For full EuroSpeedway race results, click here.

Australian pilot Matt Hall has finished third in the final round of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany.

Hall finished behind only Austrian Hannes Arch and back to back world champion Paul Bonhomme (Great Britain) in the race over the packed motor sport venue. Another Brit, Nigel Lamb, was fourth after suffering a puncture on the runway that stopped him from taking part in the final four shootout.

Hall’s third moved him up one place in the overall championship to seventh behind Bonhomme, Arch and Lamb.

“I was happy with how I flew today, with the confident and smooth lines and the style I was hoping for,” Hall said.

“I did make a conscious decision to back off in the final four to make sure i didn’t hit any pylons and in the end I think that slowed me down but I am happy.”

Front on in the track

The race was a wonderful end to the year for Hall after what has been a challenging second season in the Championships following his record breaking rookie year in 2009 when he placed third overall.

Despite a career best second placing in front of a home Australian crowd in Perth in April, the 38-year-old from Merewether has battled technical issues with his engine and aircraft, a race ruined by rain, a near crash in Windsor (Canada) and a subsequent race committee imposed sanction from the showcase New York event in June.

There was also the announcement late last month that the Championship will take a year’s break in 2011 to restructure the organisation, work on building host city relationships and improve safety.

“It was a good result to top off what was an up and down year and has given me confidence again that I can match it with the best guys in the world,” Hall added.

“I am now looking forward to being part of the championship and improving even more when it returns in 2012.

LAUSITZ, Germany – Matt Hall and the top half of the field were grounded at the Red Bull Air Race qualifying session on Saturday when a series of light rain showers repeatedly interrupted the session before it was finally postponed until Sunday.

Only the seven slowest pilots from Friday’s training session were able to fly through the 15-gate track in Qualifying while the fastest seven were unable to fly.

The Qualifying session is expected to resume on Sunday, when the weather is expected to be significantly better than on Saturday.

“It was a long afternoon,” Hall said after the qualifying session stretched out for more than three hours.

“I strapped in three times, started the engine once and got down to the end of the runway (when the session was interrupted). There’s a lot of mental preparation and psychology that goes into getting ready to take off. You go through that a couple of times in the afternoon and you run out of energy.”

Hall, who had the fifth fastest time in Friday’s final training session, is hoping to end his 2010 season on a high note after missing the last two races in Windsor and New York. He said the adverse weather conditions clearly made it impossible to fly.

“Obviously it was the right decision in the end to cancel because it’s now raining quite hard,” he added, as rain poured down on his hangar set up at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz motor circuit.

“The interesting thing is how they’re going to play out the rules with Qualifying. To split qualifying over two days is something new.”

Former Red Bull Air Race pilot Steve Jones said that Hall, thanks to his military background, would probably have a slight advantage in dealing with the repeated delays and interruptions. But Hall said that slight advantage might be negated by the fact that other pilots have more racing experience.

“I’ve done a lot of that in the military, being on alert postures and that,” Hall said. “But I haven’t flown as many aerobatic competitions as these other guys. Every competition pilot has spent a day or two sitting around waiting for their opportunity to fly. I would say that I’m not poor at waiting but I think the other guys are able to do it as well.”

Red Bull Air Race Technical Director Adrian Judd, a driving force behind the sport for the last five years, has died at the age of 44 from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident in Germany. A man widely respected and deeply admired by pilots and crew alike and known for his commitment to the sport, Judd is survived by his wife Sharon and three daughters.

A down-to-earth man with a vibrant sense of humour from Buckinghamshire in Britain, Judd was the final authority on whether an aircraft complied to Red Bull Air Race rules and regulations. He was the epitome of fairness and worked tirelessly, and without compromise, to ensure the sport developed in a positive direction, and fairly for all pilots regardless of their position in the championship. A pilot himself, Judd’s knowledge was instrumental in ensuring the planes were in the best shape possible.

Adrian Judd will be missed greatly by all

Nigel Lamb said: “I’ve known Adrian from just after he left school when he was 18 and sweeping the hangar floor. He’d be delivering fuel at the weekends, working really hard and over time we developed a very deep friendship. He was always one of my heroes. Losing him is a really bitter blow. He would have no appreciation of just how many people’s lives he would have touched in such a positive way. He was a very unique person who I had the utmost respect for and it’s going to take a while for it to really sink in. My thoughts are with Sharon and the girls.”

