Story and photos by Dale LaFollette
It was a typical spring day sometime in the mid-1990s, with a light mist in the air as I was on my way to work. We were going to have an Indy Lites test session and I already knew there would be complaints about the weather. As manager of Portland International Raceway (PIR) weather was one thing that I did not manage nor did I make excuses for. It just was.
When I got to the office, one of the Lites drivers, Ray Richter, was on the phone asking about the weather and then asked if he could land his RV4 airplane on the main straight. This was something I had allowed before as the FAA seemed to have no problem with it as long as he stayed below 800 feet. I asked what time he would arrive, after he told me I said I would have everyone on the property alerted to his arrival so there would be no issues.