NEW YORK – The plot thickened in the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship heading into the first-ever stop in New York on June 19/20 when Austria’s Hannes Arch won his third straight race in Windsor to cut Paul Bonhomme’s lead at the top of the standings to just two points — even though the defending champion from Britain took a strong second and got his 11th straight podium.
Arch, on a record-equalling three-race winning streak, extended his improbable comeback to three in a row in Canada after nearly throwing his season away in the first race of this year with a disappointing 11th place in Abu Dhabi. The 2008 world champion also bounced back on a difficult track in Windsor from a heavy pylon hit in training on Friday and a disqualification in Qualifying 2 on Saturday, rallying to beat Bonhomme by 0.63 seconds in a breathtaking final over the Detroit River that was watched by 110,000 spectators in both Windsor and Detroit.
American Kirby Chambliss took a season-best third place in Windsor and, with the help of a new engine, the 2006 world champion from Arizona is hoping to win the premiere in New York in what promises to be an epic Red Bull Air Race battle over the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. Another American in the race, Michael Goulian from Massachusetts, is hoping support of New York area fans will help him get the second win of his career after he triumphed in Budapest last year.
THREE-WAY TITLE BATTLE
“Sure, I’d love to win four in a row,” Arch said after becoming the third pilot to win three straight. American Mike Mangold accomplished the feat in 2005 and Bonhomme did it in 2009/10. “But on the other hand I don’t care that much about records — except track records,” Arch added. “What’s more important for me is to get closer to Paul and make the gap between Nigel and me bigger. And what’s important for me is not to make any big mistakes again like getting the DQ in Abu Dhabi or in the Qualifying 2 in Windsor.”
Arch admits that he feared his championship hopes were all but ruined in the first 2010 race in April in Abu Dhabi when he got hit with a devastating penalty in the Top 12 round that knocked him out of the competition in the UAE two rounds before the final four. But Arch got over it in time for the next race in Australia and bounced back with narrow wins worth 12 points each over Matt Hall in Perth, Nigel Lamb in Rio de Janeiro and now Bonhomme in Windsor to turn the championship into a scintillating three-way battle. At the midway point of the eight-race season Bonhomme now has 41 points, Arch 39 and Lamb 37.
“I didn’t expect it at all,” Arch said, when asked about the unlikely hat-trick after the horrible start in Abu Dhabi. “I thought that these days when the race has become so close and the pilots are just fractions of a second apart from each other that it (3 straight wins) would not happen again. A small penalty will knock you out in an early round now and you can easily get a 2-second penalty if you want to be fast and push everything to the limit.”
THRILLING RACE
Mangold, who retired at the end of 2009, was the first pilot to win three in a row with victories in Longleat UK, Budapest and San Francisco at the end of the 2005 season. Bonhomme then won three straight with victories in Porto and Barcelona at the end of 2009 and in Abu Dhabi at the start of 2010.
In Windsor on June 6, Bonhomme was flying superbly in a thrilling final. The big crowd was electrified as each pilot lowered the track record each time through the track. In the end, Bonhomme was only fractions of a second behind Arch. But the Englishman got some consolation in extending his record podium streak to 11.
“I think it’s something worth being happy about,” Bonhomme said, smiling as he described the Windsor race as one of the all-time top 10 flying days of his entire career in aviation that includes flying Spitfires, Sukhois and 747s. “Clearly, I’d rather be on top of the podium. But I think it’s a good run (11 podiums) and let’s hope we can keep it going. I’m enjoying the battle at the top of the championship with Hannes and Nigel. Long may that continue — as long as I win.”
