head around her door, she said "What took you so long"? I told her the #%!* golf cart wouldn't go any faster. We had in fact bettered Skip and Dago. Our official time was 495.039. I tore back to where the crew, Lyle and John were waiting and gave them the news.Needless to say, we celebrated for a bit. Then the question came up, would Skip and Dago go back up and try again? The rumors going through the pit area was that they would not. They wanted to save as much of their Merlin engine as possible.We were somewhat disappointed when this turned out to be the case, as we enjoy watching hard time being put on a Merlin. But, we had picked up a trophy and some pocket change for being the top qualifier. A good start!

I ran into a Dago Red crew member the next day and he described the effect of our qualifying time on his crew. He said every member of the crew was on top of their trailer watching John and the "Bear". They have stop watches and know how to use them and they weren't as nervous as I was, so they got a pretty good time on us. He said there was dead quiet for about 10 seconds, then this mad scramble to the staircase, and comments like, " out of my way, we have to get back to work on the engine". I don't know if it is true, but the report was that when they looked back Kerch was still standing there with his mouth open. I think a lot of people underestimated what can be done with $20.00 bills, if you can just get enough of them.

RARA and unlimited rules lock out the top 5 qualifiers for the first round of heat races, so we didn't have to fly again until Friday. It was decided to tow the "Bear" back to the hanger, do another compression check, which turned out fine, plus due to the fact that most of the ground crew had been up for about 40 hours, it was decided that everybody should go home and get some sleep

The rest of our crew had arrived just after noon on Tuesday. Charlie Brand, his Dad ,Chuck and Paul Lewis from TUNA GRAPHICS, pulled in from the Seattle area with a huge pick-up load of merchandise, which they started unloading into a rented u-haul trailer. Before they could finish, Dave and Barbara Wisenor pulled in from Idaho with another big pick-up load of merchandise. We had been getting shipments of merchandise delivered to AVIATION CLASSIC'S, LTD. all week, so it looked like we would have more than enough merchandise to sell.( Best laid plans)!We were almost all sold out of merchandise by Sunday morning, to the point that we didn't have enough to stock two booths, as planned.

Wednesday, John took the "Bear" up for a routine check flight and everything looked good. The crew took her back to the hanger, ran another compression check and everything checked out.

In the mean time, the merchandising crew joined by Sandy Slinker was selling hats and t-shirts as fast as they could get them out of the box.

Just to show you how dedicated our Fansponsors are, we need to thank Libby Yunger, Bob Kreamer, Donna Crawford,Theresa Wilcox, Dann and Sandy Slinker's 2 children, and a number of other fansponsors, who helped sell our merchandise all week. This is a large part of our fundraising project and all help was appreciated.

Thursday, the crew did some more checking and tweaking. They once again polished the "Bear" back to perfection. Some of the Fansponsors asked if they could help polish and they were welcomed into the hanger. Wayne Sagar got some pictures of this including a little 5-6 year old boy, who eventually had to be dragged away. By the time the little guy had worked himself up to the top of the wing, the crew had the cowling off, Stacy was standing straddle of him and he was trying to polish on the engine.I love dedication!

We also watched the first round of heat races with some interest.The only unlimited who had any trouble was Brent Hisey and Miss A. This turned out not to be major, plus he was enough slower than we were, that it wouldn't effect the parings for our race.

Friday was going to be a very busy day, as scheduled, but little did we all know just how busy we would be before we were done.

We all suffered through a day of heat races as we were the last scheduled race of the day.

The top five qualifying aircraft were 1. Rare Bear and John Penney , 2. Dago Red and Skip Holm , 3.Dreadnought and Brian Sanders, 4. Furias and Gary Hubler, 5.Czechmate and Sherman Smoot and 6. by virtue of having won his Thursday heat race, Critical Mass with Tom Dwelle

When they came down the chute "Rare Bear" had the pole position and was in the lead for about 1/2 a lap. At that point Skip and Dago Red took the lead and led for the rest of the race. A couple of Skips laps were timed at over 511 MPH's. This did not upset us as we had already decided to let him go for it as long as he was putting serious time on the engine. As Stacy Thomas, our crew chief put it when asked by a local newspaper about it before the race," We are going to let him burn his own house down, not ours."

