You learn from what's killing you.

August 6, 2009

Bob Hannah

So, you probably know Bob for this

and this

But from 95 to 99 he was racing this...

a P-51 named Voodoo at 400mph plus.
against other airplanes
around pylons
nutbag

4 comments:

Doug said...

Ya caint git it out yer blood ya know..my old High School Buddy KWEG(Kreg) still roasts the dunlop on his 99 Sporty Sport feet up slides..he will always be a nutbag..i've always appreciated Bob Hannahs craziness also

Elliot "Stinky" Seguin said...

So the Hurricane Hannah Voodoo trim tab story; as best I can remember it. After dropping into the chute, just past the scatter pylon, its a meeting of the best, two good friends who had grown up racing motorcycles were now racing the two hottest mustangs at reno. Bruce Lockwood in Dago Red, and Bob Hurricane Hannah in Voodoo. Just past the chute, and the scatter pylon, this is the fastest part of the race. They had just finished converting some 2000 feet of altitude into speed, over 500mph worth. Their supercharged merlins making some 140 inches of manifold pressure and 4,000 ponies (engines originally rated to 65 inches and 2,000 hp). Just after the scatter pylon something happens. Mr. Hannah comes to blasting through 10,000 feet with his face pressed against the floor of the airplane and the engine screaming at full race song. The crowd had just witnessed the airplane pitch up hard off the race course, the trim tab on his mustang had failed, immediatly pitching the airplane from 500 mph to a landing speed of say 100mph. The airplane had just pulled more G's than anyone had thought the airplane would be able to withstand let alone the pilot, in the airplane still trying to find his bearings Mr. Hannah reaches up and calmly pulls the power back, still trying to assess what had happened after narrowly escaping what could have been a very bad deal. Bob Hannah is a bad ass. See the book fly low, fly fast by Robert Gandt, for a much better description.

Greg Landers said...

Hell Yeah, I have some old Supercross footage of Hurricane, everyone was scared of him!! HAHA

Pat said...

Wow! I had no idea Bob Hannah was an air racer. Thanks Dave! Great stuff!