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Red Bull Air Race New York Final 4

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Jun 202010

Courtesy: Red Bull http://redbullairrace.com

Bonhomme triumphs in Red Bull Air Race New York

NEW YORK – Paul Bonhomme of Britain won the first-ever Red Bull Air Race in New York on Sunday with a scintillating performance under pressure in front of the most spectacular setting in the eight-year history of the sport. Nigel Lamb took second place in a thrilling four-way battle between the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan while American Kirby Chambliss got his second straight podium with third place.

Bonhomme, the defending champion, prevailed in front of a huge crowd of 75,000 spectators watching from both sides of the Hudson River and a live U.S. television audience with one superb run after another through three pressure-packed rounds. Bonhomme had finished behind Arch for the last three races and was desperate to get back on top after the Team Abu Dhabi racer cut his lead in the championship to just one point. Arch pushed Bonhomme to his limits but saw his three-race winning streak shattered in dramatic fashion when he hit a pylon in the final 4 ending any hope of a podium finish.

Bonhomme stopped the clock at 1:10.01, the day’s fastest time on the 5.5-km track of 13 Air Gates set up on the majestic Hudson River between the Statue of Liberty and New York’s breathtaking skyline. Bonhomme had been the epitome of consistency with times of 1:10.09 in the Top 12 round and 1:10.07 in the Super 8 before lowering the mark again to 1:10.01 in the final. That was a full 2.05 seconds faster than Lamb and 2.08 faster than Chambliss. Arch was 5.34 back — hurt by the six-second penalty for hitting the pylon.

It was Bonhomme’s 12th straight podium — a record — and he now leads the championship with 53 points while Arch is second overall with 48 points. Team Breitling’s Nigel Lamb is third on 47 and Chambliss has 35.

“It’s very good — and what a setting,” Bonhomme said. “I can appreciate the view now that I’ve finished racing. Great day. I concentrated on me, my airplane and the track. And now I think we can celebrate a bit.” Lamb, who got his third second-place finish this year after getting the same result in Abu Dhabi and Rio de Janeiro, called it “a fantastic result”. Chambliss, the 2006 world champion, was delighted to be on the podium in his home race. “As an American, I’m very, very proud,” he said. “It’ll sink-in in a while. I have to personally thank Hannes for hitting that gate. Thank you Hannes!”

Arch was gracious in defeat on the biggest stage in the 49-race history of the Red Bull Air Race, a city where organizers have dreamed of staging a race since the world’s fastest growing motorsport was launched in 2003. It has been a FAI recognized world championship competition since 2005. Arch said he pulled out the stops to try to beat Bonhomme and get what would have been a record fourth straight victory and just barely hit the Air Gate, an inflatable pylon that he clipped with his wing.

“It was a good run,” said Arch, the 2008 champion. “It was just a couple of centimeters that made the difference. I would rather lose here like that in style, going for it, than completely screw it up. So I think those guys in front of me owe me a beer.”

The New York race was the fifth in the eight-race championship. It was a bit of a disappointment for the other American, Michael Goulian. The man from Massachusetts finished seventh. Pete McLeod of Canada, by contrast, had an excellent race and finished fifth to move up to fifth place in the championship with 29 points.

Red Bull Air Race Qualifying New York Saturday

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Jun 192010

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Courtesy: Red Bull http://redbullairrace.com

NEW YORK – Austria’s Hannes Arch qualified fastest for the first-ever Red Bull Air Race in New York on Saturday and collected one championship point that cut Paul Bonhomme‘s lead at the top to just one point before Sunday’s race. Canada’s Pete McLeod took a remarkable third place on the turn-filled track on the Hudson River, between the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyscrapers. Americans Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian were in strong position for Sunday in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

In front of a Qualifying Day crowd of more than 40,000 spectators lining the shores of Liberty State Park in New Jersey and New York, Team Abu Dhabi’s Arch clocked the 5.5-km track of 13 Air Gates in 1:08.18, setting a track record on his first run. Despite a penalty-marred second run, Arch‘s time was still good enough to hold off Bonhomme’s strong challenge. The defending champion from Britain was 0.80 behind Arch in Qualifying 1 and cut the gap to just 0.52 seconds with his faster second run later on when he hit speeds near 230 mph. Bonhomme leads the championship with 41 points while Arch has 40.

