Peter Besenyei beat Paul Bonhomme in a spine-tingling Red Bull Air Race showdown at Monument Valley in the United States on Saturday, flying through an obstacle course just a few dozen feet above the rugged terrain of the iconic Western setting long used by Hollywood filmmakers.



(click on image to view video)

British pilot Steve Jones escaped injury in the quarter-finals after crashing heavily into an Air Gate just a few feet above the ground, an incident that left his plane slightly damaged and forced him to retire. Bonhomme completed his flawless run at speeds up to 250 mph and forces of up to 10G through the spectacular 8 Air Gate course straddling the Utah-Arizona border at the Navajo Tribal Park in a time of 00:59.87 minutes to edge out Bonhomme, who trailed by 0,97 seconds through the circuit made treacherous by the 5,200-foot (1,600 metre) altitude.

In the consolation race for third place, Mike Mangold of USA beat Kirby Chambliss of USA. The stop in Monument Valley, the third leg of the 11-race Red Bull Air Race World Series, was the first of two U.S. races and it was the first race held over land after the first two legs staged over water at Abu Dhabi and Rio de Janeiro. The next stop is in Istanbul on June 1/2. Last year there were more than six million spectators at eight races.

PILOT QUOTES:

Mike Mangold (USA, Cobra):
“I’m happy that it’s over. We’re still working through some problems with everything with our team and hopefully we’ll get there in time to save our season. I’m just happy it’s over. It was a tough day and a dangerous course, as you can see some of the things that happened out there. So you have to be happy you made it through alive and then on the podium. I’m happy that I had the fastest time (58.4 seconds in the quarter-final against Versteegh). We know we can go fast. Now it’s a matter of can we go fast consistently. That’s the disappointment, let’s get the consistency. We get the pilot a little bit faster and then maybe we’ll be consistent.”

Kirby Chambliss (USA, Team Red Bull):
“I’m the third loser right now so I’m not too happy about that. Honestly, I was real close to Peter’s time. His airplane is faster than mine. I was real happy with my flying on that run. We just got to get my airplane to fly faster. Racing Mike, his airplane is faster than mine, everybody knows it. The only way I could beat Mike was to not to take the left and just go straight to the gate. I thought I might be able to make it and that would have taken about a second a half off and I would have put him out. Either way, I either beat him and I’m third or I don’t and I’m fourth so I just went for it.

“I’m always disappointed if I don’t win. That’s just the way it is. You don’t win every time, although I think it’s my time right now. I’ve won a lot. Last year I was on the podium every time except for once. This year’s been a disappointment for us, but these guys have got some fast machines. They’ve made some really good modifications. And we’re going to have to do something with my airplane. It’s that simple.”

Alejandro Maclean (Spain, MRT):
“It went well in the first round but not too well in the second run. I knew that Peter was going to make a really fast time because he’s really fast. I made a mistake which was trying a different technique from gate 2 to 3 and it failed. It didn’t work and I lost. Bad luck.”

Peter Besenyei (Hungary, Team Red Bull):
“I knew going into the final against Paul that I’d have to do my very best because Paul is an excellent pilot and very fast. I knew I would have put in a major effort if I wanted to win and I did and I was lucky to win. I’m very happy. I missed out on the final in Rio. I wanted to race against Paul there in the final. It was close but I hit a pylon. It was bad luck. That’s part of the race. If you make a mistake you are out of the game. Today I was luckier. I didn’t make any big mistakes. I made a mistake earlier and got a penalty and started from the bottom. Then step by step I went further and met Paul in a super final.”

Paul Bonhomme (Britain, Team Matador):
“I’m very pleased with the result and very pleased to get the win against Mike (Mangold in the semi-final). That was good. And then against Peter I knew that was going to be a tough job. But hey, I went for it. I think I know where I went wrong but I’ll have to look at some videos. I’m pleased with the season so far. A lot of it is the airplane and I think I’m pointing it in the right direction, so I’m pleased. I hope people aren’t seeing me as the favorite now, no, wait, actually of course I do. But what I’m saying is that I don’t want too many expectations. This is a long season. There’s going to be a lot happening. I think it’s going to be hard to stay at the top.

"I’d like to think I’ve got an advantage with the nerves. Everybody here is pretty cool but it just does help if you’re not nervous at all. Of course I get nervous. If I didn’t, I think it would be a dangerous thing. But I can keep myself calm before the race. I had a little half-hour sleep this afternoon at lunch time and that was very nice."

source: Red Bull Air Race

Labels: aerobatics, Budapest, Hungary

Posted by Budapest Travel Blog on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 9:58 AM | Permalink