LAUSITZ, Germany – Australia’s Matt Hall got back into the groove in the first day of training on Thursday ahead of the weekend’s Red Bull Air Race after missing the last two races in North America, picking up right where he left off with a solid sixth place in a challenging race track set up at a motorsport circuit south of Berlin.
Hall, who missed the races in Windsor and New York after his plane skimmed off the Detroit River, said he was concentrating on flying smoothly and regaining confidence in the two training sessions on Thursday after the incident before the Windsor event sidelined him for two races.
The 38-year-old said he is hoping to end the 2010 season on a high note with a solid performance in Germany.
“Today went just as planned,” said Hall.
“I went out there on my first training run, it was just a bit of a look-around, just looking at different lines and concentrating on different parts of the track. I haven’t had the chance to fly past pylons lately.”
Matt (background) and Peter Besenyei (foreground)
Hall, who often starts the race weekend cautiously, then raised his speed a notch or two in the afternoon training session as summertime temperatures rose towards 30 degrees and moved up the time sheets to sixth place with a time of 1:16.22. He had been 10th in the morning session. Britain’s Nigel Lamb was fastest in the second of four training runs before Saturday’s Qualifying and Sunday’s race with a time of 1:12.55.
“On the second run I went into the track with an actual race line I was going to follow,” Hall said.
“It was a dedicated run and it seemed to go reasonably well. So I’m pretty happy with that.”
But Hall, eighth overall in the championship with 22 points from three races, added he is not overly worried about his position this year after he took third overall in his rookie season last year. There are two more training sessions on Friday.
“I’m happy how I’ve bounced back,” he said. “There’s still a lot more I can do. This race is all about regaining confidence. It’s not about seeing how many points I can get back at the moment. It’s about regaining confidence and regenerating a relationship with the aircraft at low level. So it’s really one step at a time. We’ve achieved it. I’m pretty happy about how that second flight went.”
Hall said he is confident about the challenges of flying on a track over land for the first time in his career after the other 11 races were over water.
“It’s fine,” he said. “Once I got into the grove on the second flight I didn’t notice the ground at all. I was having a great time and it went well.”
