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Red Bull Championship Budapes July 1-2, 2017
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| Location: Budapes, Duna river bank |
| Admission: Free and variety of ticket tickets, the cost of the most expensive being 1000 EUR |
| Parking: Use the excellent public transit! |
| Value: Outstanding |
| Rating out of 10: 10 |
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Péter Besenyei at the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest |
| The Red Bull Flying Championships continued in Budapest on July 1-2, 2017. In the Master series there were Hungarian pilot since Péter Besenyei's retirement. However, Peter did perform an aerial demonstration to thousand of cheering crowds along the banks of the River Duna (Dunabe for those who do not know how itis spelled in Hungarian. Budapest was the forth race for 2017 in the Red Bull Air Race series., which will end in Indianapolis. |
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Event locations
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| The contestants flew two types of aircraft: The EDGE 540 is designed by the American Zivko Aeronautics, with the Lycoming Thunderbolt AEIO-540-EXP engine and the Harzell Tri-Axle Propeller. The pilots flew either the V2 and V3 versions of the aircraft. The other type is the MXS-R, made of of composite the so called "EGDE-killer" Only one pilot flew this aircraft Mikael Brageot of France. The fate of the MXS-R is somewhat similar to the Corvus Racer 540, which is a nice aerobatics aircraft but not quite upto the Red Bull Racing requirements in performance. Péter Besenyei flew the Corvus Racer 540, in his demo flight |
| The Challenger series pilots flew the older Extra 300LX aircraft, which were a few years ago were used by the "TOP" pilots. Their aerobatic skills were spectacular. |
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| The famous Chain Bridge in Budapest |
The races were held on Saturday and Sunday: the START line was by flying under the famous Chain Bridge. In addition to the race, the Flying Bulls show was featured with B-25J Mitchell two engined bomber, F8U Corsair fighter and T-28 Trojan powered piston aircraft, as well as two Alpha jet planes. Bo-105 helicopter performed a spectacular show.
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Race results: |
Kirby Chambliss turned back the clock today in Budapest by putting in a fantastic performance and claiming his first victory since the London race in 2008.
Going first in any flight session isn't easy, but Chambliss bucked that trend. He was first into the track of the Final 4 and laid down a time of 1:00.632, the second fastest time of the day.
The Canadian Pete McLeod followed after Chambliss and was looking good. He was quicker at the first three spilt times, but a slight mistake cost him and he ended up crossing the finish line 0.108s behind the American. Although this was enough to see him finish second.
Third into the track was Martin Sonka. Sonka had set the track record earlier in the week and on his run was on track to be the only pilot to get under one minute today. However, at Gate 18 he was given a two second penalty for climbing in the Gate and that saw him drop from first to fourth.
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| Championship leader, Muroya had the advantage of flying last and knew exactly what he needed to do. But he just seemed unable to push his raceplane as hard as he would've liked. He flew cleanly, which was enough to see him on the podium, but only in third. |
After the race Chambliss said: "I love Budapest. I have to thank my team, it's not a one person effort, I can't thank them enough. I'm super stoked. Winning is easy when you're winning, it's not when you're not."
It's still tight at the top of the World Championship standings, with Muroya just two points ahead of Sonka. Today's results also sees Pete McLeod move up to third and Chambliss up to fourth. Current World Champion, Matthias Dolderer has dropped to sixth.
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| Report and photography by Istvan Kelecsenyi for |
