First win for Gqeberha's Patrick Davidson in Air Race X
Representing Team 77, Davidson finished ahead of Muroya and Red Bull's Martin Šonka, who was third.
The opening round of the championship, a virtual round, sees eight elite pilots from six countries competing in high-performance aircraft and flying through AI-generated pylons, chasing time and precision, reaching speeds up to 400km/h, with the pilots being subjected to maximum gravitational forces of up to 12G.
In the quarterfinals, Davidson's time was excluded as he had exceeded the maximum allowable g-forces while performing his first sharp turn, caused by his on-board camera mount having shifted during the take-off and pressing against his trim button.
This resulted in extra trim being applied during the turn.
'The rule is that if you exceed 12Gs, for safety reasons, you have to land immediately and do an inspection of the aircraft, and you are normally excluded from the event as you have not yet set a time,' Davidson said.
'We went ahead and set times for the semifinal round, as well as the final round, with a relatively open mind, thinking that we were out of the running, but unbeknown to us, Australian pilot Emma McDonald was unable to log a time due to a technical problem on her aircraft and did not start.
'The rules state that should there be a non-starter, then the fastest qualifier takes priority, which luckily was us.
'Apologies to Emma, but it was lucky for us as we could push through and maintain the fast pace that saw us get through to the final against Yoshi, whom I managed to beat by more than a second, finishing in a time of 59.50.'
He used the Makhanda Airfield as his base for the event and set the fastest time in qualifying.
He then went on to rack up an impressive 33 points (25 race points, plus eight qualification points), placing him firmly at the top of the leader board and setting the tone for the rest of the championship.
'It's great to start the season on such a positive note and I hope to carry the momentum through to the next round,' Davidson said.
'I want to thank my team as well as my family for all of the support, and I look forward to the next round.'
This victory is a proud moment for SA aviation and showcases the talent, precision and dedication of the Red Bull team, as well as the various partners who are supporting Davidson.
The next round of the four-event championship is on July 6.
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