Page 5 - Volume 11 Number 11

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by MeLinda Schnyder
Growing up in North Carolina, it’s not unusual that Allen started racing go karts as a 5-year-old. By 1982, he had won the World Karting Association championship. He graduated to racing dirt late models at age 15 and not long after that he earned his private pilot’s license.
“After I obtained my license, I couldn’t continue to pursue the additional ratings due to the cost,” Allen said. “My short track racing career was starting to take off, and at that stage you’re racing 80 to 90 times a year. You don’t have money, you’re just trying to get ahead in the sport.”
He shelved his aviation passion for a few years while he focused on establishing his racing career. In 1983, he started a six-year stretch racing super late models in the National Dirt Racers Association. By 1992, he was competing in the ARCA Racing Series, a feeder series for NASCAR. As a 27-year-old Winston Cup Series rookie in 1994, Allen won the pole for the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious event.
“In my mid-20s when I started racing in NASCAR, I finally earned enough money to own an airplane,” Allen said. “I was in Daytona testing so much in the winter that I had a place there, so I decided to go to Embry Riddle in Daytona to finish all my ratings.”
His first purchase was a Cessna 210 single-engine piston, then he moved to a Cessna 340 piston twin and eventually a Cessna 425 Conquest twin turboprop. He would fly his personal aircraft between races and to weekly tire testing sessions. On race weeks, he often flew with his various race teams in their Beechcraft King Air 100 and 200 aircraft, where his preferred view was sitting right seat.
Allen’s career slowed after he was injured during a race in the mid-1990s. He worked in motorsports until the early 2000s. In 2008, Allen purchased a King Air 350 as the company business aircraft. Allen had Stevens Aviation Greenville paint the exterior and update the interior of the one-owner 1996 model. Stevens has also installed several exterior modifications for Allen: Raisbeck crown wing lockers and dual aft body strakes along with Frakes exhaust stacks.
“I’ve flown a lot of different aircraft and I always flew in the team’s King Airs throughout my racing career,” Allen said. “That’s where I really cut my teeth on loving King Airs. I flew in the King Air 200 often. With a full payload we were typically main tanks only with fuel to be at max weight, which cut down on our needed range. The 200 is still an incredible proven aircraft, we just needed more payload and range for our missions. We chose the King Air 350 and it does everything we need. The big wing and almost 60-foot wingspan makes it an incredible climber, payload hauler and a very friendly aircraft to maneuver and fly. For our flight missions, no other aircraft compares to the King Air 350.”
The company typically flies the aircraft within a 500- mile radius. The King Air 350 is an ideal business tool to get its customers and team members to their various offices and job sites, oftentimes much closer than a commercial flight could get them. A typical business mission for Allen is an hour to 90-minute flight with six to eight passengers.
Loy Allen Jr.’s 1996 King Air 350 has 3,800 hours and he flies it approximately 150 to 250 hours each year.
NOVEMBER 2017
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 3
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