Hannes Arch wins World Championship title 2008
PERTH, Australia - Austria’s Hannes Arch clinched the Red Bull Air Race World Championship today with a dazzling first place finish in Qualifying for Sunday’s season finale in Perth that guarantees him at least eighth place and the minimum of one point he needs. Arch, who has an insurmountable 9-point lead over Britain’s Paul Bonhomme, is the first European to win the title and follows in the footsteps of two Americans who won the previous three Championships - Mike Mangold (2005, 2007) and Kirby Chambliss (2006). 35,000 fans turned out on a glorious sunny day in the Western Australian capital to catch the action with many watching from boats on the water.
Arch said he still wants to notch up his third win of the season on Sunday in Perth and add another 9 points to his total. Britain’s Nigel Lamb was a surprising second in Saturday’s Qualifying while Bonhomme posted the third fastest time. Outgoing champion Mike Mangold’s hopes of moving up from fourth to second overall this year were dashed when the American was eliminated from Sunday’s finals, finishing 9th in Qualifying.
“It feels really good,” said Arch, who opened his throttle in the second Qualifying run to post a track record time of 1:14.05. “We had the right tactics, a super fast plane and all the hard work paid off. I’ll do a lot of celebrating after the race. This is just a little warm-up. I’ve got a competitive nature and I want to win Perth and will go all out for it. The fast time in Qualifying makes me even more motivated to win this race.”
"I'm proud to be an Austrian"
Immediately upon landing at the Red Bull Air Race Runway Arch performed a series of spinning manoeuvres with his plane on the grass with the race’s trademark smoke billowing from behind. He emerged from his Edge 540 waving an Austrian flag. “I’m proud to be an Austrian,” he later explained. Arch was greeted by a swarm of fans and his race team, all wearing t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Red Bull Air Race World Champion 2008’ on the back. Cracking open the champagne, an ecstatic Arch declared he was already looking forward to 2009.
“There will be a lot of pressure on me to defend the title,” Arch said, noting he was especially pleased that all 11 pilots had congratulated him ahead of Sunday’s finale. “A lot of people have come up to congratulate me but the ones I got from the other pilots mean the most. I knew I had it in the bag after the first Qualifying so I was relaxed and let it all hang out in the second run. It was easily the most enjoyable run I’ve ever had. I knew if I made a mistake it wouldn’t matter anymore.”
Arch, who has 54 points, has had two wins in the seven races so far this season and has been the most consistent pilot with podium finishes in six races. In only his second season in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, Arch passed Bonhomme (45 points) in the penultimate race in Porto and never looked back. Bonhomme, who had dominated the first half of the season with three wins in four races, only managed to land on the podium in one of the last three races.
Bonhomme is nevertheless locked in a tense two-way battle against Chambliss (44 points) for second place overall in 2008 that will be decided on Sunday. Bonhomme, with 7 career wins, could also equal Mangold’s 8 wins as the most victorious World Championship pilot. There is also an intriguing battle on Sunday shaping up for 5th place between Hungary’s Peter Besenyei and Britain’s Steve Jones. Besenyei, who holds a 2-point lead over Jones, was 4th in Qualifying while the Brit was 5th.
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