Air Racing
5 reasons Red Bull Air Race is like no other sport
We reveal the 2016 Air Race event calendar and have Kirby Chambliss explain the sport’s uniqueness.
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Kirby Chambliss what makes Air Race unique
What is it that makes Air Race like no other sport?
Kirby Chambliss is an eight-time Air Race winner, double Red Bull Air Race World Champion and five-time US aerobatic champion, so he knows his way around a raceplane.
He'll be back with his fellow racers for the 2016 Red Bull Air Race World Championship at eight exciting venues – two of them new additions to the calendar – which you can find out more about below and at RedBullAirRace.com.
Watch the clip above to hear Chambliss’s take on this unique sport, and read on for five reasons why it’s like nothing else, with a little help from Chambliss along the way:
1. It’s quicker than almost any other sport
At around 230mph (370kph), most mainstream motorsports would struggle to match up to Air Race’s raw pace. The record top speeds in Formula One history do come close, but with the V6 engines currently in the sport and consistent efforts by the governing body to reduce speeds, 210mph (337kph) is more like the norm for good performance at the moment. Marc Márquez smashed the MotoGP record in Qatar in 2015 with a top speed of 217.79mph (350.5kph), which is epic for two wheels but still falls short of Air Race.
2. It’s airborne, but the crowd look down on the action
Most aerobatics would have fans craning their necks upwards to see the action, but often in Air Race, and at the Texas Motor Speedway in particular, pilots are flying at heights as low as 30ft (10m) around the racetrack. “In the stadium, you’re actually looking down on us, going at 230mph and manoeuvring through these gates,” says Chambliss.
3. Cornering is a force to be reckoned with
G-forces in Air Race can top 10G; for comparison, hard cornering in F1 produces about 5G for drivers’ necks and brains to cope with. Most pilots flying at speed, such as fighter pilots, have brains that can take more g-forces than normal people without them blacking out at the controls. In fact, pilots sometimes fall foul of the Air Race rule limiting them to 10G by pulling too many negative Gs in a turn. One was once disqualified for a 13G manoeuvre!
4. It’s you against the track
Air Race pilots are single-minded guys, but whatever the psychology, when it comes to winning you really are on your own. No overtaking, backmarkers or blizzards of carbon-fibre to bring out the Safety Car; Air Race is a one-lap, one-man mission against the clock. “It’s left up to us, how we want to get from this gate to this gate,” explains Chambliss. “There’s a lot that goes into thinking about the fastest way through this course.”
5. Track locations are much more variable
OK, so Phillip Island is very different from Losail, or Spa from Abu Dhabi, but underneath the wheels is always basically the same asphalt in motorsports. With Air Race, it could be water (Abu Dhabi, Budapest), a racetrack (Spielberg, Indianapolis) or even an equestrian course (Ascot)!
Find out about Red Bull Air Race in 2016 from the teaser clip and event series details below
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Red Bull Air Race 2016 event calendar preview clip
Where will the Red Bull Air Race take you in 2016?