Red Bull Air Race

Four races in and four different pilots have stood on the top step of the podium this year in the Red Bull Air Race.

This was a weekend for the Americans. Michael Goulian clinched his first and long-awaited career win and in Budapest of all places. Kirby Chambliss won the qualifying round on Wednesday.

Championship contenders Paul Bonhomme and Hannes Arch fell to the wayside but it was ultimately the Briton who overcame the Austrian and now has the championship lead by a single point and with two more rounds in Porto and Barcelona, anything's bound to happen.

The summer break appeared to have improved a few pilots, but at the same time has hindered others.

Most notably absent from the podium was defending world-champion Hannes Arch. This is the first time that Arch has not made it onto the podium.

Other pilots whose performances went down were Peter Besenyei who only managed a 10th place in his MXS, Nigel Lamb with a ninth place finish, Alejandro Maclean with an 11th place finish and Sergey Rakhmanin who was a shoe-in for points, but was too slow in qualifying and disqualified in the Wild Card round for going 1 km/h over the maximum start speed of 370 km/h finishing 15th and last.

South African Glen Dell suffered the same fate as his Russian colleague, but was 10 km/h over the start speed. He finished 14th overall.

Another speeder was Nicolas Ivanoff of France who was clocked at 375 km/h entering the track during the Super Eight round. He finished in eighth overall - not the result envisaged for the resurgent Frenchman.

On the side of improvement was Matthias Dolderer who usually had a struggle getting out of the Wild Card or Top 12, but managed to make it into fifth place overall and just out of the Final Four and the chance to compete for the win.

The German qualified in fourth place one day earlier much to the delight of his fans.

Further down, Australian Matt Hall has slipped recently but is still the strongest rookie on the field. He was able to clinch a solid seventh place in the race while American Mike Mangold was not able to emulate his fourth-place performance in Windsor and was only good for sixth.

Yoshi Muroya of Japan and Pete McLeod of Canada were not able to get past the Wild Card as they ended up in 12th and 13th, respectively.

The final four consisted of Hannes Arch, Paul Bonhomme, Kirby Chambliss, and Michael Goulian.

Goulian was the first to go and put in a very respectable time of 1:12.51. This was good for at least a podium position, but there were three other pilots.

Bonhomme took his stab at the track, but was strangely slower than Goulian with a 1:13.13. Goulian was guaranteed a spot on the podium now, but the win?

Up next was Hannes Arch and was flying beautifully until he suffered an Incorrect Level Flying (ILF) penalty. Two seconds were added to his time and he finished with a 1:13.83.

The ILF penalty was a very slight deviation as Arch was exiting gate five to do his first vertical manoeuvre. Needless to say, the Austrian was quite puzzled with the result.

The last performance of the day went to the winner of qualifying, Kirby Chambliss. The other American put his best in it, but just couldn't manage as he was a little slow and finished with a 1:13.53 and a third place on the podium - the second time in a row that this has happened to him.

The final result of the race went:

1. Michael Goulian (USA) - Edge 540
2. Paul Bonhomme (GBR) - Edge 540
3. Kirby Chambliss (USA) - Edge 540
4. Hannes Arch (AUT) - Edge 540
5. Matthias Dolderer (GER) - Edge 540
6. Mike Mangold (USA) - Edge 540
7. Matt Hall (AUS) - MXS
8. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) - Edge 540
9. Nigel Lamb (GBR) - MXS
10. Peter Besenyei (HUN) - MXS
11. Alejandro Maclean (ESP) - MXS
12. Yoshi Muroya (JPN) - Edge 540
13. Pete McLeod (CAN) - Edge 540
14. Glen Dell (RSA) - Edge 540

Sergey Rakhmanin (RUS) - MXS

With that, the current standings in the world championship are:

Competitive, quick, smooth, and witty can all easily describe the British ace who has a monkey on his back: two second-places in the championship in a row and this happening when it was looking certain that he would win it all.

Still, Paul Bonhomme does have an interesting paradox: he has won more races—a very impressive nine—in his career than his current rival, Hannes Arch, who only has three races under his belt. He has an equal number of wins with his 2007 rival Mike Mangold and is a legend-in-the-making in the Red Bull Air Race.

2007 was supposed to be Bonhomme's finest hour.

The Brit was on the verge of ending the American domination which Mike Mangold and Kirby Chambliss had over the rest of the field, and it was won by the former over Bonhomme on equal points, but countback favoured the American.

With the mistakes of 2007 behind him and ready to win it this time, Bonhomme in 2008 had a very dominant first half to the season, winning three of the first four races—his lowest position being a second place at the third round in Detroit. Bonhomme looked untouchable and it seemed like he would run away with the season and a well-deserved first championship.

However, once the Air Race returned to his home turf in London, the 2008 season fell apart. Bonhomme, who was often very smooth and cool in his flying made some errors in the race including a pylon hit and had to pull out. The home crowd was devastated to see their man out.

The next round in Budapest was a small consolation as he took a third place but his rival, Hannes Arch, took his maiden win.

Porto could have been Bonhomme's, but an over-G moment disqualified him from the Super Eight round in the race and an incorrect level added insult to injury as the Briton left Portugal with no points to his name, and a full complement for Arch as he took his second career win.

In the final round in Australia, Bonhomme returned to form but it was too little, too late as Arch took his first championship and the Briton had to settle for second place—again!

In 2009, Bonhomme appears to be playing the consistency card and it shows as he is only one point behind Arch, even though the Austrian has won the qualifying round twice. Still, with Budapest up ahead, the Briton has never won it, but has stood on the podium four times. Will he win it this time?

