Racing News Digest

What – this isn’t about NASCAR. Nope. Notice the name of the website – Racing News Digest, All Your Racing News In One Location.

Anyway, I just found this interesting. I really like racing of any kind but the only thing I know even a little bit about is NASCAR and most of the little I know involves the Cup Series. I am trying to expand my knowledge of all kinds of racing and their different series.

Tonight my son and I watched a portion of the Red Bull Air Race after I got home and before dinner.

Have you ever watched this. I have a couple of times in the past. A little here and a little there. But since my 2 and half year old son loves airplanes, he got a huge kick out of watching this. He wasn’t the only one. I enjoyed it as well.

He was yelling at the T.V. about how fast the airplanes were going. And we just hung out watching it. He was pretty engrossed.

He also loves “fast cars” and “fast trucks” (NASCAR) but those don’t really keep his attention like the airplanes did.

I believe the air race that we watched tonight was from Porto, Portugal.

So I went to http://www.redbullairrace.com/ and did some research on this style of racing.

Here is what I found out. – Some of this is copied right from their website.
The Red Bull Air Racing series is in it’s 4th season. That sounds about right for the amount of time I have been hearing about it.

The Red Bull Air Race World Championship is an international series of races with the participation of at least eight pilots at each race.

The objective is to navigate an aerial race track featuring air-filled pylons in the fastest possible time incurring as few penalties as possible.

Pilots can win points at each race and the one with the most points at the end of the World Championship becomes the Red Bull Air Race World Champion.

The planes flown in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship are among the best and most modern race planes in the world. They are extremely unstable and agile. During a steep turn, both pilot and plane are subjected to forces which can reach up to 12 g, meaning they are twelve times their normal weight.

Doesn’t some of the above seem really wrong? “….among the best and most modern race planes……..extremely UNSTABLE and agile”.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the the unstable and agile portion of it is probably what lets the plane do the maneuvering that needs to be done. But still….it sounds wrong.

Currently there are three different types of aircraft used in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship: the Edge 540, the MXS and the Extra 300SR.

These planes run 340 to 350 horse power with top speeds of 253 mph to 265 mph. I don’t know how often they get these planes maxed out, but I can tell you that they are really flyin’ when they are going through the coarse.

Then they do on the on board camera shot or the tail mounted camera and it looks all the more nuts.

The “Air Gates” that they race threw are actually inflatable pylons. You wouldn’t really guess that just by watching it on T.V. and not really paying attention. But a lot of studying and research has gone into these. Head over to redbullairracing.com to read more about it.

Now, 1 car, truck or plane racing at a time is not really my thing. To a degree I find it a little boring to see 1 vehicle go and then another try and beat it’s time. That being said, FSN does do something pretty cool where the lay over the video of one pilots flight over the video of another pilots flight so it almost looks like they are racing. This is of course after both have raced.

Even though I would rather see side by side racing I don’t think that would be very practical in this application.

Here are some upcoming race dates on TV – Fox Sports Network.
Perth
23.11
06.00 pm
24.11.
05.00 pm
27.11.
05.00 pm

I really enjoyed sitting with my son tonight and watching the Red Bull Air Race. Sitting with my son was great and seeing his excitement in it was great but I also enjoyed watching the air race.