BARCELONA, Spain – Britain’s Paul Bonhomme, the 2009 Red Bull Air Race World Champion, paid a heartfelt tribute to the hundreds of crew members on Monday at the annual end-of-season party while Japanese rookie Yoshi Muroya won a special prize at the good-natured celebrations in Barcelona’s popular “CDLC” nightclub – for most pylon hits in 2009.
“I reckon there are 15 guys who get to have fun in the race track while this wonderful lot of 400 is supplying the stage for us,” Bonhomme told the crew members after being toasted in a slightly off-key rendition of John Denver’s 1967 hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane” performed by a band made up of crew members formed just hours earlier.
“This all wouldn’t happen it if weren’t for the guys who sweep up, the guys who empty the bins, and the guys who make the cakes,” Bonhomme added. “It wouldn’t happen without the Air Gators, the barge people, the water ops, the Riedel guys, the technical guys, the catering crew, the logistics guys and the comms guys. It’s just brilliant. It’s what – 400 people? There’s 15 pilots having fun and the rest doing all the work.”
Bonhomme, who won the 2009 World Championship on Sunday after prevailing in a thrilling duel all season long with Austria’s Hannes Arch, said he had an inkling that there were many international crew members – even many Austrians – who were pulling for him as a sort of sentimental favourite after his two heart-breaking second place finishes in both 2007 and 2008.
“A lot of people have come up to me to say they’re pleased for me,” Bonhomme said. “It’s lovely.”
Arch was also lampooned by the newly formed band with an even more off-key version of Bob Marley's song "I Shot the Sheriff" ("But I didn't shoot no deputy") with lyrics "I hit the py-lon and didn't win no championship".
One distinction that Bonhomme failed to win this year, however, was the Air Gators' prize for fewest pylon hits. Even though Bonhomme had won that honour in past years, Hungary’s Peter Besenyei claimed that title this year for fewest hits: none.
“The Air Gators did an excellent job and it’s a really hard job,” said Besenyei. “I was just trying to make their job a little easier.”
Muroya, who said he hit about 50 pylons this year, joked that he hit so many pylons in his rookie year because: "I just wanted to test the plane and the pylon material”.
After collecting the trophy for most pylon hits, Muroya light-heartedly thanked former Red Bull Air Race Pilot Steve Jones, who had been tutuoring him this season and also known for spectacular pylon hits, with a humorous back-handed compliment. "This is thanks to Steve Jones -- I learned a lot from him," he said.
Muroya, who said he hopes there will be a first-ever race in Japan within the next two years, said the double-hit in the quadro in Barcelona in training on Friday was his favourite but added he will never forget his first pylon hit in Abu Dhabi (“it was like ‘bam’!”) at the start of the season. “Here in Barcelona it was one pylon right the other – bam-bam,” he said. “A piece of the pylon wouldn’t come off the plane so I flew back to the hangar with a piece hanging from the plane. I’ve kept it as a souvenir.”
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