As Bonhomme talked with Bleacher Report in the run-up to Budapest, he reveals that its going to be more of the same from Team 55 but I'll let him do the talking!

Sheiban Shakeri: The qualifying round appears to have been your biggest weakness so far this season. Was there any sort of training on your part or modification done on the Edge in order to make it able to get maximum points for Budapest?

Paul Bonhomme: It’s interesting that you describe my three second places in qualifying as a weakness…if that is all I have to be worried about then I reckon I should be happy. I was pleased that the one point in the Q round went to Kirby (Chambliss) in Windsor and not Hannes (Arch) or Nicolas (Ivanoff) but it would have been better if we’d nabbed it ourselves! As for improvements, we’ve been looking at the engine with a view to improve it in the future but apart from general maintenance we have not done any major work.

SS: You have been on the podium in Budapest four times but never once have you stood on the top step. Does the track not suit your style or has it been a case of bad luck?

PB: So far we have had no bad luck in Budapest and in fact as Hannes (Arch) proved last year, you don’t need to be on the top step all the time to do well overall. As for the track, it’s right up my street and it’s a privilege to fly in the centre of Budapest city.

SS: Finally, given the talk of technical modifications, weight, and engine power from almost all the teams, how would you rate your chances of making the third time a charm for the championship? Is there an ace up your sleeve?

PB: We’re taking each race as it comes and we’ve been gently tweaking as the year has progressed…we have no major plans or big changes planned.

With a lot invested this time around, will the Bonhomme finally make it onto the top step of the podium in Budapest? Can he become the first Englishman to win the championship? Only time will tell as the Red Bull Air Race makes it triumphant return to Europe.

Special thanks to Nigel Warren, Team 55, and Paul Bonhomme for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with us.

The Red Bull Air Race is a sport in change all the time, but one thing that never changes is the fact that Budapest hosts a round.

Budapest has often been equated to the Monaco Grand Prix of the Red Bull Air Race. Like the uniqueness of Monaco in Formula One, Budapest does have a unique feature that no other Air Race has: the start/finish gate, which is not a pair of pylons but instead the Chain Bridge in which the pilot has to fly from underneath to enter the track.

Of course, water level is an issue and if it is deemed too high, then Gate One will be the start/finish gate.

Windsor Recap

To recap, the Red Bull Air Race made its Canadian debut by returning to the border but this time on the Windsor side as opposed to Detroit.

Paul Bonhomme won the race in style, taking it back from Kirby Chambliss who had squeaked by last year against the Briton; the American was only good for third place after a two-second penalty in the final round but he did take one point in qualifying and the track record.

Defending World Champion Hannes Arch took second spot completing his tour of the podium!

The race in Windsor was full of thrills and spills with pylon hits galore, and was witness to Australian rookie sensation Matt Hall making two rare mistakes—hitting the start/finish gate and slamming into a quadro, which required him to perform a Safety Climb Out (SCO).

Windsor was also the home race of Canadian rookie Pete McLeod and the crowds were out in full force to meet the youngest ever pilot to take part in the Red Bull Air Race. While the Canuck has had some terrible luck in his first season, he was able to put the jitters aside and took his first point of the season.

Most notably absent from the race were Japanese rookie Yoshi Muroya and Hungarian ace Peter Besenyei. Muroya was not allowed to race because of a safety issue on his Edge 540 after hitting a pylon in compensation training while Besenyei had to withdraw from the race before it even began because of a forced-landing in a wheat field near London, Ontario put too much damage on his MXS earlier that week. Besenyei walked away and will be ready to race in Budapest.

Budapest Track Information

The track in Budapest is another technical track and, as mentioned earlier, an element of danger is added with the entry to the track achieved from passing underneath the Chain Bridge.

A very scenic location on the Danube River, pilots will be flying in front of the Hungarian parliament building and Budapest receives the largest crowds of any Red Bull Air Race.

It has no quadros because of the tight space on the Danube but instead will have three vertical turning manoeuvres at either end of the track.

The pilot will have to fly from underneath the Chain Bridge, water levels permitting, and go through the first blue gate directly ahead. From there, he has to make a slight left turn going through another blue gate, and then a hard right to enter the first knife-edge gate closest to the Parliament.

Two more blue gates up ahead of him where he'll have to make a vertical turning manoeuvre and enter the track through a pair of blue gates again. The last few gates in the first lap are a set of red gates and blue gates which are closest to the race control tower and the final set of blue gates where the pilot has to execute a second vertical turning manoeuvre and do the track once more!

For a map of the track in Budapest, a very nifty Google map has been posted on the Red Bull Air Race website to show the positions of the air gates, the viewing stands and more.

View Red Bull Air Race Budapest in a larger map

Will Hannes Arch make it two in a row in Budapest? Will Peter Besenyei finally hit the top step at his home race or will Paul Bonhomme finally win it here? We shall find out this week!

One of the unluckiest pilots in the Red Bull Air Race this season is undoubtedly American Michael Goulian.

As well, the man from Boston is one of the nicest guys on the field, but he has had to languish behind his American colleagues, Mike Mangold and Kirby Chambliss, who have both been Red Bull Air Race Champions in 2005 and 2007 for the former, and 2006 for the latter.

An experienced airshow pilot and aviator, Goulian has had a hard time of late in making it into the points and the podium in 2009.

It all started at the season opener in Abu Dhabi with an improperly connected antenna on his Edge 540 which didn't deliver live results to the race control tower during qualifying. As a result, he was disqualified from the second qualifying and had to fly in the Wild Card round on race day, but he wasn't quick enough so he left the Emirates with no points to his name.

