Red Bull Air Race

Race calendar: The 2016 Red Bull Air Race World Championship will span eight races on three continents with 14 pilots ("Master Class") competing. Master Class pilots comprise Hannes Arch (AUT), Kirby Chambliss (USA), Matthias Dolderer (GER), Michael Goulian (USA), Matt Hall (AUS), Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA), Nigel Lamb (UK), François Le Vot (FRA), Pete McLeod (CAN), Yoshihide Muroya (JPN), Martin Šonka (CZE), Juan Velarde (SPA), as well as Petr Kopfstein (CZE) and Peter Podlunšek (SLO) progressing from the Challenger Cup. The Challenger Cup will see eight pilots flying the official race circuits on race day prior to the first round of the Master Class competition. The Challenger pilots comprise Cristian Bolton (CHI), Daniel Ryfa (SWE), Francis Barros (BRA) and Florian Bergér (GER). The three rookies Mélanie Astles (FRA), Kevin Coleman (USA) and Ben Murphy (UK), and returning Luke Czepiela (POL) will complete the line-up.
Red Bull will again provide standardised Extra EA-330LX planes for the Challenger Cup. The six pilots with the best scores from three races will be invited to the season final.
Race format: Fastest time from two qualification runs defines ranking for race day. Seven winners of head-to-head races in the Round of 14 proceed to the next stage, plus the fastest loser. The Round of 8 again sees heats with the pilots being reseeded based on the times they clocked in the Round of 14. The fastest from the previous round races against the slowest, and so on. The four winners proceed to the Final 4 where they race against the clock. However, if both pilots in a heat do not post a valid time, another lucky loser will proceed to the next round based on clocked time. This rule change applies to Round of 14 as well as Round of 8. The Challenger Class race will take place before the Round of 14 contest.
Standard engines (Lycoming Thunderbolt AEIO-540-EXP), propellers (Hartzell composite 3-blade "The Claw") and exhaust systems to be employed by all pilots.
Pylons (air gates) are kept 25 m high for safety reasons. Knife edge flying through gates and the quadro gate remain removed from the race format.
Amended scoring: The winner on race day gets 15 points, the second 12 points, the third 9 points, the fourth 6 points, the fifth 5 points, down to one point for ninth place. However, every pilot collecting a DQ in any round will receive no points at all.
Penalties: 3 seconds each for the first two pylon hits in a run; 2 seconds for flying too high, as well as incorrect level flying; 1 second for missing smoke, as well as for entry speed between 201 kn (372.3 km/h) and 201.99 kn (374.1 km/h). Pulling more than 10 g (indicated via telemetry or post-flight analysis) will result in a DNF.
Note. The general entry speed limit of 200 kn (370.4 km/h) had been reduced by the race committee to 180 kn (333.4 km/h) for the Master Class race in Abu Dhabi.
Disqualification (DQ): Uncontrolled flying (e.g. closer than 10 m to the ground), third pylon hit in a run, crossing the safety line, pulling more than 12 g (indicated via telemetry or post-flight analysis), entry speed above 202 kn (374.1 km/h), as well as missing the post-flight minimum weight of 698 kg (with a tolerance of -5 kg).