First U.S. Event For 2014 Held At The Texas Motor Speedway

French pilot Nicolas Ivanoff had a flawless run in the final four on a hot and humid Texas afternoon Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway, winning first 2014 U.S. stop of the Red Bull Air Race Championship with a time of 54.118 seconds with Nigel Lamb taking second in 54.253 and Canada's Pete McLeod finishing third in 54.666.

The World Championship battle tightened dramatically after six races as Paul Bonhomme moved ahead of Hannes Arch in the overall lead on 45 points thanks to his fifth place finish. Arch, who finished eighth, slipped into a two-way tie for second place overall with Lamb on 44 points. Lamb is the hottest pilot in the race, with a victory in Putrajaya and three straight second places since then. Bonhomme and Arch have taken two wins each this season.

"It's really nice to win the race on a great speedway like this," said Ivanoff after getting the second victory of his career - the first was San Diego in 2009. "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 thousands of spectators witnessed the weekend's action, has proven the most exciting stop of the season so far. Temperatures soared into the 90s as the pilots zipped through the track at speeds of nearly 200 knots and at up to 10G. 45 pylon hits were clocked up during the two days of action-packed training on one of the most challenging tracks in the World Championship, with its tight turns and difficult stadium wind conditions, but Race Day was devoid of penalties from pylon hits.

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

(Image provided by the Red Bull Air Race Championship shows Ivanoff in inverted flight)

FMI: www.redbullairrace.com