Imagine that you are standing on the roof terrace of a bar in the Mediterranean, Malta to be exact, looking out over the ancient harbour. Whilst holding an ice cold beer, you look out to sea and see a small dot on the horizon. The dot grows larger, you hear a low rumble coming from the same direction, it gets closer and soon its apparent it’s an aircraft.
The plane flies in towards land at very low altitude. It passes the bar within almost touching distance before going on to complete aerobatic manoeuvres above the yachts and watching spectators. This isn’t just a one-off air display by a local squadron. This is the future of motorsport, this is Aero GP.
Malta
My story begins as I walk down the stairs from the jet which brought me to Malta International Airport earlier this year. A glorious weekend of flying was planned for the second race of Aero GP, the brainchild of Jeff Zaltman. He is a flying enthusiast who found the more established motor sports, such as Formula 1, were great but couldn’t work out why no-one had taken the sport into the air.
“Aerobatics was around, involving lots of skill but it doesn’t look as good with the backdrop of just the sky”, Jeff explains. The aerobatics sports were often confusing to the general public, as there was no easy way of following who was winning. There was not a visual definition of first place until the judges revealed their scores. Aero-GP takes this basis and brings in a visual race which makes it a much more interesting sport to watch. The spectators can see who is leading the race rather than watching a scoreboard.
Jeff’s history is a mixture of business, the military and flying. He spent many years in the US Navy as an air warfare specialist and is a keen pilot himself, as well as having a great business background. He is one of those guys who appears to have limitless levels of energy and is never too busy for a quick chat. He is a great figurehead for the company.
His dream is to see Aero GP on the same level as Formula 1, with a multi-race series taking place in locations throughout the world. Considering the level of enthusiasm and commitment he has to the company, I have no reason to doubt this possibility. Aerobatic aircraft competitions are nothing new, with a highly publicised series by a sports drink manufacturer and already being popular in many countries.
In fact, you may be asking where the Red Bull air-race comes into this which, on the surface, appears very similar to Aero GP. Jeff enjoys the Red Bull Air Race but is clear about the differences, “it’s a competitor in a way but only like drag racing is to Formula 1. There are different markets. The major difference is that Red Bull is a timed lap, ours clearly is a race.”
Red Bull clearly has the advantage of a huge brand and their history of running a large number of extreme type sports but, when it comes to sheer spectator enjoyment, Aero GP really does make the Red Bull Air Race almost boring in comparison.
