(photo:May Nagoya)
Pilot Yoshihide Muroya claimed a second successive victory at the Red Bull Air Race World Championships 2017 held in Chiba this month.
The third event of this season's Red Bull Air Race World Championship took place at the waterfront Kaihin Seaside Park, Chiba on June 3 and 4. The 2017 edition saw Japanese pilot Yoshihide Muroya (室屋義秀) of Team Falken continue where he left off at the same stop in 2016, taking out his second successive event win in front of 90,000 spectators over the two days.
“Lucky” and “miracle” are words that Muroya repeated over the course of the post-event press conference to describe his win this time around. After June 2’s practice session was suspended due to strong winds, the next day’s qualifier saw Muroya labor to 4th place. During June 4’s round of 14 Muroya qualified for the next stage by a mere 0.007 seconds, what amounts to a distance of 70 cm with his form in Chiba a stark contrast to the brilliant way in which his took out the win at the previous championship event in San Diego, U.S.
"I didn't win by my own efforts alone.", a calm Muroya stated as he admitted to riding a certain amount of luck on his way to the championship win.
Victory puts Muroya at the top of the overall classification of the Master Class, after event stops in Abu Dhabi, San Diego and Chiba. Czech Republic’s Martin Sonka and Germany’s Matthias Dolderer lie in second and third place respectively.
Chiba was stop No. 3 out of eight for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2017. The next event will be held in Budapest, Hungary, July 1 - 2. The championship wraps up in October with the final event to be held in Indianapolis, United States.
Gallery
(photo:May Nagoya)
(photo:May Nagoya)
(photo:May Nagoya)
(photo:May Nagoya)
(photo:May Nagoya)
Support Performers
The event in Chiba continued the trend of an increasingly impressive selection of ‘support’ performers with Brazilian vert skating legend Sandro Dias among the names that appeared at this year’s edition.
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship sees the world’s top pilots push their aviation knowledge, mental capacity, and physical strength to the limits in aircraft that reach speeds of 370 kmph, with a g-force reaching 10 g. Pilots race against the clock to negotiate a course of “air gates” set at a height of 25 m. The event was first held in 2003 and started out as a World Championship in 2005. Contests were held annually up until 2010. Between 2011 and 2014 events were put on hold as authorities sought to re-evaluate safety regulations and competition rules. 2017 is the 10th season of the championship.
Red Bull Air Race official site