Getting on home turf in San Diego wasn't much of a consolation either for Goulian as he was too slow in qualifying and only making it into the Wild Card round again. Taking four seconds worth of penalties in the race did not help his cause and this resulted in him taking an early bath again.

By this point, Goulian was one of two pilots who hadn't registered a single point yet—the other being rookie Pete McLeod.

Things changed when the Air Race made its Canadian debut at the Cross-Border Classic in Windsor with Goulian putting in a decent time in qualifying and finally not having to compete in the Wild Card round. He made it as far as the Super 8 round, but he hit a pylon in the quadro in windy conditions and had to perform a Safety Climb Out (SCO).

Regardless, the American took six points to his name with a season-best sixth place. While not the result envisaged, he was able to take at least something—a positive note ahead of the two-month summer break before Budapest and the European rounds.

During the summer break and run-up to Budapest this season, Goulian has been attending various airshows and fly-ins such as the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Still though, it's not all fun and games for the Bostonian as he spoke with Bleacher Report about his summer, his goals, and his training.

Sheiban Shakeri: Over the course of the summer break this season, you were very busy with various fly-ins and airshows. Was anything done to the Edge 540 in terms of modifications to make it competitive in Budapest?

Michael Goulian: Even though the plane was en-route to Europe from North America during our break, the No. 99 Team still made modifications to our aircraft. Installed for the Budapest race will be some engine cowling modifications that will hopefully give us some more speed in the upcoming "river" tracks in Budapest and Porto.

SS: To keep yourself fit and ready for the European rounds of the Red Bull Air Race, did you undertake any sort of training or was it strictly fly-ins and airshows?

MG: I am constantly training physically to keep in top shape for the racing season. In addition to that, flying airshows keeps my "G" tolerance up.

SS: You have had bad luck this season right from the start in Abu Dhabi but made up for it with a decent sixth place and points in Windsor. What did you learn in the first two rounds when you just weren't making it through the Wild Card round?

MG: The first two races were simply frustrating for us. The lack of horsepower just left our plane a lot slower than the rest. I tried to make up for it with aggressive flying but that just increases the risk of penalties. In Windsor, we installed new engine parts which made us much more competitive.

SS: Finally, what's the goal for Budapest and beyond in 2009?

MG: I hope we can challenge for the podium in Budapest and the rest of the season. We definitely want to be one of the front runners.

The European rounds of the Red Bull Air Race will begin in a fortnight with Budapest being the first of the final three rounds followed by Porto, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain.

The Hungarian capital is the proverbial home to the sport and has hosted it ever since the inception of the Red Bull Air Race in 2003. For that, it has become the most prestigious race on the calendar.

Budapest is also home to the grandfather of the Red Bull Air Race, Peter Besenyei.

Besenyei is a world-renowned airshow pilot and was approached by Red Bull in 2001 to help develop a sport that would eventually become what is the Air Race today.

He has played an integral role in the development of the sport, such as helping out in developing the rules, help out with picking the most promising rookies for the next season, as well as being a competitor.

However, when it comes to the sport itself, Besenyei has not had an easy time of late. With new equipment under him—an MXS for 2009—Besenyei has had some bad luck, including a very close call before the last round in Windsor when the Hungarian's aircraft lost oil pressure while en route to a photo shoot over Niagara Falls. Besenyei had to make a forced-landing in a wheat field near a local airport in rural Ontario, and while the aircraft was too damaged for the Hungarian to take part in the third round in Windsor, Besenyei was lucky and walked away.

In the run-up to Budapest, Besenyei talked to Bleacher Report about his prospects for the next round, his MXS, and about the modifications made to his aircraft:

Sheiban Shakeri: How is your MXS after your close call in Canada? Have any modifications been done to it during the repairs?

Peter Besenyei: The plane is just about to arrive to Salzburg (Austria) this week, and it will be reassembled over there. The branding has to be done, and it will be ready for the race. The plane is really good and all the weak points are fixed and the modifications are all about power. As the aircraft has a new engine with not more than 10 hours in it, it has to be (broken) in and I just hope that we will have enough time for it.

SS: How optimistic are you ahead of Budapest now that you have an aircraft that appears to be competitive?

PB: I'm always optimistic, but realistic as well. The plane is really good but (it) all depends on the engine, and as long as I haven't (flown) it I do not know how powerful it is. Of course, I'll try to do my best and fulfill the expectations of the Hungarian supporters and my own as well.

SS: You've never won your home race since the Air Race became a world series. Will you be doing anything different this time around to make it to the top step of the podium?

PB: The Budapest race is always special and harder than any other because of the more pressure and the huge number of media stuff. On the other hand, it is definitely the most exciting thing to fly in front of homeland crowd and probably the most beautiful scene. But as told before, the main point is always the engine, so I do it like I do it always, no tricks it just has to be a nice and safe flight...to the podium.

Indeed, Besenyei's last victory was in Monument Valley, Utah, in 2007. With his recent spat of bad luck and a close call behind him, Besenyei has the potential to bring in a good result as was seen with him taking a fourth place finish in San Diego, the last race he participated in.

In 2008, the Red Bull Air Race grew into a serious sport with aerodynamic modifications galore made with the most notable being Hannes Arch's new canopy at Rotterdam last year. To add to that, Paul Bonhomme was disqualified in Porto for pulling more G forces on his plane than what was required which brought safety into the spotlight as well.

Indeed, the sport has matured and as part of the natural evolution in trying to win, the issue of aircraft weight has come to light.

2009 was the first time that all aircraft in the Red Bull Air Race had been weighed. For the most part, there have been no surprises here with logic dictating that the fastest plane is also the lightest.

