Matt Hall took his second consecutive race win in 2018 with victory in yesterday's round of the Red Bull Air Race in Chiba, Japan.
The result has elevated him to equal leader in the series standing, level with American Michael Goulian.
Hall took on Goulian, Czech pilot Martin Sonka and Canada's Pete McLeod in the Final 4, posting a 56.376 to beat Goulian's 56.695. Both Sonka and McLeod copped two-second penalites for incorrect level flying, leaving them in third and fourth respectively,
“It feels good to win today, it feels a little bit better than the last race in Cannes," an elated Hall said. "That race was fantastic because we won for the first time with this plane – it was a breakthrough. But this one was just really hard fought.”
“We had a poor qualifying yesterday and went to bed knowing that our first task today was to race Yoshi, who’s the reigning world champion and the guy who has won this race the last two times in a row. He was also the crowd favourite.
“That made it a tough morning for us, but I am proud of how the team pulled it all together. There wasn’t a single error from anybody in the team. No matter what people see out there, this is a team sport, and everyone nailed it.”
Hall qualified in 12th place, putting him up against reigning champion and home-town hero Yoshi Muroya in the Round of 14. Hall laid down a blistering 55.529, over 2 seconds faster than he managed in qualifying and the best time of anyone on race day. Chasing hard, Muroya subjected his plane to a g force outside the allowable limits, and to the dismay of the crowd, was called out by the stewards, his race day done with.
Hall's time set up a Round of 8 clash with Spaniard Juan Velarde, who had gone through as the fastest loser from the Round of 14. The Australian accounted for his opponent easily with a time that was over a second quicker, elevating him into the Final 4.
Goulian raced first in the final to lay down the time to beat, before Sonka and McLeod made the mistakes that put them out of contention. Last into the track, Hall delivered for his team at the time when it mattered most.
Despite finishing second in the championship in both 2015 and 2016, the Chiba result has put Hall at the top of the table for the very first time in his career.
It has given Hall cause to believe his career is back to when it was in those halcyon years of battling with Paul Bonhomme and Matthias Dolderer.
"We like to think it's getting back to where we were a couple of years ago," he said. "We had to take a year off winning with our new raceplane, but we had two wins in a row before our MXS fell over in 2016 and now two in a row with our Edge."
Goulian and Hall lead the championship on 36 points, with Muroya and Sonka sharing the third and fourth spots on 19.
The next race is in Budapest on 23-24 June.