3729

Besenyei wins wild west Red Bull Air RacePeter Besenyei (Team Red Bull) beat Paul Bonhomme (Team Matador) 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. Besenyei completed his flawless run at speeds up to 250 mph and forces of up to 10G through the spectacular eight 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, … Continue reading Besenyei tames wild west of Monument Valley

Hot off of his performance in Rio, Paul Bonhomme is yet again the man to beat after Friday’s Qualification round, edging out Peter Besenyei by .90 seconds and Kirby Chambliss by 1.85 seconds. My friend Mike Goulian had an unfortunate mechanical error with his airspeed indicator, which only allowed him to make one pass in qualification. Here is what he said about it: “Unfortunately it wasn’t problem of my own doing. The air speed indicator wasn’t working. For some reason they decided not to let us do the first run. So all my job was to make sure I was … Continue reading Bonhomme takes lead yet again

This is a reprint of Thursday’s RBAR Newsletter:Besenyei rides western fairy tale Peter Besenyei (Team Red Bull) of Hungary set the pace in Thursday’s training ahead of Friday’s qualifying session for the Red Bull Air Race World Series at Monument Valley, completing a difficult course against the breathtaking western scenery ahead of championship leader Paul Bonhomme of Britain (Team Matador) and 2005 champion Mike Mangold of the United States (Team Cobra). Beseneyei, who won the season opener at Abu Dhabi, is in third in the standings behind Bonhomme and Mangold and said he was quickly adapting to the thin air, … Continue reading Besenyei sets the pace

Courtesy of my good friend Mike Shore who is on location in Monument Valley this week, here are a few pictures of yesterday’s practice sessions!

Images courtesy of Jörg Mitter (Red Bull). It appears that the original runway has been widened and extended. Have a look at this satellite imagery (courtesy of Google Maps) where you can see the original strip was partially pavement and dirt.

Red Bull Air Racer Frank Versteegh has the very first images from Monument Valley posted today!  There are only three of them so far, but it is a small taste of the beautiful imagery that is sure to come later in the week.  Be sure to read Frank’s weblog for daily reports of activities.

All the racers are now in Monument Valley preparing for the race in 4 days. Be sure to stay tuned to polypoke for the latest news and photos as the preparatation unfolds!

This was not Kirby’s day – first he hits a gate during the race, and then he has this unfortunate incident at the airport.

I’ve had a few inquiries regarding how to get tickets for Monument Valley, so I thought that I would post the direct link to it here. Buy Monument Valley Tickets! Here is a flyer for the event in PDF format.

Top qualifier Paul Bonhomme managed to edge out the competition taking the podium as the winner of today’s finals.  A crowd of over 500,000 people gathered to watch the race. Alex Maclean took 2nd and Mike Mangold took 3rd. World Series Standings 1 Paul Bonhomme Matador GBR Edge 540 10 2 Mike Mangold Cobra USA Edge 540 9 3 Peter Besenyei Red Bull HUN Edge 540 8 4 Alejandro Maclean MRT ESP Edge 540 5 5 Kirby Chambliss Red Bull USA Edge 540 4 6 Hannes Arch Cobra AUT Edge 540 3 7 Steve Jones Matador GBR Edge 540 2 8 … Continue reading Bonhomme takes win!