LAUSITZ, Germany – Matt Hall said the EuroSpeedway Lausitz race track was going to be an ideal venue for this weekend’s Red Bull Air Race and the Australian ace added that he hoped to be able to feed off the energy of the big crowd the way he turned spectator enthusiasm in Perth into a career-best second place in April.
Hall and the other 13 pilots took their calibration flights over the motorsport circuit on Wednesday ahead of the first timed training sessions on Thursday and Friday before the weekend’s Qualifying sessions (Saturday) and race (Sunday).
Hall said having his hangar on the pit lane – just a few metres in front of the grandstand – was a special thrill. The race will be the first time that the Red Bull Air Race will be staged on a motorsport circuit.
“This event is going to be absolutely fantastic because for the first time we’ve got the race airport in the race track and the crowd circling the whole thing in the grandstands,” Hall said, sounding relaxed after taking his first flight on a warm and sunny summer afternoon at the track south of Berlin.
“It’s one location for the entire event. We’ve always had the race airport away from the track. This is like racing in a giant stadium. You can hear the echo of the planes everywhere inside here. This is as good as it gets. It demonstrates the spectacular future the race potentially has.”
Hall, who used the energy of the crowds watching the Perth race from Langley Park earlier this year to get second place at his home race, said he was looking forward to having the crowds sitting so close to the hangar and looking on as the pilots getting ready to fly.
“I think it’s great that the crowd can see the planes getting worked on, the cowlings off, everyone pushing the plane down the pitlane to go out to race,” he said.
“It’ll get some excitement going. The crowd can then watch the takeoff, the entry into the track, then watch the plane land, and come back in, and see you as you walk back into hangar. You just get to see that entire flow that you can’t see at any other location. It’s just incredible.”
Hall, a former RAAF fighter pilot from Merewether NSW, said he was used to the pressure on flying in front of big crowds.
“I’ll go out there and absorb the atmosphere,” Hall said. “It won’t put pressure on me having all these people out there looking. My technician Jack (Moshovis) will be the one out there bent over all the time working on the plane,” he added with a laugh.
Hall said he didn’t think the crowd – expected to be about 70,000 – would distract him.
“I had a similar sort of thing in Perth. We were strapping in on the grass at Langley Park. When I came out of the hangar there was lots of cheering and clapping for me, and it felt really good. I used that energy as a positive influence rather than pressure. I’m planning on doing the same thing again. If people are cheering that’s great. But if they’re hissing and booing maybe that will have a different effect. But I don’t think they’ll be booing me.”
Hall said he and his team were staying focused to do as well as possible in Germany – and not let themselves be disappointed by the disappointment about the 2011 season being scrapped to restructure the race for 2012.
“There’s a lot of things happening with the Air Race and the future,” he said. “As a team, we’re looking at this race as another race to try and improve and do well regardless of what the future holds. We’re here to do well and have fun.”
