Sep 16

RED BULL AIR RACE WIENER NEUSTADT: RACE DAY

Unfortunately for Team Chambliss, it’s been a weekend of woes. One flying session short due to weather and a disqualification of the team’s fastest run in qualifying made it a tough week heading into race day. The seventh-place qualifying result put Kirby head to head against Great Britain’s Ben Murphy in the Round of 14.

Murphy, first to fly, incurred four seconds of penalties – two seconds for an incorrect level and two seconds for sinking through a gate. With knowledge of Murphy’s time, Kirby took the opportunity to fly smart; he was conservative on his G in the vertical turns and progressed to the Round of 8 with ease.

Set to fly against Yoshi Muroya and ready at the start line, technical issues caused Kirby to turn back.  This resulted in a “Did Not Start” and an eighth-place finish.

“The engine has two ignition systems, and we check those systems before every flight by doing an engine run-up,” explains Kirby. “When I turned off the right mag, I heard ‘POP, POP, POP’. I thought it had to be either a bad plug or a bad mag, so I ran it up to try and clear the system, but it didn’t work. I did everything I could to try and fix it short of taking the cowling off. It is a huge disappointment, but it wouldn’t have been smart from a safety standpoint to take off with the engine in that condition. My team is going to look everything over and make sure we’re ready to race in Indy.

“Mathematically, we’re out of the running for the World Championship title. It hasn’t been our best season, especially compared to the last where we were in the thick of the fight until the very last race. But I’ll continue to try and do what I always aim to do – win races.”

The United States will host the last two stops of the 2018 season, with the seventh race to be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway October 6th and 7th, and the season finale set for the Texas Motor Speedway November 17th and 18th.

 

Wiener Neustadt Race Results:

1. Martin Sonka (CZE) 15, 2. Yoshihide Muroya (JPN) 12, 3. Matt Hall (AUS) 9, 4. Mika Brageot (FRA) 7, 5. Petr Kopfstein (CZE) 6, 6. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) 5, 7. Pete McLeod (CAN) 4, 8. Kirby Chambliss (USA) 3, 9. Matthias Dolderer (GER) 2, 10. Francois Le Vot (FRA) 1, 11. Juan Velarde (ESP) 0, 12. Michael Goulian (USA), 13. Ben Murphy (GBR) 0, 14. Christian Bolton (CHI) 0

Current World Championship Standings:

1. Martin Sonka (CZE) 64, 2. Matt Hall (AUS) 58, 3. Michael Goulian (USA) 55, 4. Yoshihide Muroya (JPN) 34, 5. Mika Brageot (FRA) 34, 6. Kirby Chambliss (USA) 22, 7. Francois Le Vot (FRA) 21, 8. Matthias Dolderer (GER) 17, 9. Juan Velarde (ESP) 16, 10. Petr Kopfstein (CZE) 16, 11. Pete McLeod (CAN) 15, 12. Ben Murphy (GBR) 15, 13. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) 11, 14. Christian Bolton (CHI) 6

 

For more information, visit www.redbullairrace.com.

 

 

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