NEW YORK - Paul Bonhomme will be savouring his thrilling victory in New York all summer in the run-up to the next race in Germany and not only because it was the first-ever race in the Big Apple, the biggest stage in the history of the world’s fastest growing motorsport.
As Bonhomme said in an interview on Fox News: “It’s great fun that New York had us. But I’d been trying to put New York, New Jersey and Liberty State Park out of my mind all week. Yet right after the race, I looked down at it all and thought: ‘This is pretty cool’.”
The defending champion from Britain, who became New York’s newest celebrity thanks to the thumping victory and subsequent TV appearances, went into the spectacular race with 2008 champion Hannes Arch breathing down his neck. But Bonhomme managed to stave off the hard-charging challenger and end the Austrian’s three-race winning streak with a clutch performance in front of 120,000 fans watching from the banks of the Hudson River.
Bonhomme, eager to become the first pilot to win back-to-back championships, opened a five-point lead at the top of the table with his win in New York. But he knows it will be difficult to hold off Arch during the three-stop European leg of the eight-race World Championship, starting with the race on the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany on 7/8 August.
The race on the motorsport track between Berlin and Dresden will be a homecoming for Germany's Matthias Dolderer, who will be looking to shake off the disappointment of 10th place in New York.
Yet Bonhomme, who has won two of the five races so far this season, will have a hard time staying in front of Arch because he knows the Austrian’s Edge 540 V3 is probably faster than his. Arch would have beaten the British ace again in New York, after taking the previous three straight races in Perth, Rio and Windsor to cut the gap to 1 point and would have moved into first place if he had not picked up a six-second penalty for hitting a pylon in the Final 4.
"We mustn't relax now,” said Bonhomme, who gave up the championship lead at the midway point in 2008 but then in 2009 came from behind to beat Arch. “We saw it happen last year and the year before. We had a midseason break and it's very easy to relax too much. And then you go into the start of the second half a little bit too relaxed. So we've had a pep talk about that already."
Bonhomme has now been on the podium in a record 12 straight races, six of those he won. He would like that streak to continue to a "lucky 13" in Germany, which will be the 50th Red Bull Air Race since it was created in 2003.
Arch, who is clearly enjoying stalking Bonhomme this year more than he did last year when the Brit put pressure on him from behind, said that he was pleased to see that he was faster than Bonhomme in New York and is confident he can still erase the Brit’s five-point lead.
“I would have been fast enough to beat him,” said Arch, who knows he still has plenty of time to catch Bonhomme with three races left in Europe. Arch said of the pylon hit that cost him the win in New York: “It was just a couple of centimetres. I’d rather lose going for it, I’d rather lose in style.”
American Kirby Chambliss, who got his second straight podium with third place in New York and is fourth overall, and Britain’s Nigel Lamb, who is in third place overall, will also be looking to cut the gap to the top in Germany. The EuroSpeedway Lausitz is one of the most modern test and race courses in Europe. It was opened in August 2000 and will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in conjunction with the Red Bull Air Race on 7/8 August.
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