Sep 26

RED BULL AIR RACE FT. WORTH, DAY TWO

It was a warm day full of training at the Texas Motor Speedway! Although the heat felt like home, it didn’t stop the team’s enthusiasm for the use of new winglets in the track. Of course the biggest question of the day was, “is the plane faster?”

“In a sport where first and second place can be the difference of a hundredth of a second, it’s difficult to say yes, they make the plane faster. That being said, I’m really happy with them at this point. They definitely don’t seem to be any slower. We plan to use them for qualifying and race day here in Fort Worth,” says Kirby.

In addition to racing with winglets, the team is feeling an advantage in having a full Microsoft team of four at this location. Pictured below (left to right), Ashish is a Machine Learning Expert, Michael brings his knowledge of aerospace engineering, Dey is a Roboticist, and Sudipta focuses on Computer Vision. Each member’s area of study has dialed in different analytical focal points of the sport, and Team Chambliss is very excited about the work the group is accomplishing.

Moving to the physical track, there have been a few changes since last year and it is proving to be a bit more challenging.

“I would say this track is a bit more difficult than last year’s. It isn’t super technical, but the turn from the last main gate back to the finish gate is going to make or break your times. If you pull hard and make it, you’re going to be fast. If you don’t make it, you’re going to hit a pylon and it is really going to hurt your time,” remarks Kirby.

Kirby found a great line through this new track today, finishing with a best time of 56.877 seconds. Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain set the track record with a time of 56.166 seconds. By flying clean and consistent, Kirby is determined to close the gap between his placement and first in tomorrow’s qualifying round.

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