Alexsey Tuponov's winning new ultra lightweight (16.5 oz) "No Strings Attached '79 Shoestring" goodyear racer. Powered by a Ukrainian Fora .15 junior.
By Paul Gibeault
Welcome back race fans! Texas Quickee Rat racing started today under excellent weather conditions. The first heat saw Mike Greb winning with an excellent 3:16 versus Chuck Barnes Sr. (3:51). In the second heat, Mike slowed to 3:19 while Barnes improved to post a 3:44.
Next up was Bob Oge with a sterling 3:11:05 versus Paul Gibeault, just 2 seconds behind, posting a 3:13:83. Paul discovered an intermittent hot glove contact & chose to switch to a (slightly slower pitting) Ni-Starter.
In their next heat, Paul pushed hard and caused Bob to blow a glow plug at 37 laps. With a slower start, Paul was unable to improve, posting a near identical 3:13:90 race time.
The next heat was Chuck Barnes Jr. posting a 3:31, just pipping Bill Bischoff with a 3:35. In the last heat, both failed to improve their times, with Chuck slowing down to 3:50 and Bill with a problematic 5:14.
Standing on their heat times, Bob Oge ended up in first place (3:11:05), narrowly edging out Paul Gibeault by two seconds (3:13:83), with Mike Greb in a close third place finish with a 3:16:11. This was Bob Oge's third consecutive Nats win. Well done, Bob!
In the afternoon, DMAA Goodyear commenced in good weather with an excellent entry level of ten teams. This bodes very well for this newer event. Also to be noted is how close the competition was. There was only a 10-second difference between the top seven teams. Now that's close racing!
We saw a new Goodyear design this year by the winner, Alexsey Tuponov. It's called "No Strings Attached" ( a '79 version of the venerable Shoestring design). In addition to being very well built and finished, it employed a unique fuselage construction borrowed from F2D combat. The all-up weight was a stunning 16.5 ounces (normal models average about 20 ounces). Alexsey used a Ukrainian Fora Junior engine for power.
Mike Alimov's second place model used a Magnum .15, which indicates that both engine types are equally competitive. This bodes well for this event. Not seen before was Mike’s unique pitting technique. Mike holds out a small pillow so that his pilot can smoke his model into the pits without incurring any damage. Very clever indeed!
This year’s Nats proved that the gold finalists all had to post heat times under 4 minutes. Very fast indeed! The only disappointment was that we were unable to run three-up races due to lack of timing staff and the general aging of the pilots. You have to be fit to fly three-up! It’s just a sign of the times, I guess...but we all had FUN!
Wonderful plaques were provided by the National Control Line Racing Association, sponsored by Charles Barnes for the top nine placings.
2026 Nats DMAA Sport Goodyear winning team: Pilot Alexsey Tuponov and Pitman Bob Oge.
2026 Nats DMAA Sport Goodyear winners (L to R), gold finalists: Alexsey Tuponov, Mike Alimov and Bill Bischoff. Silver finalists: Patrick Hempel, Bob Oge, and Bill Lee. Bronze Finalists: Mike Greb, Chuck Barnes Jr., and Chuck Barnes Sr.
Texas Quickee Rat results.
