Culminating Race Of Red Bull Season This Weekend

The eighth and final race of this year's Red Bull Air Race series will be held Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Nigel Lamb of Britain stands in first place with 53 points after seven races, ahead of Hannes Arch at 48 points, who will be competing in his home country. The series lead has changed hands four times this season and there have been five different winners at the seven races held thus far. Defending champion Paul Bonhomme of Britain is in third place overall with 47 points, and a chance to win his third straight title. There is a three-way battle for fourth place between Pete McLeod of Canada (37 points), Matt Hall of Australia (33 points) and Nicolas Ivanoff of France (30 points).

The course at the Red Bull Ring is described as "Alpine" with an elevation change on each lap of 65 meters-and there are trees on the course itself that the pilots must deal with while minimizing their elapsed time. The race will be the 58^th in Red Bull Air Racing history-the series having held races in 18 countries since it began in 2003. Speeds over the low-altitude, three-dimensional course are as high as 200 knots and pilots endure up to 10 Gs in each lap. Qualifying takes place on Saturday, with race day Sunday.