WINDSOR, Ontario – Austria’s Hannes Arch won his third straight race on Sunday with a stirring victory in Windsor, bouncing back with an emphatic victory in the track that straddles the Canada-U.S. border just two days after suffering one of the worst pylon hits of his career. Britain’s Paul Bonhomme took a close second, his 11th straight podium, while American Kirby Chambliss got his first podium of the year with third place.
Arch and Bonhomme had another classic duel on a cool and overcast day over the Detroit River in front of a large crowd of 100,000 spectators watching from Windsor and Detroit. Arch saved his best for last, shattering the track record with a time of 1:05.96 in the final. Bonhomme came close, leading after the first interval but couldn’t keep up the pace and finished second in 1:06.59, 0.63 seconds behind Arch. Chambliss was 3.03 seconds behind the Austrian in 1:08.99 while Britain’s Nigel Lamb was fourth in 1:13.34 after hitting a pylon in the final.
“I’m really happy to win the race after this difficult week,” Arch said. “The team stayed behind me all the way. We stayed calm and tried to fix our problems. You need to have a strong team and we’ve got that. I just let the others make mistakes. I’m elated right now.”
Bonhomme, who is still leading the championship with 41 points to Arch’s 39, admitted he was disappointed to lose the race but pleased with his flying. “I don’t know about you guys but I think that was a brilliant afternoon of racing,” he said. “It was fantastic. Everyone raised their game. It was close for all of us. We’re sad we didn’t get the win, but it was a great race. It’s going to be exciting right down to the end of the season.”
