WINDSOR, Ontario - Britain’s Paul Bonhomme posted the fastest time in the final training session in Windsor on Friday ahead of the weekend’s race in challenging conditions over the Detroit River while four rivals, including American Kirby Chambliss, were only fractions of a second behind. Austria’s Hannes Arch suffered a massive pylon strike in the Friday morning session that caused slight damage to his plane.
Bonhomme stopped the clock in 1:11.28 in the final training session, which was 0.55 ahead of compatriot Nigel Lamb and less than a second faster than Australia’s Matt Hall (3rd) and Chambliss (4th). Canada’s Pete McLeod struggled to find the best line in the track that straddles the Canada-U.S. border. Strong winds from the south made the track difficult; four pilots were disqualified in the final session before Saturday’s Qualifying and Sunday’s race. Arch managed to bounce back from his disqualification in the morning with seventh place in the afternoon training session.
"That was a good run,” Bonhomme said, happy to eclipse Lamb after his compatriot had beaten him by 0.87 seconds in the morning session in calmer conditions. “The winds got up. Windsor's throwing some surprises at us. We've yet to have a run in the same wind conditions as the previous run. And it was fairly bumpy as well. I'm pleased with that time. It’s going to be a good competition.”
Lamb, searching for his first career victory after getting second place in the last race in Rio de Janeiro, said the stronger afternoon winds changed everything. “The track is a lot more difficult, the wind is jumping around everywhere, causing turbulence and the warmer temperatures have slowed the track down. There are a lot of us within a second of each other, but that's what makes it an interesting race."
Hall, also eager to get his first career win after getting second in Perth, has been unusually aggressive in the training sessions in Windsor, scrapping his previous conservative strategy of starting slowly and rallying on race day. “I’m happy I’m third fastest but I wasn’t very happy with the flight,” he said. “It was a pretty scrappy flight. The winds from the south in this track are always challenging. I think I can definitely get faster. If I can knock a second off, that puts me in first place.”
It was a day of mixed results for the two Americans, Chambliss and Michael Goulian. Chambliss, who took third in the morning session and fourth in the afternoon, won the Qualifying point here a year ago and also was first in 2008 when the race was based in Detroit. Goulian could do no better than 12th in the final training run.
The pilots tend to use the first two training sessions to get an initial look at the track, test their racing lines and get a feel for the wind conditions. They only use the timings in the early sessions as a rough indication of where they stand before opening up the throttle in the final session, Training 4, that precedes the Qualifying, where one championship point is awarded to the fastest qualifier.
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