The 25th F3A world championship is underway in Argentina. In these moments before the preliminaries get going, I’d like to take a crack at guessing the final top 10 standings. (And I will NOT cheat by editing this post retrospectively!)
My guess is:
1: Christophe Paysant LeRoux FRA
2. Tetsuo Onda JPN
3. Gerhard Mayr AUT
4. Yoichiro Akiba JPN
5. Benoit Paysant LeRoux FRA
6. Sebastiano Silvestri ITA
7. Jason Shulman USA
8. Koji Suzuki JPN
9. Stephane Carrier FRA
10. Quique Somenzini USA
About the list:
– It is not accidental that I have put glow-pilots in the top five and that at least 6 out of 10 pilots in this list is glow powered.
– Roland Matt is not competing, according the official competitor list.
– Some big names that I predict will not make top ten, although they are brilliant pilots: Markus Wissinger GER, Bernhard Schaden SUI, Bernd Beschorner GER, Ola Fremming NOR, Wolfgang Matt LIE and Helmut Danksagmuller AUT.
Teams:
1. Japan
2. France
3. USA
It will be the closest race ever between Japanese and French teams, provided that young Carrier does not loose his planes again! Germany is always a strong team in F3A but have not been at their peak the past few years so I predict USA will get ahead of Germany which is likely to wind up in 4th place.
Time will tell if I get it right but in any case the top ten list will contain most, if not all, those names. mark my words. Do you not agree? Why don’t you post a comment here, it’s easy and does not require registration.
I’m receiving a lot of noise about Quique in 10th place. I think he’s a great pilot and judging by all his 2nd places in the past he should be up there with the best. But he has one wing too much and any windy day will punish him for that.
The first results of the preliminaries are in and it looks like the Austrian and Belgian teams are gunning for a a medal too. Good luck to all pilots!
Team results are in, and they are: France, USA, Japan. I was right about the teams but wrong on all three positions! Congratulations France on the team victory.
The finals will be flown this weekend but so far I guessed 9 out of 10 pilots correctly, very excited to see the final list after the unknowns. You do realize that who wins has a great impact on which F3A planes we get to buy in the coming years?