One notable exception to this was Paul Bonhomme, who not only is the heaviest pilot, but has the heaviest plane as well. He did however invest a lot into aerodynamics which made him a front-runner the previous year.

One pilot who has had issues dealing with new aircraft and new technologies is Nigel Lamb of the Breitling team. In the second race of the year in San Diego in 2008, Lamb acquired some new technology in the form of the MXS—an aircraft that hopefully would propel him to podiums, wins, and the championship.

Unfortunately, nothing with so many moving parts comes perfect when you bring it out of the box, and the MXS was no exception to that rule.

For Lamb and team Breitling, the 2008 season was spent modifying the aircraft and the moment of truth came at the season finale in Perth when Lamb took a career-best second place. This was certainly motivation to continue working on the aircraft and making the MXS competitive at every race for 2009.

"We totally stripped and re-built the plane" says Lamb in an e-mail. "We simply weighed all the components and replaced whatever we could with lighter components and removed anything and everything that was not necessary for racing or safety."

Many pilots are taking the same approach to make their aircraft lighter and nimbler to get the fastest time possible. This results in closer sector times and as a result, has created a slight rule change in how penalties are administered—six seconds (as opposed to 10 last year) when touching a gate (TAG) and two seconds (as opposed to three) when flying too high (FTH) or an incorrect knife flying (IKF).

"What makes it more important this year is that the performance of the planes is closer so all teams are obsessed by getting rid of any unnecessary grams" and logically, the planes get faster and will go through the track much quicker than before. This means that team engineers and mechanics are trying to find ways to bring down the weight of the aircraft to the minimum allowable weight of 1,190 pounds (541 kg).

Some components cannot be taken out altogether, so looking for lighter alternatives is one way to go in order to sacrifice weight and optimize performance.

There is however one necessary part of the aircraft that cannot be replaced, and that is the pilot himself.

The pilot is the single heaviest component of a racing plane and is also the most irreplaceable!

They do partake in various fitness regimes to make themselves more tolerant of the high G-forces put against their bodies and also to make themselves lighter "because you want the engine pulling the least amount of weight around the track" as Lamb puts it. By "least amount of weight," Lamb meant the components of his MXS, the pilot, and all his equipment, which can add significantly more weight, but is necessary in order to ensure safety.

The issue of weight in the Red Bull Air Race is a pretty straight-forward notion. Basically, the lighter you and your plane are, the better a time you will put on the board. Still, with that notion, there is also a lot of in-between issues that complicate the matter such as the Centre of Gravity limits (CG).

There is a CG limit in the fore (front) and in the aft (back) of airplanes. "If you try to fly with the CG outside the limits you can have problems controlling the machine so it's imperative to be inside the envelope," says Lamb.

As the weight aircraft decreases, the CG limits change. When talking about how he and the Breitling team managed to work that issue on the MXS, Lamb remarks "as weight was reduced, we did track the CG movement...A change in the CG changes the feel of the plane in the pitching axis. Once you have the CG right, you want to keep it constant so the plane feels the same each time you are in the track."

Overall, Team Breitling has been through a lot in order to become competitive, but reaching for the top—and staying there—is a job that never ends.

When asked how he evaluates his MXS right now in terms of weight, Lamb says, "thanks to the hard work of our engineer 'Hux' (Nigel Huxtable), the Breitling MXS is at the perfect weight. What we are focused on now are other aspects like more power and less drag (aerodynamics)".

Testing of the new components will begin at the end of this week for Team Breitling as they prepare for the most prestigious event on the Red Bull Air Race calendar—Budapest—on the 19th and 20th of August.

Special thanks to Becci Allan, Nigel Lamb, and all of Team Breitling for talking to Bleacher Report.

Three races down, three to go, and three different winners so far—Hannes Arch, Nicolas Ivanoff and Paul Bonhomme! The championship is as wide open as it was at the beginning of the season.

As well, seven different pilots have challenged for the win this season—Hannes Arch, Paul Bonhomme, Peter Besenyei, Kirby Chambliss, Nicolas Ivanoff, Nigel Lamb and Mike Mangold.

Abu Dhabi

The season opener of the Red Bull Air Race started off in Abu Dhabi, and the biggest news came before the race when it was announced that the Emirate will get the privilege of hosting the opening round of the world championship until 2011.

To add to that, 2008 world series champion Hannes Arch received sponsorship from the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. He is now carrying "Abu Dhabi" on his wings, his flight suit, and in his hangar. He has become known as "Air Abu Dhabi!"

The race itself was a spectacle to watch. With a newly designed track, second place man Paul Bonhomme commented that it was very well-designed track compared to the previous year's track since different lines and angles could be taken, whereas last year it was a waiting game of getting through the gates.

Hannes Arch was the winner of that race with Bonhomme and Ivanoff right behind him. Nigel Lamb was the unlucky fourth, but his MXS keeps improving by the day. To add to that, Arch also won the qualifying round and took one crucial championship point as well as setting the fastest time thus making an air racing hat trick for the Austrian.

Abu Dhabi also was the debut ground for four new pilots to the series: Matthias Dolderer of Germany, Matt Hall of Australia, Pete McLeod of Canada and Yoshi Muroya of Japan.

Hall was the most profitable rookie in this round with him taking fifth place and just a hair out of the final four. Dolderer was the second-most profitable rookie in the Emirates with an 11th place finish and one point to his name in his first race.

The unluckiest pilots in Abu Dhabi was a tie with Michael Goulian and Pete McLeod.

