Ivanoff wins after Arch hits bird following takeoff

May 11, 2009

Nicolas Ivanoff banks into a turn in the skies above downtown San Diego yesterday en route to winning the third edition of the Red Bull Air Race.

No one around the Red Bull Air Race scene ever questioned Nicolas Ivanoff’s potential.

“On any given day, Nicolas is as fast as anyone,” Kirby Chambliss said recently.

But Ivanoff – perhaps given his Russian, Greek and Corsican heritage – has had problems harnessing his considerable flying skills.

He was just as likely to carve up a pylon course as fly through unscathed.

Two years ago on San Diego Bay, Ivanoff did a Freddy Krueger act on the air-supported pylons lining the course. It made for spectacular photography, but didn’t land the Frenchman a spot on the podium . . . or even in the quarterfinals.

Yesterday, however, the only thing Ivanoff shredded was the opposition.

Ivanoff won the third edition of San Diego’s stop on the Red Bull Air Race tour – completing a flawless run through the 13-gate course more than a full second quicker than two-time San Diego champion Paul Bonhomme.

However, the far most interesting flight during the four-plane finals was turned in by reigning Red Bull Air Race series champion Hannes Arch.

Arch paced qualifying Saturday, was second-fastest to Bonhomme in yesterday’s quarterfinals and regained the top spot in the penultimate round.

But shortly after starting his championship-round run – which was the final flight of the event – Arch struck a pelican while heading from Gate 5 off South Embarcadero Marina Park toward the four-pylon “hydra” gate on the Coronado side of the course.

A split-second before the bird strike, Arch cleared Gate 5 with almost a three-tenths of a second lead on Ivanoff.

The bird hit Arch’s tail just as he was banking hard left into a straight where speeds reach nearly 230 mph.

A split-second after the strike, Arch was trying to determine what had happened while also positioning his plane while approaching the next obstacle – where he drew a two-second penalty for passing through the gate at an improper angle.

“I feel like the winner,” Arch said after landing at Brown Field following the completion of his run. “It nearly tore the tail off the plane.

“I didn’t see the bird,” Arch said. “But I heard a noise like the plane was breaking apart. I changed the course a little, took a wide line and had to get back onto the track after deciding everything was working.

“I couldn’t get a proper approach to the next gate, there wasn’t time, which is why the penalty. It was only when I got back to the base (Brown Field) that I saw the bird had nearly ripped the tail off.

“I was on a really good run.”

Without the penalty, Arch would have finished second. Without the bird strike? “I can’t say,” Arch said, “but I can think and I think I know.”

Certainly, the bird strike and problems at the next gate affected the outcome. Arch lost 3½ seconds during the second section – two seconds to the penalty . . . and who knows how much because of the bird strike.

Just as certainly, the 41-year-old Ivanoff flew the race of his five-year Red Bull Air Race career – earning just his second career victory and his fourth podium finish.

Two of those podium finishes have come in this season’s first two races – a third at Abu Dhabi behind Arch and Bonhomme, and yesterday’s win.

Ivanoff said the difference between this season and last year was a switch in planes over the winter. As for his improvement in San Diego . .

“I took lessons after Abu Dhabi,” said Ivanoff, whose only other win came in Perth, Australia, at the end of the 2007 season.

Last year he had only one podium finish. He now ranks second (to Arch) in a series where he has never finished higher than seventh in four years.

“I didn’t know if the plane was fast enough to win here,” Ivanoff said. “This is a larger, faster track than Abu Dhabi.

Ivanoff’s winning time was 1 minute, 17.21 seconds – the fastest flight of the day. Bonhomme’s runner-up time was 1:18.32 while Arch’s time, including the two-second penalty, was 1:19.80. Veteran Peter Besenyei was fourth with a 1:20.74 run that also included a two-second penalty.

Ivanoff had served notice on the favorites during the Top Eight semifinals. The fifth pilot to fly in the round, Ivanoff posted a time that was three seconds faster than any of the pilots ahead of him and bested only by Arch.

His victory was no fluke.

But Arch’s defeat was.

Race officials estimated the two-day crowd to be 105,000 – down about 10 percent from last year.