“Paul’s times are so close,” Arch said, delighted to cut Bonhomme’s lead with the Qualifying victory and eyeing a record four straight wins on Sunday. “I hope he gives me more room tomorrow so I won’t be so stressed. You have to fly on the limit but clean. I think that’s the key: just focus and stay calm tomorrow.” Bonhomme was disappointed he could not win the one Qualifying point despite the massive effort on the increasingly windy track but he sounded confident he could win the big prize — 12 points for first place. – on Sunday. Bonhomme has a record-breaking 11 straight podiums going back to the 2008 season.

“I think the positives we should take out of this is that we improved our run while Hannes got worse,” said Bonhomme. “And that’s a good thing. Clearly that’s a point that we’d rather have.“

It was an exceptional day of high-speed, low-altitude racing for the two Americans — Chambliss and Michael Goulian. They had struggled in the first Qualifying session but raised their game in the second session even though winds picked up. Both Chambliss and Goulain have said flying past the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline has been a highlight of their careers.

“It’s great when a plan comes together,“ said Goulian, who is from Massachusetts and had a big fan following in New York. “That’s not bad for Qualifying. But we will need some bigger guns for tomorrow.“

But Saturday was a day of disappointment for Britain’s Nigel Lamb (7th), Germany’s Matthias Dolderer (8th), Spain’s Alejandro Maclean (10th) and France’s Nicolas Ivanoff (11th). Lamb was a pre-race favorite with his MXS-R race plane that was thought to be ideally suited to the turn-filled New York track and finished first in the final training session on Friday. Ivanoff, clearly elated to be flying past the Statue of Liberty that was a gift from France, was a strong second on Friday before falling to 11th on Saturday.

Red Bull Air Race Course Animation New York 2010

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Jun 192010

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Courtesy: Red Bull http://redbullairrace.com

NEW YORK – At first glance, the turn-filled New York race track brought the Red Bull Air Race pilots out in a cold sweat as they tried to work out just how they would fly cleanly through the series of 13 air gates to take the win in the high profile race.

After yesterday’s two training sessions, however, most of the pilots seemed relieved that the track along the Hudson River was in fact not as tight as first thought. Located in front of Liberty State Park in New Jersey and close to the iconic Statue of Liberty, the track appears particularly complex on paper and has been described as a “bumble bee in a jam jar” by podium hopeful Nigel Lamb.

“I like the track now but when I first saw it I thought it was too tight and unflyable,” said Hungarian pilot Peter Besenyei after training. His thoughts were echoed by rookie pilot Martin Sonka who added: “When I first flew it from 500ft I thought everything looked so close and it was hard to fly above the track let alone the thought of flying between the pylons. In the end it was actually fine and I really like that you have to manoeuvre so much in this track.”

While the majority of the pilots felt positive going into Qualifying, Sergey Rakhmanin from Russia was still scratching his head as he walked through a scale model track in his hangar created from cans of Red Bull. “It takes time to feel comfortable in this track,” he said, highlighting the 270-degree turn as a problem. “It’s sensitive to wind from any direction which will make it difficult.”

How the pilots choose to fly this challenging track will separate the men from the boys. We saw a scorching performance from France’s Nicolas Ivanoff in the afternoon training session, which led race favourite Hannes Arch to note: “Nicolas flies a really direct line and he’s always a podium contender.”

With the single point for the fastest time in Qualifying up for grabs, everyone will be ensuring they get the right line first time. There has been little scope for experimenting with race lines here in New York due to the earlier cancelled training session on Thursday which could also benefit those who have done their homework.

“There will definitely be several different lines through this part of the track,” advised race analyst and former race pilot Steve Jones. “Everyone will be thinking about gate three and how to enter and leave the chicane. You could already see much better times in the compensation training session yesterday so they are starting to work it out.”