Red Bull Launches 2009 Season in April

February 10, 2009 — Fifteen of the world’s top race pilots, including four rookies, will compete in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in 2009, which will touch down in six locations beginning with the season opener in Abu Dhabi on April 17-18.   The competition then moves to North America for races in San Diego, California and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, before heading to Europe for stops in Budapest, Porto, and Barcelona. Flying at speeds reaching 230 mph and pulling up to 12 G’s, the pilots will navigate unique and demanding racetracks, negotiating their way through inflatable air gates. Austrian Hannes Arch, who became the first European to win the championship last year, will defend his title against a group of pilots who have all been busy honing their skills in the off-season and working on improvements to their planes. Four new pilots from four continents will be competing this year. At age 25, Canada’s Pete McLeod will be the youngest pilot ever in the high-speed, precision flying race. Other rookies include Japan’s Yoshihide Muroya, Australia’s Matt Hall and Germany’s Matthias Dolderer. Back from the United States will be Mike Mangold, Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian. Representing Great Britain is Paul Bomhomme and Nigel Lamb, while Peter Besenyei of Hungary, Alejandro Maclean of Spain, Nicholas Ivanoff of France, Sergey Rakhmanin of Russia and Glen Dell of South Africa complete the field. With an expanded 15-pilot roster, a new race format was created that includes a ‘wild card’ session to open race day. 2009 Race Calendar April 17-18 — Abu Dhabi, UAE May 9-10 —San Diego, USA June 13-14 — Windsor, Ontario, Canada August 19-20 — Budapest, Hungary September 12-13 — Porto, Portugal October 3-4 — Barcelona, Spain

Mike Goulian competes in the 2008 Red Bull race in Perth. He has been busy this off-season, installing a new Lycoming Thunderbolt IO-540 engine and fine tuning his Castrol Aviator Extra 330SC to make it faster and more nimble. Photo Credit: Mike Goulian Airshows Canada’s Pete McLeod will be one of four rookies joining in the Red Bull Air Race series in 2009. At 25, he is the youngest pilot to ever compete in the high-speed, precision flying race. Photo credit: Red Bull Hannes Arch emerged as the 2008 world champion, and he plans to fight to take the top spot in the 2009 competition, too. Photo credit: hannesarch.com

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