The air around the Corniche bursts into a hurricane of smoke and noise. Is it a pigeon on fire? Is it a plane? Well, yes, it’s a plane (burning pigeons don’t make that kind of a hullabaloo). To be precise, it’s 15 planes fighting it out over two days for the privilege of winning the opening round of the Red Bull Air Race, 2009. The race is on, but as last year’s winner Hannes Arch admits, the outcome is far from certain.
Like the slopes of his native Austria, the reigning champion retains a certain cool – the man practically sweats liquid nitrogen. Having begun his career as a test pilot for hang-gliders, the inscrutable Austrian previously earned his crust as a professional B.A.S.E jumper. Our squeak of admiration is navigated expertly, like an awkward race gate, followed by a blasé description of the financial realities of getting sponsorship.
Arch has the terse sensibility of a man unhappy when not risking life and limb. Amongst his most eye-watering exploits, he has scaled the west ridge of the Eiger before leaping (as you do) from its north face. He has also flown his winning Edge 540 plane under the Mozart Bridge of Salzburg. Danger is his middle name and death does his laundry on a Tuesday. According to the man himself, however, manouevring race gates at speeds of up to 370km/h and battling 12G’s of pressure is no more dangerous than driving a car.
‘Respect, accept and always stay grounded’ is his motto – somewhat ironic given that the man spends most of his time suspended above the ground, or plummeting towards it. But it’s something which has worked for the canny Hannes, who managed to do the unthinkable last year: in only his second season on the Red Bull circuit, he climbed ten places up the rankings to finish as Top Gun. By his own reckoning, ‘it was completely unexpected,’ beating his rival, mentor and many people’s tip to take the title this year, British pilot Paul Bonhomme, into second place.
Speaking to the defending champ, it is clear that the will to compete is still strong. The icy Austrian started his fitness programme (‘vital to maintain focus,’ he explains) in Salzburg back in January. He even has a sports psychologist, ‘because that’s what professional athletes do.’ He is gallant enough to narrow his closest challengers down to about half the field, including Britain’s Nigel Lamb, France’s Nicolas Ivanoff, and perennial favourites Kirby Chambliss and Bonhomme, but it is clear that he won’t have it all his own way this year.
One of the outcomes of Arch’s unexpected success has been that it has paved the way for a number of new faces in a field which traditionally veers more towards ‘experience’. Four rookie pilots have made the cut this year, including Matt Hall, Yoshide Muroya, Matthias Dolderer and the youngest ever Red Bull Air Race pilot, Canadian Pete Mcleod.
The Lewis Hamilton of the air race circuit, Mcleod was practically bred for flying. The latest in three generations of pilots, at 25, he is more than half the age of the likes of Air Race regulars Nigel Lamb and Peter Benseyei. The confident youngster is banking on this to surprise his erstwhile, more experienced competitors, but is humble enough to admit that he doesn’t expect to repeat Arch’s sudden success.
‘Things are very competitive now, and fractions of a second count. In the past, that fraction of a second could be the result of a tip a veteran gave to a rookie. But if they do give tips, I’m certainly not going to believe everything,’ he says.
Camaraderie aside, Arch’s sudden rise will have made those old-hands more reticent above divulging time-worn hints and techniques. But Mcleod has been flying aerobatics since he was 16 and earned his pilot’s license before he even learnt to drive. His father taught him the basics and he gained his wings at airshow freestyle competitions across North America, eventually becoming an instructor aged just 18. ‘I’d like to prove to any critics that I’m ready,’ he says. Whether he is or not will be witnessed above the sands of the Corniche this month.
Either way, as the modifications get their final tweak and the pilots button up their leather flight jackets, the fifth Red Bull Air Race looks to be another thriller. Visitors will even get the chance to meet the pilots and see their planes up close at the Public Pit Walk along Mina Zayed on Qualifying Day (April 17). But as the excitement builds, it’s enough to make even a daredevil tremble – no matter what they say.
The history boys…
Air racing has a legacy stemming back to the turn of the twentieth century, when in Reims, in 1909, the first Grand Week of the Champagne brought all the glamour, celebs, pilots (and presumably Champagne) that pre-war France could offer. From 1913 to the early ‘30s, the seaplane-orientated Schneider Trophy shaped the look of the fighter planes to come in WWII, and from the ‘20s onwards, the U.S. saw the birth of the National Air Meets, where stunt and aerobatic acts became commonplace.
Later, this developed into American Formula One racing, which found fame in Europe in the ‘70s, and eventually inspired the obstacle course-based Red Bull Air Race, begun in 2003.
The Red Bull Air Race takes place on Abu Dhabi’s Corniche from April 17-18
