A strange crash of a Merlin III in the US has killed Bill Whittington and a friend. He was a former Indy Car racer and also competed at Reno with his brother Don in various WWII aircraft including the Griffon powered P-51 "Precious Metal. He had a bit of a run in with the authorities over some nefarious activities...
The aircraft seems to have been flown fairly erratically between Scottsdale and the crash site near Winslow - seems to have climbed to 17000' for a while so presumably hypoxia could have been a factor...
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/253831
https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/N59EZ