Roush to pilot WW II-era P-51 during Mich. pre-race
By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
June 11, 2008
12:33 PM EDT
Some people deal with stress by slowly counting to 10. Others practice deep breathing exercises or maybe yoga. When the pressures of the NASCAR circuit get Jack Roush down, he straps himself into the ****pit of his World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter -- the Glamorous Glen III -- and takes it for a spin.
Hey, whatever works, right?
"I'm able to manage the airplane, I'm able to manage the airspace, deal with the regulations, manage the weather and deal with the pilot's physiology," Roush said. "I can go do a two-hour flight and it would be as good as sitting down and watching a movie on my couch.
"I'm released from [the stress] a little bit. It's something that re-grounds me back down to earth."
Roush will show off his "toy" this weekend at Michigan International Speedway when he handles the pre-race flyover for Saturday's Craftsman Truck Series race. After the flyover, Roush will helicopter back from Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich., and be back at the Irish Hills track for the race, which will feature three of his drivers -- Erik Darnell, Colin Braun and Bobby East.
"The only other flyover I've done over a sporting event was at Nashville five years ago when they had the big Mustang convention there," Roush said. "It was not a race, but a Mustang convention that involved some activities on the race track. But, this will be a great honor for me to celebrate the military and to remember all the veterans and flyover at the conclusion of the national anthem, in my hometown, as it were. It's going to be fun to do that."
More than six years after he was seriously injured in the crash of an experimental plane in Alabama, Roush continues to enjoy flying.
"It's always been something that I've been interested in," he said. "As a youngster I built balsa wood model airplanes, first with rubber bands for power and then later with little nitro-burning engines for power. I designed my own airplanes and built them from kits just as I grew into to being an adolescent, I was very active in pursuing that interest.
"And then of course, in the '80s when I was road racing real hard, I had a chance -- or excuse or the reason -- to have a corporate airplane to fly around, as I do today, and then that really got me started with personal aviation as far as being a pilot."
According to Roush, the P-51 Mustang was designed in 120 days. His plane still has the bomb racks attached, so he can connect external fuel tanks for longer flights.
"I climb in that airplane today and I can fly from here to the west coast," Roush said. "I can leave here at 7 in the morning and I can be there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It's faster than any [gasoline-powered] propeller airplane that's been [built] since. I can go as high as I want, I can fly around the weather. I can go as fast as the speed limits allow for FAA civilian airplanes.
"My heroes are the guys who went out and put their lives on the line ... to preserve our way of life."
Roush nearly lost his life in the spring of 2002 when he suffered broken ribs, multiple fractures to his left leg, a collapsed lung and closed head injury when the light aircraft he was piloting in celebration of his 60th birthday crashed upside down into a lake near Troy, Ala.
Fortunately for Roush, retired Marine Larry Hicks -- who taught air and sea rescue for 12 years -- witnessed the accident from his nearby home. Hicks quickly took his boat to the scene of the crash. Despite caustic aviation fuel leaking from the plane, Hicks dove into the water in an attempt to determine how many survivors there might be on board. He found Roush on the second dive and freed him from the plane on the third.
Hicks was then able to resuscitate Roush as rescue personnel who had arrived on the scene were able to get both men to the shore. Hicks, who was one of the recipients of the 2003 Carnegie Medal for heroism, suffered first-degree chemical burns to the upper half of his body and was also hospitalized.
"He was trained to go down and get pilots out of airplanes," Roush said shortly after the accident. "Larry Hicks. How can that be? He tells his wife he loves her, then said he was going to do whatever he can. He jumps in the water with this fool that's just crashed his airplane upside down in eight feet of water.
"It's a lot to ask. Third time he goes down, he finds [me], in a harness that he was familiar with to the touch, I guess. He pulls [me] to the surface. He executes timely and critical CPR. I don't know what we'll do for Larry Hicks. But we'll think of him in our prayers."
Roush invited Hicks to join him at Richmond less than a month later.
"I've never understood the excitement around this sport until now. There obviously is a tremendous following," Hicks said. "It's very apparent now why people are so excited about this. Mr. Roush is not what I expected. It's like my son said, 'They're NASCAR family.' We're just now starting to find out what that means."
