There is a big mistake in that article. He wasn't taking-off, he was doing a dead-stick landing in a 25 mph crosswind.
I was there when that happened. I crew for a modified Mustang, "The Galloping Ghost," which you can see in my signature. We were in the process of the introductions for the Championship race when he called his mayday. I was on the other side of the plane when he crashed, and didn't see the whole thing, but I ran around our plane and snapped some photos of the wreckage, including one of him just sitting in the plane before the rescue crew got there. Very scary.
