September 7, 2014 

 

 

Fort Worth, Texas – Frenchman Nicolas Ivanoff had a flawless run in the Final Four on a hot and humid Texas afternoon and won the race with a time of 54.118 seconds with Britain's Nigel Lamb taking second in 54.253 and Canada's Pete McLeod finishing third in 54.666.

The overall Red Bull Air Race World Championship battle tightened dramatically after six races as Bonhomme moved ahead of Arch in the overall lead on 45 points thanks to his fifth place finish, while Arch, who finished eighth, slipped into a two-way tie for second place overall with Lamb on 44 points.

"It's really nice to win the race on a great speedway like this," said Ivanoff after getting the third victory of his career in the world's fastest motorsport series. "I like the ambience of a motorsport race track like this, and finishing first was much better than I expected."

The race in Fort Worth, where some 40,000 spectators witnessed the weekend action, was one of the most exciting this season. There were 45 pylon hits during the two days of action-packed training on one of the most challenging tracks ever with its tight turns and difficult stadium wind conditions. But with improved wind conditions on Sunday, there were no Race Day pylon hits. Temperatures soared into the high 30s C. / upper 90s F. as the pilots zipped through the track at speeds of nearly 370 km/h / 230 mph and at up to 10G.

Pete McLeod, who was last on the podium at the season opener in Abu Dhabi, finished in third with a controlled but explosive run in the Final 4. Germany's Matthias Dolderer was denied yet another podium when he took fourth place with a time of 00:55.208 in Fort Worth.

Germany's Matthias Dolderer is clearly on a mission to take his first win of the season as he clocks in the fastest time of the Super 8 session. Meanwhile, in a shake up to the current world ranking race for the World Champion title, both Bonhomme and Arch are out of the Final 4, with Lamb, Ivanoff and McLeod joining Dolderer in the Final 4.

France's Nicolas Ivanoff takes the win in the first US stop of the Red Bull Air Race season, and his first race win of 2014.

 

In a shake up of the standings, despite failing to make it into the Final 4, Britain's Paul Bonhomme earned enough points to push Hannes Arch off the overall rankings top spot.

 

Here are the official results for the Final 4:

 

The next race of the eight-stop championship will be held in Las Vegas on October 11-12, the penultimate stop before the Spielberg season showdown in November.