Lyle Shelton, a pilot who transformed a severely damaged World War II fighter into one of the most dominant racers in the history of the National Championship Air Races, has died after a long illness.
Shelton was 76 and died Thursday afternoon.
He won a record six Unlimited Gold Class championships, including four consecutive from 1988 to 1991 in Rare Bear, an F8F2 Grumman Bearcat that he had discovered abandoned in a cornfield next to an Indiana airstrip. The plane had been largely stripped by parts hunters, but Shelton found a fuselage, wing center section, landing gear and a right wing panel and took the pieces to Orange County, Calif., and began restoration.
The plane made its debut at the National Championship Air Races in 1969, under its first name, Able Cat and finished fifth.
Shelton, who first competed at the Air Races in 1964, piloted his final race in Rare Bear in 1997, finishing third in the Unlimited Gold Race