Pete McLeod captured his third 5th place finish of the 2010 season on Sunday afternoon while racing on the Hudson River in New York. McLeod posted a time of 1:12.69 in the Super 8 round and narrowly missed making the Final 4. Pete picks up 7 more world championship points and moves back in to 5th place overall. 

“A solid finish here in New York for me, I’m pumped with the result,” said McLeod from the PMR hangar. “There were a lot of positives for the team and I in New York. I had the best qualifying result of my career along with flying penalty free on race day.” McLeod, who qualified in 3rd place on Saturday easily advanced through the Top 12 round with a time of 1:12.84 behind only Paul Bonhomme and Nigel Lamb. 

“I was ready for the Final 4, just two tenths of a second faster and I would have been in – that’s racing,” added McLeod. Paul Bonhomme was able to end Hannes Arch’s three race winning streak and captured his second victory of the season in the first-ever New York Red Bull Air Race. Nigel Lamb of Great Britain was 2nd and American Kirby Chambliss was 3rd. Arch hit a pylon in the Final 4 and ended up 4th. 

As always there were many interesting story lines throughout the race week. Race officials suspended Matt Hall of Australia for the New York race following their investigation into his incident in Windsor. Yoshi Muroya experienced a propeller strike on a landing during training and was not able to compete. Air Race officials also announced Adilson Kindlemann will not return to the Air Race until the 2011 season. Rookie Martin Sonka finished 11th in New York and picks up his first-ever world championship point. 

The Red Bull Air Race moves on to the European leg of the season with the next race taking place in Lausitz, Germany on August 7/8.