1 minRed Bull Air Race San Diego 2017 teaserRed Bull Air Race San Diego 2017 teaser
Watch
Sunny San Diego, California is laying out the welcome mat for the second stop of the Red Bull Air Race on April 15-16, the first time the World Championship has soared over the bay since a three-year stretch that ended in 2009.
The three North American pilots of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship – Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian of the USA and Pete McLeod of Canada – got a panoramic view of San Diego Bay including the USS Midway (see images below) ahead of the second stop of the 2017 season, a long-awaited return to 'America's Finest City'.
Eight years has seen tremendous technological advancements in racing through the Air Gates at 230mph (370kph) with forces up to 12G, and the raceplanes are more sleek and stunning than ever.
However, in the end it’s all in the hands of the pilots, and with the top of the leaderboard completely up for grabs, 14 of the world’s best will be flying full throttle.
Every team is acutely aware that the pilot who triumphs at the second race of the season can go on to win it all: that’s what happened last year when Germany’s Matthias Dolderer dominated the standings from race number two right through to his World Championship victory.
At this Feburary’s season opener in Abu Dhabi, Czech pilot Martin Šonka out-flew Dolderer and the rest of the field to claim his first race win, with Spain’s Juan Velarde clinching a career first of his own with second place.
Can Šonka or Velarde continue the momentum, or will Dolderer charge back?
And then there’s the motivation of a home race for Chambliss and Goulian – former World Champion Chambliss has two San Diego podiums to his name already.
“This is one to look forward to. It’s a fantastic venue, right in front of the city,” says Steve Jones, a former Red Bull Air Race pilot who is now its Race Director. “The track is very similar to Abu Dhabi in terms of manoeuvring turns. It’s going to be a great race.”
With your consent, this website shall use additional cookies (including third party cookies) or similar technologies to make our site work, for marketing purposes and to improve your online experience.
You can revoke your consent via the Cookie Settings in the footer of the website at any time. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy and in the Cookie Settings directly below.
Privacy Preference Center
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
Performance
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Third Party Content Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by third-party providers of third-party content that is embedded on our site. They may be used by those companies to load, display, or in other ways to enable you to use that content. As this third-party content is provided by autonomous companies on their own responsibility, those companies may also use these cookies for their own additional purposes, such as marketing. Please refer to the privacy policies of those companies for that information. If you do not allow these cookies, you will not be able to use this third-party content embedded on our site, such as videos, music, or maps.