The final race of the 2010 held Red Bull Air Race World Championship was held in Germany at the Euro Speedway, Lausitz. Hannes Arch won with a time of 1:12:30, Paul Bonhomme was second only 0.36 seconds behind. Paul Bonhomme won the 2010 World Championship title over the six race season.
Yoshi Muroya was fourth in training, 9th in the qualifying round today which was postponed yesterday because of rain, The top 12 round resulted in 9-seconds of penalties, including a Pylon hit with a total of, 1:23:76 for 12th place in this round. A total of five points for the six round 2010 World Championship placed him in 12th overall.
Muroya's latest comments (video) is available on the official Muroya website YouTube channel.
And detailed results can be downloaded from the official Red Bull Site
T1 and T2 where the first time Yoshi has been in the race track for 3 months since Rio. Getting back to speed took a little time but now today in T4, Yoshi ahs put in a good practice time placing Team Muroya 4th in training. Pretty good since he has so much less time in the race track compared to the other pilots. For T4 we went with different power settings to those we have tried in previous races and the engine is really running nicely. That together wth a new fuel servo compared to the last race in Rio, we are at last competitive with the second tier group of pilots. Yoshi thinks there is still room for improvement in the lines through the course. Here is hoping for some really good Qualifying rounds tomorrow!
Back in the air after repairing the tail plane and making a new canopy at the Xtremeair factory in Germany.
Soon the last Red Bull Air Race for this season. After that it won't be until 2012 that the next edition of RBAR will be seen.
So, Team Muroya is looking forward to a smooth and trouble free race to finish the 2010 season on a high note!
pics by Taro Imahara / T.I.P.P
Plane during final preparations at Xtremeair GMBH (nearest the door)
An unfortunate run of bad luck has forced Team Muroya to drop out of the New York race. After an earlier mishap in Windsor that saw Team Muroya having to hurriedly prepare another aircraft to compete in, pilot Yoshi Muroya chose to stay in Windsor with the new plane to get as much practice in as possible prior to flying the plane to New Jersey for the New York round.
Bad weather then forced a difficult ferry flight in marginal weather requiring him to turn back twice. Muroya suffered the misfortune of clipping the propeller while landing at the Race Airport in New Jersey.
Without enough time to complete repairs prior to the New York race, Muroya took the decision to retire from the round, regroup and assess the problems of the last two weeks - and work towards a strong comeback in the European rounds of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010.
Team Muroya expressed its apologies to supporters and fans for the disappointment and inconvenience caused in the Windsor and New York rounds.
The team looks forward to their continued support going in to the European stage of the World Championship.
Regrettably and with much disappointment, Team Muroya has been forced to withdraw from the Windsor round of the Red Bull Air Race Championship 2010.
During a practice session overhead Windsor Airport, a problem developed with the cockpit canopy which led to irreparable damage to it. Unfortunately the canopy is a custom item and a replacement is not readily available.
The biggest disappointment for the team is that the plane had been worked on for 2 weeks prior to arriving in Windsor to improve the engine and overall performance. These changes had shown to be effective during practice and the plane was performing well.
It will take approximately three weeks to reproduce a new canopy so a decision was taken to accept Team Arch’s offer to use their race plane from last year for the Windsor and New York rounds. However this aircraft was located in Oklahoma at the Zivko Edge factory and needed to be assembled including mounting the engine and various other components.
Team Muroya made a huge effort to get to the Zivko factory and prepare the plane in the short time available. Pilot Yoshi Muroya, Technician Takashi Nishimura and TC Rob Fry worked long hours for 2 days with a deadline of 3pm local time in order that Yoshi could ferry to Windsor before sunset on June 3rd. Unfortunately, although the plane was assembled and ready to go a problem was discovered with the electrical system and the engine could not be started as the time limit went by.
After working late on the aircraft last night to improve the performance we were looking forward to a good day and a chance to claw our way back into the running.
The wild card round went reasonably well with a good net time (without penalties) showing the plane is now back running well again. The 4 seconds of penalties were unfortunate but we managed to squeeze into the top 12 after Sergei hit a pylon while pushing the lines aggressively.
As light rain started to fall we were first up in the final 12 round. The start was good and everything going well to the 270 turn where Yoshi was called by the judges for "descending in the gate" resulting in a disqualification. Yoshi after reviewing the video felt it was not deserved however the judges call is final.
Shortly after, the rain started more heavily and after the first 4 Pilots completed their runs racing has been postponed for a while.
But for Team Muroya, the racing in Rio is over. Tomorrow we disassemble the aircraft and on the 16th May we reassemble in Windsor, Canada then fly the plane to a small airport near Detroit for some modification work prior to the next race in Windsor.
