On Saturday and Sunday, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship will stop at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the third consecutive season – and happily for Canadian fans, three is a lucky number for Canada’s Pete McLeod when he is racing at the iconic oval.

In 2016, McLeod earned his first “Brickyard” honor with third place in the sport’s debut race at the century-old speedway. Then last year, when Indianapolis hosted the Red Bull Air Race finale, the pilot was number three again, but on a different set of risers: the World Championship podium.

While McLeod’s 2018 campaign has yet to produce any hardware due to a storm of penalties, equipment glitches and plain bad luck, he delivered a strong performance at the sixth stop in Austria less than three weeks ago, and he is now focused on finishing the season on a high. With a showdown at Texas Motor Speedway closing out the calendar in November, he has got two races in home North American skies to make that happen.

“Indianapolis is the closest stop of the season to where I live, so we’re expecting a big crowd of supporters here – friends and family have already started arriving,” says McLeod, a native of Red Lake who is now based in London, Ontario. “Most exciting for me, this will be the first time our little girl, Aria, will see me race in person. Her first birthday is just a few days before the race on Sunday.”

As soon as the action is over at Indy, Team McLeod will take their Edge 540 V3 raceplane home to Canada to make the most of the six weeks before the season finale by conducting inspections and implementing modifications and refinements.

“For a guy who started out flying in the bush, Pete does really well at speedways. He got his first race win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and in addition to Indianapolis, he has finished on the podium at the speedway in Lausitz, Germany, and Texas Motor Speedway,” points out Team Coordinator Charlotte Sandgaard.

“We’re already working hard in preparation for 2019, and I think we’ve got some good things in store,” McLeod states. “We’re going to do our best to start that momentum this weekend.”

Team McLeod will race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 6-7 October 2018. For tickets, insider news and all the World Championship updates: www.redbullairrace.com.

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Red Bull Air Race 2018 Calendar
2-3 February: Abu Dhabi, UAE
20-22 April: Cannes, France
26-27 May: Chiba, Japan
23-24 June: Budapest, Hungary
25-26 August: Kazan, Russia
15-16 September: Wiener Neustadt, Austria
6-7 October: Indianapolis, USA
17-18 November: Fort Worth, USA

About Red Bull Air Race
Created in 2003, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship has held more than 80 races around the globe. The Red Bull Air Race World Championship features the world’s best race pilots in a pure motorsport competition that combines speed, precision and skill. Using the fastest, most agile, lightweight racing planes, pilots hit speeds of 370 km/h while enduring forces of up to 12G as they navigate a low-level slalom track marked by 25-meter-high, air-filled pylons. In 2014, the Challenger Cup was conceived to help the next generation of pilots develop the skills needed for potential advancement to the Master Class that vies for the World Championship.
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