Goulian, the amicable Bostonian, did not have an antenna properly connected, which would broadcast all sorts of information to the race stewards in the tower as a way to ensure that he flies properly. His time was upheld, but he wasn't allowed to compete in the second round of qualifying. With the race, he was too slow and didn't make it past the Wild Card.

McLeod on the other hand put two clean albeit slow times during qualifying but when it came to the race, the Canadian hit a pylon and had to perform an SCO (Safety Climb Out) because of some fabric stuck to the wings of his Edge 540 aircraft. He came in last place.

San Diego

The Red Bull Air Race moved to San Diego and home race for the three American pilots—Mike Mangold, Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian.

Goulian just wasn't able to capitalize and ended up out of the points while Matt Hall put in a second fifth place finish in a row.

Hannes Arch was able to win the qualifying again, but came short in the Final Four round after hitting a bird. His aircraft survived, but there was plenty of organic matter on the aircraft and the tailplane was pretty damaged. Arch came third in the second round of the race but had an extra point added because of his winning the qualifying round.

Nicolas Ivanoff was able to set the course record and take the win while Paul Bonhomme came second for the second time this year.

Peter Besenyei was the unlucky fourth man in his MXS.

The Americans didn't fare very well in San Diego with Goulian again out of the Top 12 round and Chambliss getting disqualified for going over-g. Mike Mangold was the most successful of the three but still wasn't able to make it into the Final Four round. He ended up taking an early bath as well with his two countrymen with his seventh place finish.

The South African sophomore, Glen Dell, was able to finally get into the points by taking a ninth place and three points here thus ending his points drought.

Overall, San Diego was an interesting race with a Saturday qualifying filled with pylon hits and a Sunday filled with suspense!

Windsor, Ontario

The Red Bull Air Race returned to the world's longest undefended border and also to one of the busiest points—Windsor, Ontario. Across the river is Detroit, where the third round was hosted in 2008. This was also the home race for Pete McLeod, whose base is only a two-hour drive away.

The third round was hampered by two pieces of bad news. First, Peter Besenyei would not fly in Windsor because of a crash landing in a wheat field earlier that week damaged his MXS to the point that it could not be ready in time.

As well, the safety of Yoshi Muroya's Edge 540 was compromised after hitting a pylon in compensation training on Friday and thus would not be given the green light to fly either.

All eyes might have been focused on the 25-year old Canadian, but it was American Kirby Chambliss who stole the show and denied Hannes Arch a third consecutive qualifying win on a cloudy Saturday.

"I'll take that point," said Chambliss over the radio after learning that he set the course record and had won the round.

Come Sunday though, the story would be very different. With Pete McLeod able to keep himself out of the Wild Card round and into the top 10 on Saturday. He got himself in 11th after taking a two-second penalty. The Canadian crowd went wild as their man came in second-to-last!

The race had by far the most pylon hits as Sergey Rakhmanin pipped the start/finish gate to start things off. Mike Mangold and Michael Goulian also hit pylons as the latter had to SCO because of pylon got stuck on his tail.

Matt Hall had quite possibly the most interesting round during the Super Eights as he touched the start/finish gate when entering the track and crashed head-on into the quadro and had to SCO. He later admitted that he thought he could gun for a podium place and a win foregoing the fact that he was learning.

The Final Four had two Americans - Mike Mangold, and Kirby Chambliss—up against two Europeans—Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain, and Hannes Arch of Austria.

While many believed that this round was in the bag for Chambliss, the American made a mistake, incurred a two-second penalty, and was able to hang on for third place.

Mike Mangold was just too slow and with a two-second penalty, he was effectively out of the running.

Hannes Arch couldn't keep his cool, took a penalty, and lost out but was able to come second behind Paul Bonhomme whose consistent flying all week earned him the maple leaf trophy.

Last year, the top four was Chambliss, Bonhomme, Arch and Mangold. In 2009, it was Bonhomme, Arch, Chambliss and Mangold.

Overall, with three different winners and the championship fight still going strong, Budapest on Aug. 19 and 20 will be a real test for Arch and Bonhomme, since they are only separated by one point.

Will the rookies be able to mix things up again? Will Kirby Chambliss and Mike Mangold give Hannes Arch and Paul Bonhomme a run for their money? Budapest will tell all!

Paul Bonhomme has never had an easy time in second place. He was second overall in 2007, second overall in 2008, and second in the first two races of 2009. The Brit just couldn't add that extra amount of stamina to propel him to number one.

Wild Card

The first round of the Red Bull Air Race in Windsor involved only three pilots as opposed to five. Yoshi Muroya and Peter Besenyei did not race this past weekend due to safety issues with the former and an emergency landing in a wheat field with the latter earlier this week.

It was down to Matthias Dolderer, Glen Dell, and Sergey Rakhmanin. Dell was first to go and put in all he had to book himself a spot. Up next was Dolderer and what looked like it could be a respectable time, albeit with a two second penalty, the German got disqualified because of unsafe flying. This disqualification guaranteed a spot for Dell and Rakhmanin in the next round of the Top 12.

Times In The Wild Card Round (Italicized advance to the Top 12):

1. Sergey Rakhmanin (RUS) - MXS: 1:12.32
2. Glen Dell (RSA) - Edge 540: 1:14.73
3. Matthias Dolderer (GER) - Edge 540: DSQ

Top 12

The Top 12 was an interesting round as it featured Canadian Pete McLeod take his first championship point after two dismal rounds where he ended up 15th and last. With this round, McLeod was able to get himself into 11th, second to last, and take the final world championship point available. I've never heard so much cheering for someone who got a second-to-last place finish!

