Race in the sky

After leaving its footprint in about half a dozen international destinations like Abu Dhabi (UAE), Rio De Janeiro (Brazil), Monument Valley (USA), Istanbul (Turkey), Interlaken (Switzerland), London (UK), Budapest (Hungary) and Porto (Portugal), 'Red Bulls Air Race 2007' descended on America's finest city, San Diego. This thrilling air race with some of the best pilots in the world competing against each other in a display of speed, precision and skill was conceived by Red Bull sports in 2001. After planning for alamost 2 years, the first race of it kind was held at Airpower in Zeltweg, Austria in 2003. Since then, it has travelled around the world leaving its audience with a sense of awe.

The Red Bull air race debuts in San Diego for the first time. The San Diego leg had 2 rounds of racing; qualifying round on September 21, 2007 to shortlist the 12 fastest pilots for the actual race day on September 22, 3007 at the picturesque San Diego bay near the downtown. The race was attended by thousands of spectators at the 2 ticketed locations in Embarcadero and multiple other locations spread around the bay like Coronado.

These locations offered vantage view points to feel the planes swish by at 400 kmph close to the ground in pre-set race paths. The high-fly excitement with incredible maneuvers, naval display and parachute drops, all lasted about 6 hours. After a scintillating display in San Diego, this competition races to Perth (Australia) next.