By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
June 11, 2008
12:33 PM EDT
Some people deal with stress by slowly counting to 10. Others practice deep breathing exercises or maybe yoga. When the pressures of the NASCAR circuit get Jack Roush down, he straps himself into the ****pit of his World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter -- the Glamorous Glen III -- and takes it for a spin.
Hey, whatever works, right?
"I'm able to manage the airplane, I'm able to manage the airspace, deal with the regulations, manage the weather and deal with the pilot's physiology," Roush said. "I can go do a two-hour flight and it would be as good as sitting down and watching a movie on my couch.
"I'm released from [the stress] a little bit. It's something that re-grounds me back down to earth."
Roush will show off his "toy" this weekend at Michigan International Speedway when he handles the pre-race flyover for Saturday's Craftsman Truck Series race. After the flyover, Roush will helicopter back from Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich., and be back at the Irish Hills track for the race, which will feature three of his drivers -- Erik Darnell, Colin Braun and Bobby East.
"The only other flyover I've done over a sporting event was at Nashville five years ago when they had the big Mustang convention there," Roush said. "It was not a race, but a Mustang convention that involved some activities on the race track. But, this will be a great honor for me to celebrate the military and to remember all the veterans and flyover at the conclusion of the national anthem, in my hometown, as it were. It's going to be fun to do that."
More than six years after he was seriously injured in the crash of an experimental plane in Alabama, Roush continues to enjoy flying.
"It's always been something that I've been interested in," he said. "As a youngster I built balsa wood model airplanes, first with rubber bands for power and then later with little nitro-burning engines for power. I designed my own airplanes and built them from kits just as I grew into to being an adolescent, I was very active in pursuing that interest.
"And then of course, in the '80s when I was road racing real hard, I had a chance -- or excuse or the reason -- to have a corporate airplane to fly around, as I do today, and then that really got me started with personal aviation as far as being a pilot."
According to Roush, the P-51 Mustang was designed in 120 days. His plane still has the bomb racks attached, so he can connect external fuel tanks for longer flights.
"I climb in that airplane today and I can fly from here to the west coast," Roush said. "I can leave here at 7 in the morning and I can be there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It's faster than any [gasoline-powered] propeller airplane that's been [built] since. I can go as high as I want, I can fly around the weather. I can go as fast as the speed limits allow for FAA civilian airplanes.
"My heroes are the guys who went out and put their lives on the line ... to preserve our way of life."
Roush nearly lost his life in the spring of 2002 when he suffered broken ribs, multiple fractures to his left leg, a collapsed lung and closed head injury when the light aircraft he was piloting in celebration of his 60th birthday crashed upside down into a lake near Troy, Ala.
Fortunately for Roush, retired Marine Larry Hicks -- who taught air and sea rescue for 12 years -- witnessed the accident from his nearby home. Hicks quickly took his boat to the scene of the crash. Despite caustic aviation fuel leaking from the plane, Hicks dove into the water in an attempt to determine how many survivors there might be on board. He found Roush on the second dive and freed him from the plane on the third.
Hicks was then able to resuscitate Roush as rescue personnel who had arrived on the scene were able to get both men to the shore. Hicks, who was one of the recipients of the 2003 Carnegie Medal for heroism, suffered first-degree chemical burns to the upper half of his body and was also hospitalized.
"He was trained to go down and get pilots out of airplanes," Roush said shortly after the accident. "Larry Hicks. How can that be? He tells his wife he loves her, then said he was going to do whatever he can. He jumps in the water with this fool that's just crashed his airplane upside down in eight feet of water.
"It's a lot to ask. Third time he goes down, he finds [me], in a harness that he was familiar with to the touch, I guess. He pulls [me] to the surface. He executes timely and critical CPR. I don't know what we'll do for Larry Hicks. But we'll think of him in our prayers."
Roush invited Hicks to join him at Richmond less than a month later.
"I've never understood the excitement around this sport until now. There obviously is a tremendous following," Hicks said. "It's very apparent now why people are so excited about this. Mr. Roush is not what I expected. It's like my son said, 'They're NASCAR family.' We're just now starting to find out what that means."
