JULY 2018 21
where we raced against Mike Goulian,
Pete McLeod and Martin Šonka. It
might even show our Round of 8
heat when we raced Spaniard Juan
Velarde.
But for our team, it was the Round
of 14 that set up our victory and it was
our most satisfying flight all day.
So, how can this help you?
No matter what you are facing
in the day, if you are starting to get
stressed about it, acknowledge that
yes, there may be things that don’t go
your way.
But always make sure you have a
basic plan on how to mitigate those
items as best as possible, then focus
on what you can control to make it
perfect. Whether that be a flying test,
a nasty weather day, or something on
the home front, focus on the positives
and have a plan for the negatives.
If you can do that, you will perform
better and most likely even enjoy the
challenge.
Smoke on, go...After a few hours, just before we
left for dinner, Pete had isolated the
exact point where things went wrong,
and it was an easy item to fix. We
also knew from the second run that
if I did not hit the pylon – coulda,
shoulda, woulda – we would have
had a great time. We still knew it
was in us to win the race, but a little
more concentration was now needed
considering the qualifying result.
What a 12th place in qualifying
did though, was throw in a whole
new element for the Japanese race
- mind games. Our result meant
that our opponent in the first head-
to-head knockout Round of 14 was
Yoshi Muroya, the home-grown hero,
reigning world champion, and Chiba
air race winner from the previous two
years. Oh, and he knocked me out in
the Round of 8 in 2017. Brilliant.
The Japanese media had a field
day when they saw that Yoshi and I
were matched up again. They were
calling it the ‘heat to watch’ in the
Round of 14. The good news was that
Yoshi was looking at our team, equally
worried that he was up against strong
competition. Like I said, mind games.
After qualifying we went out for
dinner as a team with Rowan Willson
from OzRunways, one of our highly-
valued air race sponsors, and his wife
Kristen. Rowan is an ex-RAAF pilot
like me, and we discussed the mental
challenge that lay ahead on race day
and the fact that no matter what
happens on qualifying day, the next
day is a new one. We also agreed that
regardless of what coulda, woulda or
shoulda happened, it’s always a little
stressful after qualifying.
We compared my result from that
day to doing an IRT, or a GFPT on
pilot’s course.... you can be blitzing the
flights leading up, but it only takes one
error on the day to fail the flight.
I went to bed and thought a bit
about this concept. I realised that it
was exactly the same as being in the
RAAF, and my whole career I had
dealt with situations like this. Instead
of focusing on what could go wrong,
and making mistakes, I needed to
recognise what could go wrong, but
be confident I had a plan in place to
deal with not letting that happen, then
focus completely on how to do it right.
In the morning, the team and
I continued with this mindset...
everyone needed to be prepared for
a perfect first run. There were lots of
media questions about who would win
between Yoshi and I, and our response
was always “don’t know, can’t control
it, all we can do is our best effort”.
The stress disappeared as the
Round of 14 neared, and as I taxied
out for one of the hardest first rounds I
have ever faced, I felt the most relaxed
I had ever been.
And that mindset worked.
I flew first in the heat against
Yoshi and put down a time that was
0.6seconds faster than the next best,
and over a second faster than everyone
else. Regardless of how Yoshi went,
I knew we would progress to the
Round of 8 as the winner of our heat,
or the fastest loser in the Round of 14.
Unfortunately for Yoshi, he made
an error and DQ’d himself out of the
round.
We always make a point of ‘racing
ourselves’, not our opponent. Even
though we never got the chance to
compare our time to Yoshi that day,
we achieved what the team has since
referred to as our most perfect run in
the track to date.
The highlights reel from Japan will
show our winning run in the Final 4Two in a row deserves a big
thumbs up.BALAZS GARDI/RED BULL
CONTENT POOLCelebrating a hard-earned win.
BALAZS GARDI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL