NASCAR CAR DRIVERS KEN SCHRADER AND JON WOOD

EXPERIENCED F-16 FLIGHTS AT NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

 

Ken Schrader, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver of the #21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Fusion flew with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds out of Nellis Air Force Base just north of Las Vegas, Nevada.  At the same time, Jon Wood, Busch Series driver of the #47 Clorox/American Red Cross Ford Fusion received an orientation flight at Nellis in an F-16.  Here are comments from both drivers following those flights.

 

Ken Schrader:  WHAT DID YOU THINK?  “I didn’t know what to think going in and I was plenty nervous about it, but unbelievable, an unbelievable ride.  When we took off it was 5.3 G’s taking off I felt good there.  So then he (the pilot, Capt. Tad (T.C. Clark, Thunderbirds #8 Advance pilot and Narrator) asked what about everything else, what about the 9 (pulling 9 G’s), and I said, ‘We’re fine, let’s do it’.  But then, getting to fly the thing.  T.C. let me fly it some, and that was awesome.” 

 

NINE G’S, THAT’S A LOT.   “The problem being, when I was doing it, I wasn’t flying the plane.  I was just sitting there.  And, that was good because when we hit 9 G’s I couldn’t see.  I’m pretty sure the pilot needed to keep seeing.  (laughing)  But, wow, that was neat.”

 

HOW DID IT COMPARE TO DRIVING A RACECAR?  “Well, it’s just different.  We’ve got some acceleration, but nothing like that and we don’t pull any kind of G force like that.  When the Thunderbirds are flying in formation they are running about as close as we’re racing.  They don’t have to deal with a wall, but we don’t have to deal with the ground.  When we get up in the air, we only get 30 feet up in the air and then fall back down.  It’s different, but man was it exciting.”

 

HAS IT CHANGED YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE AIR FORCE?  “I don’t know if it changed it because I was always high, high on the Air Force anyway, but I just cannot imagine any kind of air to air combat.  Wow.”

 

Jon Wood:  WHAT DID YOU THINK?  “The flight was wonderful.”  HOW WAS THE TAKE-OFF?  “It was really cool.  It was not what I expected.    It was quite the experience.” 

 

CAN YOU COMPARE THE FLIGHT CREWS AND THE CREWS IN NASCAR?  “It is all relative.  I guess the pilots get all the credit, just like drivers seem to get the credit, and it much more complex and it takes a lot more teamwork on the planes and the race cars than what people realize or give the crews credit for.  It’s more of a team effort than most people know.”

 

ARE THERE ANY COMPARISONS TO DRIVING A RACE CAR?  “It’s pretty much incomparable, particularly from the sense of the adrenalin rush.  You really can’t compare being in that plane to anything.  I can’t really put it into words.  The power is just amazing.  I never thought an airplane could take off as fast as that thing did.  I guess you would base it off a commercial plane, but to go from zero to 400 in just a few seconds – wow.”

 

DO YOU FEEL DIFFERENTLY ABOUT THE AIR FORCE AFTER TODAY?  “I already a pretty good understanding and high expectation of what the Air Force was about, but this just capped it.”