Hall's Close Call; Arch Wins Red Bull Race

June 7, 2010 - Windsor, Ontario — Three is the number of sides on a triangle and the number of golf balls on the moon. But to Hannes Arch of Austria the number three means much more. Arch won his third straight Red Bull Air Race on Sunday in Windsor, bouncing back with a victory two days after suffering one of the worst pylon hits of his career. Britain's Paul Bonhomme took a close second, his 11th straight podium finish, while American Kirby Chambliss reached the podium for the first time this year with third place. With 100,000 people watching from Windsor and Detroit, Arch saved his best for last, shattering the track record with a time of 1:05.96 in the final. Bonhomme came close, leading after the first interval but couldn't keep up the pace and finished second in 1:06.59, 0.63 seconds behind Arch. Chambliss was 3.03 seconds behind the Austrian in 1:08.99 while Britain's Nigel Lamb was fourth in 1:13.34 after hitting a pylon in the final. Lamb also won the first qualifying point of his career during Saturday’s rounds. “I’m really happy to win the race after this difficult week,” Arch said. “The team stayed behind me all the way. We stayed calm and tried to fix our problems. You need to have a strong team and we’ve got that. I just let the others make mistakes. I’m elated right now.” Bonhomme, who is still leading the championship with 41 points to Arch’s 39, admitted he was disappointed to lose the race but pleased with his flying. “I don’t know about you guys but I think that was a brilliant afternoon of racing,” he said. “It was fantastic. Everyone raised their game. It was close for all of us. We’re sad we didn’t get the win, but it was a great race. It’s going to be exciting right down to the end of the season.” Saturday’s races also proved exciting when Matt Hall’s MXS-R plane touched the surface of the Detroit River, with his wings and right wheel splashing off the top of the water. The Australian quickly recovered and returned safely to the race airport in his damaged airplane. However, the damage made it impossible for him to race on Sunday. The former Royal Australian Air Force combat pilot said he was feeling fine after the incident, which he said was the Red Bull Air Race equivalent of “touching the wall” in Formula One. The next Red Bull Air Race will be held June 19-20 in New York.

Red Bull pilot Matt Hall was able to recover from impacting the water with his MXS-R during Saturday’s qualifying round. Hannes Arch of Austria is on his way to victory during the Final 4 on the Detroit River during the Red Bull Air Race Day on June 6 in Windsor, Canada. Photo credit: Hamish Blair / Getty Images for Red Bull Air Race

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