Japanese Pilot Yoshihide Muroya qualified 13th today at the Rio de Janeiro round of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Hannes Arch took the bonus qualifying point with Nigel Lamb 2nd and Paul Bonhomme in 3rd.
After 2 clean rounds it is evident that Muroya’s plane is not performing as powerfully as the others and although admitting to be able to close up a second or two through better lines through the course, a thorough check of the engine settings is in progress to find out where the difference in engine performance could be.
Team Muroya will now compete in the Wild Card round going into the final day of racing and is looking forward to the opportunity to advance into the top 12 and then subsequent rounds.
Final will be live streamed on http://www.redbullairrace.com/ 9/May 24:51 Japan time.
Please keep an eye on Yoshi’s Performance on high speed track at Rio de Janeiro.
Two days of 4 training flights were to be held however we only got one flight yesterday. 2 Flights today plus 2 compensation runs through the track. The Rio track is proving to be less technical than Perth so outright speed (power) is proving to be important. Our result in T4 was 11th and this determines our start order position tomorrow for the qualification rounds. Our flights were quite clean with one penalty for an early pull up but looking at our times against the other pilots (disregarding the penalty) our speed does not seem very good. We will be looking to make some engine adjustments and pilot Yoshi is studying the course again to try and find some shortcuts!
However the weather forecast is not looking very good and rain might cut the racing short. Lets hope that it doesn't and we can ge some good racing in and a good result!
Team Muroya is proud to announce Aqualine Ltd., a Japanese water supplier as an official
partner for the remaining races of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Aqualine
Ltd. will be providing its best quality water and their support to Team Muroya from Rio de
Janeiro onwards.
Fans will see the Aqualine logos on Yoshi's aircraft and his flight suit.
Aqualine is renowned for their high quality water products in Japan for both consumers and
companies. The natural bottled water “aqua-aqua” is their main brand and the water is carefully
chosen from a spring in the Tachikawa mountains, rated one of the best natural water sources in
the world.
"Team Muroya is delighted to the have the valuable support of Aqualine in our quest for
success in the 2010 seasonsponsorship”, said Muroya.
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship is a motorsports competition rapidly gaining on
popularity and as an exciting test of physical and mental endurance in race aircrafts flown by
the world's best race pilots. The high speed, low-level races are held on demanding courses in
cities around the globe.
Photo by Taro Imahara/TIPP
Posted by Team Muroya Racing
But for us serious air racers it is time to get down to business and today the Race Airport was officially opened by Red Bull Air Race GMBH CEO Bernd Loidl. The Race Airport is on regional airport and calibration flights got under way after a small delay. However, just before Yoshi was about to taxi out a time out has been called and we are "waiting for updates".
Hopefully the flying in and out of this busy airport will go smoother when full training in the track starts tomorrow.
The final race for Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010 was held in Perth Australia today, Hannes Arch has won the Perth round of the championship followed by local hero Matt Hall just 0.48 seconds behind him.
Yoshihide Muroya progressed through the Wild Card session today, taking 1st place to move into the Top 12.
His Top 12 round time of 1.32.43 including a marginal 2 seconds penalty put him in 9th position, not quite good enough to move on to the next round.
But, he was able to fly his plane close to its best time, and looking on the positive side said, “I have found a big key point concerning flying style from this race and will review it and prepare for the next round in Rio”.
Qualification round for 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship was held in Perth, Australia today.
Muroya hit a pylon on the first qualification round and finished with a total 9sec penalty. He decided to use Q2 as preparation for tomorrows racing and made a stable flight in the second round and with no penalty. Unfortunately the time put him in 13th and therefore takes a place in the Wild Card round for tomorrow's racing.
You can watch MUROYA's interview after qualifying flight here (in Japanese)
The Wild Card session will start from 18th April 12:45 Japan time and can be viewed via Channel 6 at Team MUROYA official website
Despite some inclement weather in the area, the Race Runway was officially opened at Perth today. You definitely know you are in Australia when there is a Koala and a Kangaroo at a ceremony such as this!
The pilots were all presented wth a Boomerang as a momento of the Perth race and many were soon out on the runway trying to make them fly and come back! Perhaps due to the quality of the gift, many were quite successful!
April 9th is the date all Technicians and Team Coordinators were to be in Perth. Work started on re-assembling the aircraft and today, April 10th now at 5pm, most planes are nearly complete.
The picture shows the scene in the Fighter Combat International hanger at Jandakot Airport, Perth. The aircraft are to be all assembled and test flown here through Tuesday, April 13th. On Wednesday all will then fly in to the Race Airport situated on a park in downtown Perth adjacent to the Race Course.
WOW what an exciting day at the Red Bull Air races!
