PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - April 18, 2010) - Hannes Arch of Austria won the Red Bull Air Race on Sunday with Matt Hall of Australia getting a career-best second place in front of an enormous crowd of 140,000 watching from the banks of the Swan River in Perth, Australia. Championship leader Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain took third place.
Bonhomme retains the overall championship lead with 22 points after the first two races of the 2010 season. Nigel Lamb of Britain, who was fourth on Sunday, is in second place with 18 points. Arch jumps into third place overall with 14 points and Hall moves up to fourth, also with 14 points.
It was a thrill-filled final under brilliant blue skies with Hall starting out the Final 4 by laying down a fabulous time of 1:26.51, his best of the week. It was all the more astonishing considering the huge expectations from the home crowd, the biggest at a sporting event in Australia this year.
Another success story in Perth was Pete McLeod, who took a strong fifth place. It was also a career-best for the Canadian ace who had struggled at the bottom of the pack in his rookie season last year with a comparatively slow plane.
It was a disappointing race for Americans Michael Goulian and Kirby Chambliss who both anticipate new engines in Rio de Janeiro. Goulian, who was fourth in the season-opener last month in Abu Dhabi, could do no better than 11th place when he sliced open a pylon in the Top 12 round. Chambliss, who clinched his 2006 world championship here in Perth, was back in eighth place after a devastating 29th career "too high" two-second penalty in the Super 8 round.
"A new engine won't help me with that two-second penalty, and I can't blame the airplane," said Chambliss after his eighth place run. "I'm just disappointed that I did that."
Earlier in the week during the first training session of the Red Bull Air Race in Perth, Brazilian pilot, Adilson Kindlemann, was involved in an accident. While maneuvering his MXS-R race plane, approaching gate three in the middle of the race track, Kindlemann impacted the water with his wings level and tail first. Specially trained emergency response teams rushed to the scene and rescued Kindlemann as the aircraft floated in the water, in less than one minute. He was then transported to the Royal Perth Hospital where he was treated for a minor whiplash injury.
"I feel fine," Kindlemann said at the hospital, where he stayed overnight as a precautionary measure. "I've had X-rays and medicals and fortunately I'm 100 percent. The people who rescued me from the water are unbelievable. The water (rescue) training we had on Monday really prepared me for this."
The next race takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 8 and 9 before heading to North America with a race in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on June 5 and 6 before hitting the first US stop in New York City on June 19 and 20.
For more information about the sport, please visit www.redbullairrace.com, or to view each TV episode of the 2009 season, go to www.hulu.com/redbullairrace. For high resolution photos, B-roll, text and media credentials please visit www.redbullairrace.com/press.
Contact Information:
Press Information:
Maddy Stephens
Red Bull Communications
210.414.1904
maddy.stephens@us.redbull.com