Further up the field, Nicolas Ivanoff appeared to make a Safey Climb Out (SCO) after the quadro, but pulled back into the track. He received four seconds in penalties which also included a two-second penalty for flying too high (FTH).

Championship rivals Hannes Arch and Paul Bonhomme were at it again as they took the top two spots with qualifying session winner Kirby Chambliss close on their heels.

A short scare for the American as he was investigated for what appeared to be flying over the speed limit when entering the track. Eventually, Chambliss was cleared and flew in the next round.

Michael Goulian finally got out of a points funk after putting in a disciplined flight and ending up fourth in the Top 12.

Top 12 Times (Italicized move into the Super Eight)

1. Hannes Arch (AUT) - Edge 540: 1:09.31 (no penalties)
2. Paul Bonhomme (GBR) - Edge 540: 1:09.47 (no penalties)
3. Kirby Chambliss (USA) - Edge 540: 1:10.11 (no penalties)
4. Michael Goulian (USA) - Edge 540: 1:11.06 (no penalties)
5. Mike Mangold (USA) - Edge 540: 1:11.25 (no penalties)
6. Nigel Lamb (GBR) - MXS: 1:12.09 (+ 2 sec. IKF)
7. Matt Hall (AUS) - MXS: 1:12.35 (no penalties)
8. Sergey Rakhmanin (RUS) - MXS: 1:13.77 (no penalties)
9. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) - Edge 540: 1:14.45 (+2 sec. IKF, +2 sec. FTH)
10. Alejandro Maclean (ESP) - MXS: 1:15.59 (+2 sec. FTH, +2 sec. IKF)
11. Pete McLeod (CAN) - Edge 540: 1:16.48 (+2 sec. IKF)
12. Glen Dell (RSA) - Edge 540: 1:18.87 (+2 sec. FTH, +2 sec. FTH)

Super Eight Round

This round was very interesting to say the least. Everybody save for Bonhomme got a penalty in some form or another, and gate touches here were rampant!

Matt Hall appeared to be improving on his form, but his confidence must have gone into overconfidence as he not only hit the start/finish gate at the beginning of the race, but also rammed into the quadro and had to SCO.

Nigel Lamb cannot get a break on the border. After a harsh disqualification on the other side of the river in Detroit last year, the Brit appeared to have put those jitters to rest, but at the same time, he made a course deviation and was disqualified.

Michael Goulian also had a tough time after touching a gate in the quadro and with pieces of fabric clinging to the fuselage, he had to SCO as well.

Mike Mangold, even after a gate touching (TAG) penalty, was able to make it into the final four with Bonhomme, Arch, and Chambliss. This was the first time that Americans made it into the Final Four all season as well as the first time that it was dominated only by Edge 540's.

Super Eight Times (Italicized Move Forward to the Final Four)

1. Paul Bonhomme (GBR) - Edge 540: 1:08.61 (No penalties)
2. Hannes Arch (AUT) - Edge 540: 1:11.13 (+2 sec. IKF)
3. Kirby Chambliss (USA) - Edge 540: 1:11.33 (+2 sec. FTH)
4. Mike Mangold (USA) - Edge 540: 1:18.61 (+6 sec. TAG)
5. Sergey Rakhmanin (RUS) - MXS: 1:22.93 (+2 sec. FTH, +2 sec. IKF, +6 sec. TAG)
6. Michael Goulian (USA) - Edge 540: SCO
7. Matt Hall (AUS) - MXS: SCO
8. Nigel Lamb (GBR) - MXS: DSQ

The Final Four

The Final Four this season has had seven different pilots compete in it, but there's two things that are consistent: Hannes Arch and Paul Bonhomme. With those two in the finals, it looks they had some stiff competition against Kirby Chambliss who had won the qualifying round.

The final four round would also typically be the round where the flying would be perfect and no penalties would be given. Then again, who said that finals have to be consistent?

With Arch and Mangold each getting two-second penalties, with the Austrian out in front, it looked like Chambliss might be able to squeak a win but remember, the Brit has been in second place all season and he hates playing second-fiddle!

Bonhomme flew in and put a very consistent time of 1:08.16 with no penalties. It was the fastest time of the day, but not of the weekend. That honour still goes to Kirby Chambliss.

The Texan flew in next, but after taking a two-second IKF penalty his hopes were dashed of a win, and he took the third step on the podium. This was also the American's first appearance on the podium since Porto last year.

Times in the Final Four (Italicized denotes winner)

1. Paul Bonhomme (GBR) - Edge 540: 1:08.16
2. Hannes Arch (AUT) - Edge 540: 1:09.31
3. Kirby Chambliss (USA) - Edge 540: 1:10.19
4. Mike Mangold (USA) - Edge 540: 1:12.92

With that, the Red Bull Air Race goes into a summer holiday as the next race will be in Budapest, Hungary. Budapest has been equated to the Monaco Grand Prix of the Red Bull Air Race and with a tight track and a starting gate denoted by the famous Chain Bridge, anything can happen. Until then, it's bye for now!

Hello and welcome for the third round of the Red Bull Air Race World Series from Windsor. The race will be taking place on the Canada-US border over the Detroit River with about half of the race taking place in American airspace.

The biggest surprise coming was Kirby Chambliss and his return to form and setting the fastest time of not just all week, but of the past two years running now.

Hot on his heels is Paul Bonhomme, who will be looking for redemption. Nicolas Ivanoff and Hannes Arch round out the top four.

The one that the Windsor crowd came to see was Canadian Pete McLeod.

McLeod impressed everyone in his home race and was able to break into the top 10 on Saturday, much to the delight of the crowd.

Michael Goulian also got out of a funk and finally made it into the top 10 with an eighth place qualifying pace.

