Czech Pilot Sonka Flies to Indy on Red-Hot Wings after Roll Continues in Austria
September 17, 2018 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
It won’t be surprising if Martin Sonka doesn’t feel the wheels of his plane touch the ground when he lands in Indianapolis in slightly more than two weeks for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship event Oct. 6-7 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Sonka is on that kind of cloud nine roll.
Czech Republic pilot Sonka won the latest event in the Red Bull Air Race on Sept. 15-16 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, for his third consecutive win this season in the world’s most prestigious aerobatic racing championship. The victory pushed Sonka to the top of the Master Class standings with 64 points, six ahead of Australian Matt Hall.
Sonka edged reigning World Champion and 2017 Indianapolis winner Yoshihide Muroya of Japan by a scant .036 of a second in the Final 4, with Hall third, just .083 of a second behind Sonka in a barnburner of a finish.
The incredible run by Sonka is a marked contrast from his start of the season, when he suffered two disqualifications.
“I can’t describe the feeling of winning three in a row; there are no words,” Sonka said. “It’s super early to say exactly what this means, of course, but because of all the challenges we’ve had, it’s an incredible season for us. It’s not the end, there are still 30 points on the table. So a lot of work in front of us – two big battles until the end of the championship. But we would like to continue this way to the end of the season.”
The last two races of the season are in America over famous auto racing tracks – Oct. 6-7 at IMS and Nov. 17-18 at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Martin’s definitely beatable,” said Hall, who has two victories in 2018. “He’s flying very cleanly, and his plane is obviously pretty fast, but we set the fastest time of the day in the Round of 8, and I flew the same lines again, but my engine was just stinking hot so it lost a little power. We’re happy that we're doing the right stuff to be able to win races, so we’ll go from there.”
It was a tough day Sunday in Austria for American Master Class pilots Michael Goulian and Kirby Chambliss.
Goulian, from Plymouth, Massachusetts, entered the event as the points leader and seeking his first world title. But he lost in the opening Round of 14 to Nicolas Ivanoff of France after suffering a two-second penalty during that race, missing the Final 4 for the first time in six races this season. Goulian slipped to third in the standings, nine points behind Sonka, with two races left.
“Obviously, the wind is different today than yesterday, and in the first vertical turn I stalled at the top,” Goulian said. “So I was aware I didn’t want to do that on the second one, and I just let off a little too much at the top of the second VTM, which brought me too close to the recovery gate, and that meant I had to dive for it and try to get through, and obviously I didn’t make it in time. So there was a two-second penalty, and that’s that.
“My plan for the next two races is just to do what we’ve been doing. This race was just an anomaly, just a blip in the road. Yoshi (Muroya) said last year when he won the World Championship, they planned on zero points at two races, so I think if we can stick to that plan, we still have a shot at this year’s World Championship, and that’s the goal. It was my mistake today that got us out of the race. It wasn’t the airplane; the airplane was flying fine, and it was just one of those things. Some days you do it, and some days you don’t.”
Chambliss, from Tucson, Arizona, lost to reigning World Champion Muroya in the Round of 8 after beating rookie Ben Murphy in the Round of 14. Chambliss was unable to fly against Muroya in the Round of 8 due to a technical problem.
“The engine has two ignition systems, and we check those systems before every flight by doing an engine run-up,” Chambliss said. “When I turned off the right mag, I heard ‘POP, POP, POP.’ I thought it had to be either a bad plug or a bad mag, so I ran it up to try and clear the system, but it didn’t work. I did everything I could to try and fix it short of taking the cowling off. It is a huge disappointment, but it wouldn’t have been smart from a safety standpoint to take off with the engine in that condition. My team is going to look everything over and make sure we’re ready to race in Indy.
“Mathematically, we’re out of the running for the World Championship title. It hasn’t been our best season, especially compared to the last where we were in the thick of the fight until the very last race. But I’ll continue to try and do what I always aim to do – win races.”
Hong Kong pilot Kenny Chiang rocketed to the top of the Challenger Class standings with a sweep of the two races for that class in Austria. Chiang is tied atop the training class with Luke Czepiela of Poland at 26 points.
American Kevin Coleman is tied for sixth in the Challenger Class standings at 16 points with Melanie Astles of France, who won the Challenger Class last year at IMS to become the first female winner of a
NBCSN is televising a two-hour highlight show of the Wiener Neustadt race from 7-9 p.m. (ET) Monday, Sept. 17.
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship features the world’s best aerobatic pilots flying through a course comprised of 82-foot inflatable gates called Air Pylons. At Indianapolis, pilots skim just 60 feet above the IMS infield at speeds of 200 mph, twisting and diving through the Air Pylons.
Tickets are on sale now at IMS.com for the Red Bull Air Race event Oct. 6-7 at the Racing Capital of the World. Visit www.redbullairrace.com for more information on the series.