4 Disqualifications for dangerous flying for Rakmanin, Arch, Dolderer and Chambliss!
3 Did not starts for MaClean, Hall and Goulian!
The DNS for Hall and Goulian were on the start grid. They could not get their engines started to go for the next flight.
Paul Bonhomme won with a very good final time considering the heat of 41 deg C in the race track. The fact that Besenyei took out 3rd place with a time 7 seconds slower showed how consistency in the final rounds is so important.
Team Muroya wants to take this lesson to Perth. Our plane seems closer to beingcompetitive. Even so we still need to improve the plane to reach the final 4.
The start to the season has shown the effects of the new rules about weight limits for planes and pilots.
The planes are held in Parc Ferme from 2 hours before the racing starts and can be spot checked for weight at any time. Team Maclean were unlucky to be found 3kg light in a spot check and were therefore disqualified from the qualification rounds. Such small discrepancys can occurr just by the difference in temperature of the fuel when it was put in the plane and when the plane is weighed possibly the next day. Teams have to be very careful that the fuel loads and any compensation weights are correct prior to the 2 hour Parc Ferme time. The pilots are weighed together with their compensation weights immediately after landing and must exceed the minimum Pilot weight of 82kg or else the will be disqualified.
For Team Muroya the 10th place and 2 points is not too bad a start. We know where our improvements can be made an look forward to the next round in Perth.
photos by Taro Imahara/TIPP
Todays qualifying rounds were quite exciting for Team Muroya placing 6th in the 1st round but dropping to 8th overall after the 2 rounds were completed.
The new engine is running well considering the heat here and is becoming progressively better.
We look forward to some great racing in the finals tomorrow and a great finish for the Team.
Photo by Taro Imahara / TIPP
Today the Red Bull Air Race Runway was officially opened in Abu Dhabi. Here we see the official ceremony with media, organisers, spomsors being welcomed and introduced to the Pilots.
Also parked at the ceremony was the modified Ivanoff Edge with 3 into 1 pipes out the side.
Race 31 is assembled and flying. After long hours of work over the last 3 days, we started test flying today. The plane and engine are working well. The new engine seems a definite improvement! You will notice the new lines of the plane now with modified top sections and sleek canopy. Less drag and more power! Yeah!
Test flying of the other planes is underway too. Now, the new planes and modifications are out in the open for all to see. Most notable is Nigel Lambs new wing tip fins! His plane now looks like 2 sharks swimming in formation! Or a bit like a mini 737! Look out for the pictures. Hannes Arch has the new V3 Edge which is much lighter so he has more equipment and also ballast to bring it to the minimum weight. The advantage of this is the weight is closer to the center of the aircraft which should make the energy required to make manouevres less which of course turns into more speed around the track. Paul Bonhommes Edge has some improvements which are difficult to see but we know for sure he has a new engine similar to ours which should give him more power than last season, and has lost some weight out of the plane too. Interesting addition to his plane are the cowl flaps under the bottom of the cowling. This allows him to keep his engine really cool before retracting them going into the track for less drag and full power in the minute or so of the track run.
WOW!!
Technician testing winglet covers while Pilot tests winglets!
The plane reassembly is progressing but there is much work to be done. There is a new telemetry system being fitted to all the aircraft involving new HD camera live broadcasting of the cockpit and tail cameras that requires more power than the existing 8amp alternators can produce so, we have to fit new 20amp alternators and revise the wiring on the aircraft. Then there is new wiring for the cameras and systems so everyone is very busy completing these modifications before we can get down to actually racing.
Here we see Yoshi and Takashi talking about the new GPS antennas before they fit it to the race plane.
Oops date is wrong again. 20th here in Abu Dhabi.
At last we were able to get to start preparing the planes for racing. There has been some delay in getting access to the planes after shipment from all over the world and in our case from New Zealand. We off loaded the aircraft from their airshipment pallets at 11:30pm last night and put them in their hangers for an early start this morning at 8:30am. Work is progressing smoothly and Team Muroya is changing to our brand new racing engine as planned. The new engine should be more powerfull and lighter in weight with all the latest allowable engine nodifictions such as re-profiled camshaft new pistons and rings and other small but positive improvements over the standard engine.
Here we see Takashi working on the new engine prior to attachment to the fuselage this morning. Sorry for the date stamp error.
Team MUROYA press conference for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010 and a special arranged send-off party have been held at Aoyama attended by 60 members of the media, guests and supporters.