If he can continue flying the way he did, he will be able to take points.

Not participating are Yoshi Muroya and Peter Besenyei. Muroya is not racing today because of a pylon hit during the third training session compromised the safety of his Edge 540.

Besenyei on the other hand had a close call after an emergency landing in a wheat field outside of St. Thomas Airport. The MXS flipped over, but Besenyei was uninjured.

The aircraft is not a writeoff, but it is not able to race in Windsor. He will return for Budapest in two month's time.

Over here at Bleacher Report, there will be a live play-by-play of the day's events. All times will be displayed in the local time (-4 GMT) so come here and enjoy the race!

1555: That's it for Windsor folks! Budapest is up in two months time so the pilots will take some time to train and prepare themselves for the first stop in the European tour.

1550: That's the race folks! Paul Bonhomme has finally won since his victory in Perth during the final race of 2008. Arch is second and Chambliss is third. However, Chambliss has one point extra for winning the qualifying yesterday. The rest of the pilots are as follows: Mangold, Rakhmanin, Goulian, Hall, Lamb, Ivanoff, Maclean, McLeod, Dell, and Dolderer. Pete McLeod has taken his first point and his highest ranking so far. As of now, every pilot has at least one point in their pocket.

1540: Kirby's in and he makes a mistake! He flies too high but registers a time of 1:10.19. Ouch!

1537: Paul Bonhomme sets the day's fastest time! He registers a 1:08.16. This is going to be tough for Kirby Chambliss to beat. Can the American make it two wins in a row or will Bonhomme get out of the second-place funk at the Cross-Border Classic?

1534: Hannes Arch also gets two seconds but is very fast! He could've set the course record if he didn't get a two-second penalty for flying too high! He sets a time of 1:09.31. He's guaranteed a spot on the podium...

1531: Mike Mangold is the first to go and sets a time of 1:12.92 with a two-second penalty for flying too high. He sets the benchmark for the Final Four.

1520: The final four will have Mike Mangold, Hannes Arch, Paul Bonhomme and Kirby Chambliss competing for the win. We'll be seeing what happens in about 10 minutes...

1515: Kirby is in but is a little slower than usual. Chambliss sets a time of 1:11.33 with no penalties. Anyhow, that's enough for him to continue into the final four.

1512: Two gates had to be replaced so it took some time. Bonhomme has just finished his run and unlike the other pilots before him, he is clean and puts a time of 1:08.61.

1503: Matt Hall gets his run started off with a bang - literally! He hits the start/finish gate and just looks like he's not in control. He hits ANOTHER gate in the quadro and pulls out with an SCO.

1500: Hannes Arch enters, sets a time of 1:11.13 but gets two seconds for incorrect knife flying. A shame for the Austrian...

1456: Nigel Lamb enters the box but seems to have had a bad judgment and misses the quadro. He is subsequently DSQ. This guy can't seem to catch a break on the border...

1452: Mike Mangold comes in and gets a whopping six-seconds for touching a gate! It was such a small margin that he took and lost out...

1448: News from the airport comes in that Chambliss is cleared to fly in the Super Eight round after a possible infraction.

1446: Michael Goulian is up next and makes an SCO! He hits a pylon in the quadro with pieces of it attached to his tail. At least he ends his points drought...

1441: Sergey Rakhmanin just finished his run and boy did he make a mess! Two two-second penalties for flying too high and hitting the start/finish Breitling gate will definitely not get the Russian into the Final Four...

1431: Kirby Chambliss is up and wants to capitalize on his amazing time from yesterday. He comes up short and makes it a 1:10.11 with no penalties. This concludes the Top 12. The Super Eights will begin in about 10 minutes...

1428: Paul Bonhomme comes in and is hungry to beat Arch at his own game. He comes 0.09 of a second short and registers a 1:09.47.

1425: Nicolas Ivanoff is up but oh no! He makes two mistakes and registers a 1:14.45 for flying too high. He went through the quadro but pulled up appearing to SCO but didn't and continued, thus losing time here.

1423: Matt Hall is in but he's a little slow and makes it a 1:12.35 with no penalties.

1420: Hannes Arch is up and sets the fastest time of the day! a 1:09.38 with no penalties. The Austrian's a shoe-in to make the final four...

1418: Nigel Lamb is the next man up but makes an IKF. He would've been fastest but with two seconds added, he registers a 1:12.09

1415: Mike Mangold is up. He makes a clean flight with no penalties and is very disciplined. He posts a slightly slower time of 1:11.25

1413: Bostonian Michael Goulian takes to the track and puts in a disciplined run. He sets a reasonably fast time of 1:11.06 with no penalties. "Yeah baby" goes Goulian over the radio!

1411: Alejandro Maclean is up next. He is all over the place as he sets a time of 1:15.59 with four seconds worth of penalty points. He's first at the moment, but that can change any minute...

1409: Pete McLeod is coming in and the crowd is going nuts! The cheers are deafening on both sides of the border and sets a 1:16.48 with a two-second penalty for incorrect knife-edge. A shame, but it's faster than Dell so McLeod is guaranteed at least one point today...

1405: Sergey Rakhmanin has entered the track and put in a disciplined flight with a 1:13.77. He has fallen behind a bit from his time yesterday...

1403: Glen Dell takes the track and makes two errors. He gets four seconds in penalties and sets a 1:18.87! Not good for the South African since it seemed like he had turned a corner in San Diego...

1345: With about 15 minutes to go until the Top 12, the pilots advancing from the Wild Card are Glen Dell and Sergey Rakhmanin. They will join Pete McLeod, Alejandro Maclean, Michael Goulian, Mike Mangold, Nigel Lamb, Hannes Arch, Matt Hall, Nicolas Ivanoff, Paul Bonhomme and Kirby Chambliss.

