Rober Holik fuels his plane for the intermediate class race during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Mario Salazar and Dan Thordison prepare for their race during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Participants operate their radio controlled airplanes in pylon races during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Participants operate their radio controlled airplanes in pylon races during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Participants ready their planes during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Members of the San Gabriel Valley Radio Control League host the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Participants operate their radio controlled airplanes in pylon races during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Participants operate their radio controlled airplanes in pylon races during the annual Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race at Whittier Narrows Regional Park on Saturday October 22, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
It was a weekend for flying — of the radio-controlled sort.
The 2022 Dave Gavin Memorial Champ Race took to the skies above Whittier Narrows Regional Park this weekend in a tribute to Gavin, a devotee who loved such flying for years in the area before he passed away.
This would be the fifth such memorial race in Gavin’s honor, said his friend Dan Thordarson, who organizes the race.
The event is known as “three-pole pylon racing” – in which the small planes race in 10 laps around a 2.5-mile course. There are three different classes of speeds and planes that participate.
Many of the planes, at a fraction of the scale, mimic WWII-era planes, such as Mustangs and Hell Cats.
And the buzz — not just the buzz of the planes themselves — is exhilarating, participants say.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” said Thordarson. If you’re not an adrenaline junkie, then you wouldn’t like this.”
