Reunion with gate 5

Peter Besenyei is coming home – in soaring form but with queasy memories. Budapest is the most spectacular, most exciting race in the Air Race World Series calendar. For its great hero, it’s the toughest.

Budapest is to the Red Bull Air Race World Series what Monaco is to the Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wimbledon to the tennis tournament or Kitzbühel to the World Cup downhill. The seventh of the annual ten races is the shimmering highlight of the season – in the city of 1.8 million, 1.3 spectators cheered the race the year before.

Lost World Championship

However the cheering wasn’t continuous, that is to say, momentarily it died a little. For Peter Besenyei did something that Peter Besenyei in his capacity as Hungarian national hero normally wouldn’t do: he made a mistake. Besenyei touched gate 5 – disqualification, zero points. “In Budapest I lost the World Championship,” he would say later – in Budapest, of all places, for him the most important but also most difficult race of the year – where the pressure of fans’ expectations is huge.

Seven points in four races

Besenyei is currently lurking at third place in the Air Race World Series overall standings with 24 points. The Brit Paul Bonhomme is leading, ahead of American Mike Mangold. Besenyei – in the season up to now, came first twice, third twice, fifth twice – will in fact have to win in his home city in order to keep his chances for an overall win alive. The winner of an Air Race receives six championship points, the sixth still gets one; a point system that keeps the WC exciting – but makes it hard for the chasers to make up ground. Besenyei only has the opportunity to catch up the seven points deficit in Budapest, Porto, San Diego and Perth.

No victory over the Danube

Besenyei has already had the feeling of victory in Budapest: in 2003 he won the first Air Race that took place in his hometown. Back then, though, the race wasn’t flown over the Danube in the middle of the city, but on the airfield of Tököl, which was atmospherically pragmatic in comparison, in comparatively intimate surroundings. At that time there weren’t over one million spectators but only a few hundred thousand. The Red Bull Air Race World Series has existed since 2004. In the same year the race in Budapest was moved in front of the unbelievable setting of the historical ancient city, the parliament, the seven-figure spectator figures.

Start and finish as a tribute to the national hero

The start and finish of the race is traditionally marked by the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, which is supposed to be flown through. One could see this as a tribute to Besenyei: a not so insignificant part of his fame is due to having been the first person to fly through the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in 2001, upside down, what’s more. Photos of the feat flew around the world.

Chambliss – Mangold – Jones – ???

In 2004 Kirby Chambliss won the race over the Danube; in 2005 it was Mike Mangold, the year before Steve Jones. The British titleholder will indeed arrive in Budapest as a glaring outsider; he hasn’t made it onto the podium in any race this year. The top favorite is Mike Mangold, who won two of the last three races ahead of WC leader Paul Bonhomme, who opened the season in Abu Dhabi in third place – and then “flew up” to the positions 1, 2, 2, 1 and 2.