SALZBURG, Austria – German rookie Matthias Dolderer said a combination of a red-hot engine, enthusiastic fan backing and lady luck was behind his surprising rise to fifth place at the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest. Dolderer, who used the newly tuned engine to record one strong training run after another before the race, also beat Australia’s high-flying rookie Matt Hall for the first time in his career in Budapest and the German will be looking to repeat the feat at the next race in Porto and Gaia on 12/13 September.
“We were able to reduce the plane’s weight by about 15 kg before the Budapest race and did some tuning to the engine,” said Dolderer, who collected seven championship points with fifth in Budapest to raise his season total to eight and move far in front of two other rival rookies – Yoshi Muroya of Japan and Pete McLeod of Canada. “It was great to get fifth place in my fourth race. But I got fourth in Qualifying the day before and it would have been even better to have been able to repeat that again in the race.”
Dolderer, 38, got off to a solid start in his rookie year with one point for 11th place in his first race in Abu Dhabi but was shut out of the next two races in San Diego and Windsor -- with an unlucky 13th place in both those races. But his fortune changed dramatically in Budapest – possibly helped by the appearance of a new assistant dispatched by his sponsor, Playboy. Alena Gerber, the Oktober 2008 Playmate of the Month, came with a charter flight full of Dolderer fans from Germany and helped the crew of the German ace at the Red Bull Air Race airport. But Gerber, wearing an eye-catching combination Playmate outfit/flight suit overalls, did more than just help push Dolderer’s plane on and off the tarmac.
“She’s very good looking and I thought she could distract some of the other guys,” Dolderer said with a mischievious grin. “In any event she brought me good luck.”
He said the modifications to his engine worked extremely well. “It’s essential for a good performance,” he said. “As soon as you’ve got a good engine you can fly up at the top of the pack. The engine made a huge difference. It was important to get the plane in top shape in the break and that’s exactly what we did. We’ve seen that as long as I do a decent job we’ve got the equipment now to compete near the top.”
Dolderer admitted that beating Hall, the Australian rookie whose record-breaking accomplishments this season have eclipsed the other three rookies a bit, was especially satisfying in Budapest. “It’s a super feeling.”
Dolderer said the support from 148 German fans who came to Budapest in a special charter flight from his home town of Tannheim was also a big help.
“It’s a good feeling to have a lot of fans cheering for me, friends and family,” said Dolderer, who added he would like to organise a special fan charter at more races in the future. “On the one hand there’s a bit more pressure but on the other hand it was actually more relaxing for me. There were so many people there for me.”
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