Looks like its been cancelled worldwide for next year pending drastic safety changes. May be back in 2011 but it all seems a bit up in the air.
Red Bull Air Race axed after safety concerns
LIAM PHILLIPS AND KATHERINE FENECH
July 29, 2010 - 11:46AM
The Red Bull Air Race has been cancelled worldwide, robbing Western Australia of its flagship tourism event.
Tourism WA has been informed that the organising body has axed all stages of the global event for 2011.
It is unclear if the race will have a future beyond next year, but the state's peak tourism body is already looking for a replacement event.
The Perth event's race director Drew Searle said the decision was taken by Red Bull two days ago, to allow for a "headquarters" restructure as well as the implementation of new safety measures.
Mr Searle said Red Bull was looking into "really exciting" safety measures being developed by their motorsports Formula One research and development team and didn't want to roll them out mid-season.
"We have a bunch of projects that are very close to fruition," Mr Searle said.
"What we don't want to do is have race pilots changing their whole aeroplane mid-season because that would be crazy, especially if you had 15 teams doing it at once."
He said the move would protect spectators and the assets of host cities and allow the "adequate amount of time to implement the safety changes".
Although he wouldn't elaborate on the changes, he said they would build on those used to rescue Brazilian pilot Adilson Kindlemann when his plane crashed into the Swan River while on a practice run in April.
Australian Red Bull pilot Matt Hall agreed safety concerns were probably behind the decision to pull the race next year as it had outgrown its current structure.
"Really it's just got almost to the point where it has got unmanageable, which was going to lead to safety problems," he told Radio 6PR.
"I have no idea what it means to Perth getting the race back."
Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi said the decision had nothing to do with the quality of the Perth race, which she said was held up by organisers as a model event.
"It seems as though there's a complete stop and review of the event worldwide," she told Radio 6PR.
Eventscorp, the agency charged with attracting big tourism events to WA, was key in establishing the race in Perth. Executive director David Van Ooren said next year's race would be missed.