The eighth and final Red Bull Air Race World Championship stop of 2016 is set for Saturday and Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and a world champion officially will be crowned at the 1.5-mile oval. Germany's Matthias Dolderer enters the two-day event leading the Master Class points standings with a seemingly insurmountable 80.25-55.75 advantage over Australia's Matt Hall, but there's still plenty on the line in Las Vegas.
Florian Berger of Germany leads an incredibly tight Challenger class with 28 points, with Sweden's Daniel Ryfa and the United States' Kevin Coleman tied for second at 26 and Poland's Luke Czepiela in the hunt with 24 points.
The Master Class field also includes former RBAR champions Nigel Lamb (2014), Hannes Arch (2008) and American Kirby Chambliss (2004, 2006) and should provide some thrills as pilots reach speeds of up to 230 miles per hour while pulling up to 10G's of force. The pilots fly the fastest, most agile and lightweight-racing planes and navigate a low-level aerial track made up of 80-foot-high air-filled pylons through a course that winds in and around LVMS.
Fans can pull for the only female pilot in the field, the Challenger Class' Melanie Astles of France. Astles comes to Las Vegas ranked seventh in the season points standings.
The 2016 RBAR World Championship season began March 11-12 in Abu Dhabi and ran through Austria, Japan, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Germany and Indianapolis before culminating in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas race will air on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Tickets are available at www.LVMS.com or by calling 800-644-4444.
Pilots
Master Class
Hannes Arch (Austria)
Kirby Chambliss (United States)
Matthias Dolderer (Germany)
Michael Goulian (United States)
Matt Hall (Australia)
Nicolas Ivanoff (France)
Petr Kopfstein (Czechoslovakia)
Nigel Lamb (Great Britain)
Francois Le Vot (France)
Pete McLeod (Canada)
Yoshihide Muroya (Japan)
Peter Podlunsek (Slovenia)
Martin Sonka (Czechoslovakia)
Juan Velarde (Spain)
Challenger Class
Melanie Astles (France)
Francis Barros (Brazil)
Florian Berger (Germany)
Cristian Bolton (Chile)
Kevin Coleman (United States)
Luke Czepiela (Poland)
Ben Murphy (Great Britain)
Daniel Ryfa (Sweden)
Schedule
Saturday, Oct. 15 | Qualifying
10:45-11:32 a.m. -Practice Challenger Class
3:20-3:46 p.m. - Qualifying Challenger Class
4:05-5:21 p.m. – Qualifying Master Class
Sunday, Oct. 16 | World Championship Finals
Noon-12:26 p.m. – Challenger Cup
1:07-1:51 p.m. – Round of 14
2:10-2:15 p.m. – Prize Giving Ceremony Challenger Cup
3:05-3:29 p.m. – Round of 8
3:36-3:48 p.m. – Final 4
3:55-4:04 p.m. – Prize Giving Ceremony Master Class & World Champion