London to get summer air race

The Red Bull Air Race World Series is coming to London this summer. The London race, the sixth in the 2007 series, will take place on 28-29 July on the area of the River Thames around the Greenwich Peninsula/Millennium Dome and tickets for the event will go on sale on the 17th May.

The race sees lightweight and agile single seater planes fly through a coarse consisting of 20 metre high pylons, set on pontoons in the river at speeds reaching 400km/ph. On 28 July 14 pilots will have two qualifying runs and the slowest two will be eliminated. On 29 July the remaining 12 pilots have another run and the 4 slowest pilots are also eliminated. The remaining 8 pilots enter a knock out style competition (Quarter Final, Semi Final, Final).

The Millennium Dome (now called the O2 Arena) is at the head of the Greenwich Peninsula which is on a big bend in the River Thames. The race coarse will be set out from there down to around the area of the Greenwich Yacht Club. The organisers have three main viewing areas for which tickets will be required. At the O2 there’s standing room for 13,000 and seats for 10,140, with standing tickets £20 on the 28th and £30 on the 29th, seats are £40 and £50 respectively.

On the opposite bank from the Dome they’ll be space for 1,500 at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Race Club with tickets £150 and £250 for the 28th and 29th July. On the same side of the river but further down near West Silvertown DLR they’ll be standing room for 4,000 priced at £20 and £30 and grandstand seating for 11,472 with tickets £40 and £50. It’ll probably be possible to catch some of the action at points along the river without paying but not for huge numbers of people. Tickets will be available from the AirRace website form the 17 May.