LOOP News

6 SEP 06: BLOWN OUT AT LONGLEAT

UK round of Red Bull air race cancelled but Brit pilot takes the lead

THOUSANDS of air race fans were left disappointed at the weekend after organisers cancelled the event due to bad weather.

The Air Race safety committee made the decision based on continued weather reports of strong winds making it too dangerous to fly. The forecast for race day had always looked bad, despite a great spell of weather during the training and qualification flights leading up to the event. It now means that the qualification results from the Friday stand as the official results for the Longleat Air Race, meaning British pilot Paul Bonhomme took victory over Hungarian Peter Besenyei (HUN) and American Kirby Chambliss (USA).

Since taking delivery of an Edge 540, Bonhomme has shown he is a force to be reckoned with especially in a competition that has been largely dominated by Americans Kirby Chambliss and Mike Mangold, and Hungarian star Peter Besenyei. In the past two races in Budapest and Istanbul he finished second.
After the Thursday's two training flights, Bonhomme and American opponent Mike Mangold initially led the pack and set the scene for a neck-and-neck battle between Brits and Americans if the event had gone ahead.

But it was in qualification, that Bonhomme's flying skill came through as he finished an incredible four seconds faster than his rivals, Peter Besenyei and current leader Kirby Chambliss. Races are usually won by just fraction of a second. This marks Bonhomme's first ever Air Race victory but it didn't come as he expected. He told LOOP: "It's such a shame the race couldn't take place but it would have been _impossible under these weather conditions", said Bonhomme today, "I'd rather _have won it on the day but we've still got San Francisco and Perth so I'll _try my best to win there too".

Unfortunately, Bonhomme's compatriot Steve Jones, was disqualified during the qualification runs after deviating from the course. It came as a huge disappointment after he won the last race in Budapest, flying _his new Edge 540 for the first time.

The results mean that Kirby Chambliss still leads the World Series with 28 points. He is followed by Mike Mangold and Peter Besenyei both on 24 points. Bonhomme follows in fourth with 17 points.
Read LOOP's flight test of Bonhomme's Edge 540 on page 31.

WHY WAS IT CANCELLED?

LONGLEAT is the second race this year that has been cancelled. The first one was in St Petersburg after authorities refused to give permission for the race to go ahead.

The reasoning for the cancellation at Longleat is because pilots had to contend with different conditions to usual. All of the other races, with the exception of Berlin, have been flown over water but at Longleat the challenges are a bit different. "It's very different", said American Mike Mangold "It's hilly terrain.

There are trees to fly around and lots of birds." It was because of the hilly terrain and trees that the organisers had to be so strict about wind limits. With winds reaching a dangerous 80 km/h and showers worsening throughout the day, conditions became too dangerous for pilots to fly the course.

According to Air Race safety regulations, wind speeds of more than 45 km/h surpass acceptable safety standards for the race and compromise pilot safety. A helicopter flew around the course several times to suss out the conditions but the turbulence and wind shear was too dangerous for the pilots to take to the air.

Local weather forecasts initially looked promising but an improvement at Longleat was never seen.
All spectators who purchased tickets for the event will be refunded the full amount.

SEEING RED

THE Red Bull Air Race team and Longleat said they regret any disappointment caused by the cancellation of the event due to the weather. Regardless of the bad weather, there were many left angry at the dis-organisation of the traffic routes in and out of Longleat.

Thousands were caught in a stream of slow moving cars trying to get into the event with many spending more than three hours almost at a standstill on roads surrounding Longleat. Sandie Everett, 45, who went along to watch the races for the first time said she felt the routes in and out hadn't been organised at all: "I'm surprised at the number of people who turned up in such bad weather.

It must be a major disappointment especially after the nightmare journey getting in here. Six hours to do what is normally a two hour drive is a bit extreme. The signposting was awful and there weren't enough officials controlling the traffic. I just think it should have been staged somewhere else."

A spokesperson for Red Bull told LOOP they'd be looking at Longleat again for whether they hold another race there next year: "We can't apologise enough. The traffic system worked last year but the problems this year were really due to the weather and the number of people. We feel we did as much as we could for the traffic on the day."

Qualifying results

Qualifying Times
Gap

1 Paul Bonhomme - Bonhomme, GBR
02:31.43
0

2 Peter Besenyei - Red Bull, HUN
02:35.39
3.96

3 Kirby Chambliss - Red Bull, USA
02:35.58
4.15

4 Mike Mangold - Mangold, USA
02:35.92
4.49

5 Michael Goulian - Goulian, USA
02:38.41
6.98

6 Nigel Lamb - Lamb, GBR
02:50.53
19.1

7 Alejandro Maclean - Maclean, ESP
02:50.89
19.46

8 Klaus Schrodt - bwin, GER
02:51.79
20.36

9 Nicolas Ivanoff - Hamilton, FRA
02:52.87
21.44

10 Frank Versteegh - Versteegh, NED
02:55.26
23.83

10 Steve Jones - Jones, GBR
Did not qualify

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6 SEP 06: BLOWN OUT AT LONGLEAT