"My secret is hard work"

In 2007 Paul Bonhomme lost the Red Bull Air Race World Series by 0.43 seconds. In 2008 he’s flying rings around the rest of the field. Will his series of victories continue in Detroit?

‘Britain’s finest pilot’ again showed his class in ‘America’s finest city’: in front of 63,000 spectators Paul Bonhomme defeated local heroes Mike Mangold and Kirby Chambliss in San Diego. In doing so, he not only increased his collection of points to 18 – Mangold has 15, Hannes Arch 14 and Kirby Chambliss 12 – but also the discomfort of his opponents. In light of Bonhomme’s superiority this year they fear that their hopes will be dashed. They think that the Brit’s superior flying times can be explained by the mysterious technical innovations that were undertaken on his wonder plane last winter.

Mangold compelled to act

‘Considering the circumstances I’m very happy with my second place,’ said Mike Mangold in a fittingly cryptic way. And, still the title defender after all, was a little modest: ‘For our tiny budget we couldn’t simply do any more.’ Until Detroit, the third race of the year, taking place on May 31 and June 1, Mangold says ‘We can only make a few minor changes. These however won’t make our plane decidedly faster.’ And means that Paul Bonhomme is also the top favorite for the third race of this year.

Winning is no walk in the park

Paul Bonhomme, whose blink-of-an-eye defeat in 2007 considerably spoiled his mood, is obviously enjoying the nervousness of Mangold & Co. ‘Nothing other than hard work’ is behind his superiority, he maintains. The victory in San Diego particularly was ‘no walk in the park. Mike, Hannes and Kirby harried me considerably. I can thank my team and many hours of hard training for being able to win.’

Strong starter

Yet Mike Mangold could use last year as an example for being optimistic now: In 2007 Paul Bonhomme also held the overall lead for the first three races. In Istanbul, back then the fourth race of the season, Mangold was able to equalize – and in the end won the enthralling head-to-head race, which continued from that time on until the end of the season.