Can South African Dell make it two races in a row with points? Find out in 15 minutes!

1309: Sergey Rakhmanin has just done his run and it looks like he was putting effort into it considering the fact that he is guaranteed a spot in the Top 12. He puts in a time of 1:12.32 with no penalties. Him and Dell will advance to the Top 12 and a chance for points.

The Top 12 will begin at 1400 so stay tuned!

1306: Matthias Dolderer came into the track, looked to be a little shaky but oh no! The German in the last gate of the chicane on the final lap pointed the nose of his Edge 540 downwards and as a result, got a DQ. Had he not done that, he would've gotten a 1:15.69 with a two-second penalty for flying too high. A shame for the German, he'll be taking an early bath today. This guarantees Dell and Rakhmanin into the Top 12 round.

1303: Glen Dell was the first to go and posted a much better time of 1:14.73 with no penalties. He was rollercoastering a bit but a lot more disciplined flying from the South African.

1250: With about 10 minutes until Glen Dell gets us started, the crowds are getting settled in. With a view of Detroit, the stands have been packed for the last hour and a bit. The pylons are up and the water in the river appears to be a little choppy, but it shouldn't be as bad. The commentators say to not expect the same times as yesterday because with the nice weather, the air will be a little thinner hence the planes will go a little slower...

1215: The opening ceremonies have just ended. The Canadian and American national anthems have been played and there are plenty of sideshows taking place right now. The RB105 has just flown through and the Detroit River is now closed for the Red Bull Air Race...

1155: Just interviewed for a local Windsor sports radio station AM 800 and hopefully a recording will be available.

1113: Welcome to the third round of the Red Bull Air Race. The Wild Card will be starting in less than two hours. Only three pilots for the wild card because of the absence of Besenyei and Muroya.

Going up will be Glen Dell, Matthias Dolderer, and Sergey Rakhmanin. The weather today is beautiful and sunny and warm. No rain, few clouds and a good day overall.

Even with two pilots not being able to compete today—Peter Besenyei for damaging his MXS and Yoshi Muroya as a precaution—the day's events at the Red Bull Air Race in Windsor were not boring.

With Kirby Chambliss setting the pace in the final practice on Friday, it looked like the American had put himself into contention for the title one year after taking his first win in two seasons in the same locale, except it was on the other side of the Detroit River.

He did not disappoint. After being about 0.22 of a second slower than Briton Paul Bonhomme in the first qualifying round, the American came back in the second round for the final flight of the day and was a stunning 1.25 seconds faster than Bonhomme!

After being told of setting the fastest time, Chambliss responded, "I'll take that point!" And indeed, with one championship point won, the American has broken Hannes Arch's dominance in that area.

In the rest of the field, Matt Hall continues to impress his fellow pilots after setting not one, but two clean times in his MXS. The former RAAF pilot has been under the guidance of former Mike Mangold technician Dennis Sawyer and so far has been very disciplined. Hall qualified fourth today after posting a pretty fast time of 1:10.33.

Defending world champion Hannes Arch made a rare mistake in the second session of qualifying, and uttered "firetruck" while missing a couple of middle letters! The Austrian's time in the first qualifier stood and he qualified fifth behind Hall.

Michael Goulian has finally made it into the top 10 after a dismal first two races. He qualified eighth overall. But in his second run, after pulling a reasonably quick time to make it into the top five, he pipped the start/finish gate and tacked six seconds onto to his time.

Further down the field, the Canadian Pete McLeod has been getting a lot of hometown support. As he flew into the track, the crowds were cheering loudly after McLeod flew a slow first round in qualifying. The cheers became deafening when McLeod came in the second round and made it into alien territory: a top 10 position!

With the race taking place on the border of two countries, the crowds on both sides of the Detroit River were satisfied—with an experienced American winning the qualifying session and a Canadian making it into the top 10.

Windsor Qualifying After Two Rounds

1. Kirby Chambliss; USA (Edge 540) - 1:07.95
2. Paul Bonhomme; GBR (Edge 540) - 1:09.21 (+1.26)
3. Nicolas Ivanoff; FRA (Edge 540) - 1:09.50 (+1.55)
4. Matt Hall; AUS (MXS) - 1:10.33 (+2.38)
5. Hannes Arch; AUT (Edge 540) - 1:10.47 (+2.52)
6. Nigel Lamb; GBR (MXS) - 1:10.80 (+2.85)
7. Mike Mangold; USA (Edge 540) - 1:12.04 (+4.09)
8. Michael Goulian; USA (Edge 540) - 1:12.06 (+4.11)
9. Alejandro Maclean; ESP (MXS) - 1:12.07 (+4.12)
10. Pete McLeod; CAN (Edge 540) - 1:13.24 (+5.29)
11. Sergey Rakhmanin; RUS (MXS) - 1:14.15 (+6.20)
12. Matthias Dolderer; GER (Edge 540) - 1:15.73 (+7.78)
13. Glen Dell; RSA (Edge 540) - 1:16.69 (+8.74)
14. Yoshi Muroya; JPN (Edge 540) - DNS
15. Peter Besenyei; HUN (MXS) - DNS

Yoshi Muroya and Peter Besenyei did not compete because the former had hit a pylon and there were some issues with his aircraft while the latter had an emergency landing after his engine lost oil pressure. As a result, the competition for the wild card will consist only of Rakhmanin, Dolderer and Dell.

Stay tuned tomorrow as another play-by-play will take place right here on Bleacher Report.