Dago Red Air Racing Team Finds Winning Solution In Lincoln Electric’s Invertec® V205-T AC/DC
Race Team Wins Fifth Consecutive Title

Cleveland, Ohio – The Dago Red team, out of San Jose, Calif., recently took first place at the 2003 National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nevada. This is the fifth consecutive year Dago Red’s North American P-51D Mustang won the unlimited class, a record for consecutive wins at this annual event.

During the air races, six classes of airplanes race around a pylon course made up of 50-foot telephone poles covered in brightly-colored panels with striped, metal drums on top to make them visible to pilots. Often touted as the world’s fastest motorsport, it’s also important to note that Dago Red also broke the never-before-reached 500 mph barrier at this year’s Air Races, being clocked at 507.105 mph.

Crew Chief Bill Kerchenfaut says that one of the secret weapons in his arsenal is pilot Skip Holm. Another is his Invertec V205-T AC/DC welder from The Lincoln Electric Company. His description of the welder could almost substitute for a description of the team’s single-propeller plane. “It runs very, very well. You’d think that for something this small, you’d give up a lot or performance, but you really don’t,” Kerchenfaut says.

Kerchenfaut uses the Invertec V205-T mainly for repairs on steel and aluminum up to ¼ inch thick, but he says the welder is capable of welding on almost material. He notes the smooth starts and stops allow for excellent control and greatly reduced burn through, important on lightweight airplane parts.

The unit offers full feature adjustable controls such as pulse, upslope, downslope, crater fill, post flow, two-step/four-step trigger multi-procedure control, and AC balance control. The Invertec V205-T is capable of stick as well as AC and DC TIG welding. The unit also features the ability to focus the arc by adjusting the AC frequency.

“The first time I looked at it, I laughed and thought there was no way this little welder was going to provide the type of technology we require,” Kerchenfaut says. “But
after using it we now know it’s the absolute king of welding for this type of welding environment. Ten years ago, to duplicate this kind of technology you would have needed a fork lift to pick the welder up. This unit is like a 35-pound lunchbox.”

Because Kerchenfaut and his team typically need to make fast but critical repairs in the pits, he says the Invertec V205-T is indispensable for two reasons:

1.) Its ability to be plugged into 115- or 230-volt input power; and,
2.) Because of its full AC and DC welding capability, “its ability to weld exotic metals allows me to fabricate parts regardless of the base metal material type.”

“Lincoln is the only company I know of that has this AC and DC technology and they have done a good job of it,” he says. “I’m tickled to death with them.”

Kerchenfaut and the Dago Red team expect to be in Reno again at the 41st National Championship Air Races and Air Show on September 16 through 19, 2004. Will the Invertec V205-T AC/DC be there too? “We wouldn’t want to race without it,” he says.

The Lincoln Electric Company, Cleveland, Ohio, is a world leader in the design and manufacture of arc welding equipment and consumables, robotic welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment.

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