Under their watchful gaze, Yoshi said, “I should like to begin by thanking you for the great encouragement to date. In 2009 season, we had a relatively modest start through the first 3 races and in Windsor I was unable to flight due to heavy pylon hit in training session. I learned in my rookie how crucial getting a top spot is.” commented Muroya. “But every race we’ve got better and better, and in Barcelona I finished in 6th place, so I’ve achieved my rookie year goal of finishing above 7th place in a race. During the off season, we’ve been training in New Zealand and doing lots of modifications on our EDGE. My goal for this season is to be ranked in the top 7 overall, consistently in the super 8, and to be on the podium at least 1 time. Now we’re hard at work preparing and I’m looking forward to the first race in Abu Dhabi.”
At the party, 2 movies (Team MUROYA 2009 highlight and a trailer of “Sky is the limit” that is MUROYA’s documentary film) were screened. You can see them on YouTube.
9th on March,
MUROYA has visited to local press (Fukushima Minyuu and Fukushima Minpou) to inform them about his participation of Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2010.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Japan’s Yoshi Muroya, who has been training hard through New Zealand’s summer for the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship, was able to show off some of his high-speed, low-altitude flying prowess in front of a big crowd gathered at the Auckland Anniversary Day celebrations in the city’s famous harbour on Feb. 1.
Muroya, who emerged as one of the most improved pilots late in his rookie season, delighted the many thousands of spectator by flying a Sukhoi 29 owned by his team coordinator Rob Fry in a high-energy 15-minute demonstration over the harbour in Auckland, known as the “City of Sails” because it has more yachts per capita than any city in the world.
“The Red Bull Air Race is quite well known here in New Zealand,” said Muroya, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Jan. 27. Muroya was one of four rookies last year is counting on winning over New Zealand fans away from Australia’s Matt Hall, another rookie in 2009.
“Many people have been following it on TV,” Muroya added. “There is a strong sporting rivalry between New Zealand and Australia. I think as long as there’s no New Zealand pilot in the race, the people would probably support the Aussie pilot. But now that I’ve been here for so long I’m sure the New Zealand fans will be cheering for me.”
Popular in Japan and New Zealand
Muroya, the first Asian pilot in the championship, has helped make the Red Bull Air Race popular in his home country Japan and is hoping that there will one day be a race staged in Tokyo.
“There were so many TV programmes about the Red Bull Air Race in Japan and now many people know what the race is,” he said. “They’re really looking forward to having a race in Japan one day.”
During this off-season, Muroya has been shuttling between Japan and New Zealand. He has spent about half the time between December and February in the warmer climate here in a series two-week stints with his Auckland-based team coordinator Fry, working on his flying skills and on improvements in his Edge 540.
“The weather is fine so the flying is easy and the plane is progressing so things are good here,” Muroya said. “Rob Fry lives here in Auckland and I’m staying at his home, which is just a one-minute walk from his hangar on a small airfield. The people are really nice and the local reaction has been very positive. It’s a safe, laid-back environment.”
The training conditions in Auckland are also superb, he said. “There’s a designated low-flying area nearby over the water. There’s also plenty of technical support nearby. New Zealand is also easily accessible to Japan. There’s only a four-hour time difference.”
Muroya, an avid snowboarder, has also spent time in the off-season on the slopes in Japan. “Snowboarding in Japan and then swimming in the sea in New Zealand,” he said, surprised himself by the temperature extremes he has been shifting back and forth through since December.
Aims for top 7 finish in 2010
Muroya displayed an admirable degree of self-discipline to stick closely to his plan for his first season with an emphasis on safety and acquiring experience in the first four races before attacking for points in the final two rounds.
He hopes to make a big move up in the championship standings in 2010. After finishing 13th with 9 points in 2009 and getting a season-best in the final race of the year in Barcelona, Muroya has set his sites on 7th place overall in 2010.
“The plane is coming along well,” he said. “We’re making a lot of modifications during the summer here. I’ve been able to prepare and train more than last year so I’m looking forward to getting off to a good start in Abu Dhabi. I’ve got an overall development plan for 2010 and I’m progressing along that nicely. The off-season training is going well so I expect to see much better results in 2010.”
One area Muroya hopes to improve in the upcoming season will be cutting down on pylon hits. He took the dubious distinction of having the most pylon hits in his rookie season but chalks that up to experience. He’s confident he won’t “win” that title again this year.
“I’m the reigning world champion for pylon hits but I need to hand that over to someone else,” he said. “I think I’ve tested the strength of the Air Gates enough.”
Team Muroya is working hard on modifications to our race plane here in New Zealand. Unfortunately we can not give you the details but all will become clear at the first race in Abu Dhabi in 2 months time!
After a trip back to Japan to be with family over the new year period, Yoshi is here in Auckland again for several weeks helping with the Edge mods. Prior to heading down to the hanger each morning, Yoshi and TC Rob have been doing some cycling around the farms in the airport area. Here we see them just back from a hilly work out.
