From Red Bull
When Australia’s Matt Hall got the “smoke on” command from the Red Bull Air Race tower on Thursday afternoon just before starting his final training run before the weekend’s 2009 season opener, current and former world champions -- and pretty much everyone else in the hangars at the temporary runway -- stopped what they were doing to get a closer look on their TV monitors at the hot new rookie who’s been causing a stir in Abu Dhabi. Shattering the notion that rookies are confined to the bottom of the time sheets -- especially in their first race weekend -- the former Royal Air Force fighter pilot has thrown conventional wisdom out the wisdom with a sterling start. And you didn’t have to be a trained lip-reader to see the concern written all over the faces of many veterans when Hall aced his final triaing run. In fact, he posted a faster training time than world champs Hannes Arch (2008) and Mike Mangold (2005 and 2007) and outclassed five other veterans to take a sensational fifth place in the final run before Friday’s Qualifying.
“I think it went reasonably well today,” said Hall, still sweating after the high-speed, high-g run through the Abu Dhabi track. “That was the first time I felt that I had done enough in training. So I just went out and flew my own race the way I wanted to fly. And it seemed to go well. The plane’s fast so I’m finally starting to catch up with it.”
Hall has been taken a methodical approach to the race in his first season, where he is one of four rookies and 15 pilots in the largest field ever. In the first training session on Wednesday morning he did not even bother to fly through the whole track at least once, like most pilots, but instead spent the entire five minute session focussing on repeatedly flying through the chicane and two subsequent turns that he figured would be the most problematic part of the course set up just above the turquoise waters of the Arabian Gulf. In the afternoon, Hall then went through the whole track for the first time and jumped up to 10th place – ahead of “graybeards” Peter Besenyei and Glen Dell.
“There were a few parts of the track that concerned just looking at it, but I managed to figure out a way to go through that,” said Hall, a decorated fighter pilot during his 18-year career in the Royal Australian Air Force who also flew combat missions with U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003.
Told that the race veterans had all dropped their tools to gather around their video monitors to watch his flight, Hall laughed: “Is that right? They’re probably worried about me – worried about my safety!” He said he takes no special satisfaction in finishing higher than veterans, which in the past was unheard of for a newcomer in the world’s most exciting aerial motorsport. “I’m just concentrating on improving myself. If they’re watching me, that’s good. It means that hopefully they’ll give me some advice.”
Hall said tips from the more experienced pilots have suddenly begun to dry up in recent days as the buzz about his performance grew. They all remember how quickly Arch, a rookie in 2007, benefited from their benevolent advice and turned around and beat them all to win the championship in 2008. “Not anymore,” said Hall when asked if he was still getting tips. “They were until a couple of days ago. The good thing is that they’re complimenting my flying. But I think they’re not worried too much about me. I’m just a rookie.”
Last edited by Mick.B; 18th Apr 2009 at 05:14.