When it was all over, (thank god!, as I could breath again), Skip averaged 507.105. John and the "Rare Bear" in second place at 492.936, Tom Dwelle and Critical Mass in third place at 456.796,Gary Hubler and Furias at 444.241, in forth place, Dennis Sanders and Dreadnought in fifth at 443.958, Sherman Smoot and Czechmate in 6th place at 421.171

The comment was made by the race announcer and others that they were surprised to see Tom Dwelle and Critical Mass doing so well. I explained to all of them "Of course he went faster. He had the "Bear" 4 blade prop on and any fool knew all airplanes can go faster with "Bear" parts."

After the race, the crew towed the "Bear" back to the pit area and removed the cowling and ran a compression check, as usual. Bad news! Now it looked like the #1 and the #5 cylinder were trying to go south. This was of major concern, as it required an all nighter by the crew again, plus we had been able to afford only 2 extra cylinders and we had already used one of them.

On top of this complication, we had the Sponsorship dinner scheduled for Friday in the hanger right after the race.

Due to the dedicated work of crew members Donna Crawford, Michelle Litster, Joanna Thompson, Sandy Slinker and some of the crews girlfriends and Fansponsors , the hanger had been rearranged,during the race and all tables and chairs were in place and ready to go.Thanks to Sandy Slinker, there were even tablecloths and centerpieces.

Over 100 Fansponsors and local goods and service sponsors were in attendance. We had planned a rather long program and recognition of all Fansponsors, goods and service sponsors and crew members and wives/girlfriends, but because of the cylinder problem, the crew was in the pit area tearing into the engine, plus we were going to need the hanger shortly, so we had to cut the festivities short. Everyone said they had a good time, even if it was abbreviated.

As soon as we were done, I asked the fans there to please help clear the hanger of the tables and chairs. It was poetry in motion! As they were clearing the hanger the crew was moving the "Bear" in. We never missed a beat.

Then came the problem of finding some more cylinders,Striking a deal of how to guarantee payment, having them delivered to Reno in the middle of the night, and installed before the next heat race, in less than 20 hours!! We all knew, if we could just get the cylinders to Reno in time, the crew would make sure it got done. You would have to see this crew work to believe them, as there is no way I can describe here how well they work together, or their dedication.

I have been reading in various places, all summer, about some of the doubts people had about the "Bear" being able to perform well this year, due to among other things, our rookie crew. Every time this subject came up between us, I told them "Don't get upset, don't get mad, just keep doing what you are doing. When the races come around, we will just show them." Well, I guess we showed them! God, I am proud of all of them, as we all should be!

In the process of shopping for cylinders every cell phone in the hanger was being used, all at the same time, by anybody who had contact with anybody who might just have a few cylinders setting around. We need to thank Howard Lowry, one of our Fansponsors, and John Slack for finally coming up with the winning combination.

AERO UNION CORP. in Chico had the cylinders, they had a man who would drive the cylinders right to Stead and our hanger and he could leave right away.They would trust me to pay for them. All he asked for was 2 t-shirts, 2 armbands (no problem) and a room for a couple of days! The room had me stumped for a minute. Was this deal going to fall apart just because every room within a hundred miles was already taken? Now this is dedication to the cause! John Penney jumped up and handed me his room keys and collected the spare from his wife,Stephanie. John has a brother who lives near, and he was about the only member of the team who had anywhere else to go. By the time the spare cylinders arrived, the crew had the defective ones removed and were ready to begin installing the new ones.

When I got there Saturday morning (about daylight) the "Bear" was out on the flight line and the crew and John were just getting ready for an engine check. They all looked like, once again, they were in a trance. However the Engine check went ok, so it was decided to launch with the 1st heat of the Unlimiteds for the day, climb to altitude, and put some slow time on the new cylinders, which went very well.

The second heat race of the day arrived with one little surprise, Dreadnought had scratched at the last minute, due to metal in the screens. We felt real sorry for this whole team, as they and Mike Brown had lost every engine in the space of about 6 weeks except for September Pops.

We had the number 2 pole position and held this position throughout the race. The speeds for Dago Red were: 480.415, for "Rare Bear", 459.007, and for Tom Dwelle in Critical Mass, with "Rare Bear" parts, 441.158. So far, so good.