Paul Bonhomme: “Top bloke and he was the most honest guy ever. I know him as a friend and I’ve done business with him and he was honest through to the core. My last memory of Adrian was when I was doing an interview that required silence. He passed my hangar on a quad bike with exhaust blaring. He then stopped outside Hannes’ hangar next door and I shouted to him to turn the bloody thing off. There was lots of laughter and the next thing, he goes past me backwards on the quad bike, now turned off, with Hannes pushing him and both of them laughing their socks off.“

Hannes Arch: “I dedicated the training session on Friday to Adrian and I think everyone of us feels that way. It’s for him, it’s for his spirit and it’s for air racing.”

Director of Aviation, Heinz Moeller: “He was a self made highly successful engineer in the aviation community, a widely known and respected individual with specialist expertise and top knowledge. He was highly trustful, very straightforward and with a big heart.”

Judd was introduced to the Red Bull Air Race through Lamb in 2005. He first worked as a technician for the Nigel Lamb at the Longleat race after having maintained Lamb’s aerobatic planes for more than 20 years. His experience and knowledge of light, high performance aircraft meant that when the race evolved further, Judd became the natural choice to oversee the technical regulation and he took over the role of Technical Director.

Matt and the team at Matt Hall Racing are deeply saddened by Adrian’s passing and offer their most heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

LAUSITZ, Germany – Matt Hall put in another solid performance in training on Friday ahead of the weekend’s Red Bull Air Race, taking fifth place in the final practice run before Saturday’s qualifying session at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz motorsport venue south of Berlin.

The Australian ace stopped the clock in 1:14.57 – which was well over a second faster than his Thursday best training time of 1:16.22. It looked like Hall would move to fourth on Friday after taking sixth just 24 hours earlier until Japan’s Yoshi Muroya put in a strong time of 1:14.49 to knock Hall back to fifth at the very end of the session. Austria’s Hannes Arch had the fastest training time, a 1:12.01, ahead of Britain’s Paul Bonhomme in 1:13.03.

“I was in an upbeat mood and ready to go and definitely focused on the task at hand,” Hall said at his hangar, which is set up on the pit lane at the world class motor sport race track.

“I flew my plan. I knew the race line I wanted to fly, I knew how I was going to fly the aircraft as far as aggression and feel – and I just went out and did it.”

He added: “I thought I could crack a 1:15 without pushing it too hard. I came in with a 1:14.57 and it was still a comfortable flight. At no stage was I concerned about hitting a gate or getting low or being near a wing stall.”

Lausitz gridstand

The 38-year-old, who missed the races in Windsor and New York after his plane suffered a wing stall and skimmed off the Detroit River before the Windsor race, is currently in eighth place in the Championship on 22 points – with results from just three of five races. He is within striking range of Pete McLeod in fifth place (29 points) but Hall says he is not worried about making any big move up in the overall standings in the final race of the 2010 season.

“I’m not pushing as hard as I potentially would if it had been a great year so far and I was right up there at the top of the championship,” said Hall, who was the most successful rookie in the history of the sport last year with third place overall.

“It’s just confidence building at this point. I’m not really thinking about going faster. As I’m regaining confidence in the track and in the aircraft, I’ll naturally fly smoother and more efficiently, which will lead to more speed. But I’m not deliberately going to go out there and fly any harder.”

Hall said it has been a difficult year and he was looking forward to an upbeat conclusion.

“The year’s nearly over so let’s finish having fun with a good result,” he said.

For full results of Training 4, click here.

Matt’s thoughts following Training 4:

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.”

For results of training session 1, click here.

For results of training session 2, click here.

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.”

The TV broadcast times for Australian viewers for the EuroSpeedway Lausitz race are as follows:

• Preview show – 12-1pm (AEST) Saturday August 7 then race day **LIVE** 10pm-12am Sunday August 8.

• (Fox Sports 1 and 1HD) Race day **LIVE** 10pm-12am Sunday August 8 then replayed on Monday August 9 at 5pm.