Red Bull race at St Petersburg cancelled day before start - what happened ?
Am sat here in St Petersburg, Russia, having found that the Red Bull Air Race, due last Saturday 17 June with a practice the Friday before, had been cancelled on the Thursday afternoon. Huh !
There's only a bland statement about all this on the Red Bull website. Huge crowds were expected along the St Petersburg waterfront. The fares on BA from London for the weekend had skyrocketed up several weeks beforehand from the usual GBP 300 to nearer GBP 900 for the cheapest Y fare so there must have been a lot of traffic coming for it (fortunately local operator Pulkovo Airlines maintained their normal fares on their London flights).
It's all a shame. Sport aviation has little background in Russia and it would have been a great shopwindow. But who was difficult at the last minute, and why ?