Red Bull Air Race World Championships Race 1

RACE ONE: ABU DHABI

This incredible aerial spectacle, a mixture of air racing and extreme aerobatics, is now beginning it's 5th championship season. The progress and experience gained over the first four years by both the pilots and race organizers, has made it necessary to tweak the format a bit. The addition of 3 pilots brings the total number to 15 which now makes it necessary to have a "wild card" type of format. Friday of race weekend will now be a schedule of two qualification runs by all 15 pilots, with the top 10 moving straight to the "Top 12" heat. The five slowest racers will then run a "wild card" heat in which the two fastest will fill in the last two positions of the "Top 12". The top 8 times from that heat then head to the "Super 8", from which the fastest 4 make it to the finals. In the finals the top 4 pilots then race against the clock to determine a winner. In addition, the fastest qualifier of all will receive 1 Championship point this year. The scoring system has also been modified a bit, as flying through an Air Gate is now a 2 second penalty instead of 3 and touching an Air Gate is a 6 second penalty instead of 10.

The first race this season was in Abu Dhabi on April 17-18. This makes the fourth straight year that Abu Dhabi has hosted the series. With the course laid out over the water surrounded on 3 sides by land filled with spectators this truly is an amazing site for a race.

Last year's Champion, Hannes Arch from Austria, was the first to claim the newly formatted single Championship point for fastest qualifier. Rookie sensation, Matt Hall from Australia, surprised everyone with an impressive 5th place qualifying time. Rookie pilot, Matthias Dolderer of Germany and south Africa's Glen Dell survive the Wild Card heat to advance to the "Top 12". Since the point system now pays all the way down to 11th place all but one of these pilots is guaranteed at least 1 Championship point. American Kirby Chambliss, Veteran Peter Besenyei, Dolderer, and Dell fail to make it through to the "Super 8". After an invigorating heat the final four are Ivanoff, Bonhomme, Lamb, and Arch. Rookie Matt Hall escapes with 7 Championship points.

Lamb is the first to run and scores his best time of the day at 1:26.63. Next up, Ivanoff gets a 2 second penalty at Gate 4 and still crosses the line ahead of Lamb with a 1:26.34. Bonhomme puts together an impressive run to take the lead with a 1:25.49. Hannes Arch continues last year's form and lays down his fastest time of the week, 1:24.6 and takes the victory and 12 Championship points.

NEXT STOP : SAN DIEGO MAY 9-10.

PilotOrNot.com

Red Bull Air Race World Championships Race 1

Comments (0):