http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/17/nevada.plane.crash/index.html

I don't want to get all investigative on this, but to me it seemed like he just stopped in a roll and lost orientations.

It looks more like things got out of control in the middle of an Immelman-ish turn.

Spectator report of the crash by Java creator James Gosling :

http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/i_m_alive

A trim tab failure leading to high G which lead to black out or bodily failure due to advanced years aided by high G.
That is what are the most probable theories

There is amazing video footage in the middle of this link :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038749/Reno-Nevada-air-race-crash-WW2-planes-tail-missing-part.html