The compression check after the race turned out just fine, so it looked like "Maybe" we had the cylinder problem solved. The welding job on the exhaust system was in good shape also, so it looked like, thanks to BILLY "Z's" and Hood Machine, Inc's expert welding, we had a handle on this problem, also. We want to thank HOOD MACHINE, Inc. for having a portable unit on the field for the race week, just in case we needed their services.

Our plan all along had been to make the Gold race race on Sunday, no matter how we had to do it, and so far we were right on track, even though we had had a few "MINOR problems to contend with.

AT LAST!! Sunday, and we were still in the running!

The Gold race was the last race of the day, and I can tell you, the waiting for all of the crew and John was pure torture.

I can also tell you, when John and the "Bear" were introduced, the crowd went wild!

As had transpired Saturday, we started in the second pole position and stayed there for the duration of the race. Dago and the "Bear" put a wide distance between themselves and the rest of the field by the end of the first lap. As the announcer put it " Here's Dago Red------Here's the"Bear"-------------------------------------And here is the rest of the field.

The finish speeds were: Dago Red and Skip Holm, 487.938.

The finishing speed for "Rare Bear" and John Penney was, 483.942

We were able to collect some operating money, which, believe me, makes my job a lot easier, as I was getting weary of pushing the rock uphill mostly by myself, and we came out of this with a healthy engine, a wonderful, proven crew, and a respectable second place.

We need to thank three different groups of people and businesses. Without these three groups, we would never have gotten as far as we have.

1. THE CREW

2. All members of the RARE BEAR FANSPONSOR CLUB

3. All companies and individuals who contributed goods and services

We would like to thank the following people and companies for their help and dedication for the past 2 years. Without every one of them, this would never have been possible. True, we placed second, but just remember where we were 2 years ago! And remember, there is next year!

We would also like to thank Ray Lutz and Arnold Trajillo for their endless effort to put together and produce the DVD's and VHS's of the History of "Rare Bear" for our team. This is becoming a very valuable fundraising item. They will be available for purchase shortly on our web-store.

We would be remiss if we didn't take time to give a special thanks to Joey Scolari and SCOLARI FOOD AND DRUGS for giving us $500.00 worth of credit at the store for food to feed the crew throughout race week, and to Michelle Litster and Joanna Thompson for spending endless hours preparing all meals for the crew.

We would also like to thank the Reno Air Race Association and the personnel for all their help and understanding. With a new crew not having time to learn all the rules up front, and the added publicity we were able to generate for the "Bear", with their help, we got it done.

Last but not least, we need to thank a number of the members of our crew, as they not only worked on the "Bear", but helped raise money on the side. Scott and Michelle Litster came up with the "Rare Bear Brew" and did all the leg work to set it up. Matt and Joanna Thompson helped raise extra money by producing and selling a number of their photographs during the 2003 races, plus a raffle for some of the special ones..

It is my hope that I have not forgotten any person or business in this update who contributed to the project, so far, but if I have, please let me know at fansponsor@rarebear.com

On behalf of Lyle Shelton, John Penney, myself and the crew consisting of:

Stacy Thomas - Crew chief

Bill Hickle - Chief Engineer

Greg Shaw - Propulsion and Fuel

Clark Thompson, Charlie Thompson,Pete Law and Richard Tracey - Engineering

Dave (Moondog) Mooney, Scott (Chip) Crawford, Scott Litster, Elliott White, Andrew Karolak, Matt Thompson, Roger Martin, Ray Din, Peter Belan, Lance Lopes, Wayne Richards and Charlie Hutchinson - Crew

Mel Gregoire,Dann Slinker and Mac Mckinney - Engine Group

Billy Zarevich and Hood Machine, Inc., Lance Lopez - Welding

Sandy Slinker, Chris Rakestraw, Dale Kintop, Michelle Litster, Donna Crawford and Joanna Thompson - Administration and Logistics

Dave and Barbara Wisenor - Web Store

John Slack - Consultant

The winners of the various raffles we had at Reno are:

The Bear Is Back original painting--Steve Craig of Santa Barbara, CA

The Pass Photo Set---- Mike Wingeier of Atoka, TN

Section 3 Photo--- Bill Gibbons of Clovis, CA

Cockpit Check with John Penney--- Rockwell Nathan Greene