By Ruggero Piccoli

The third act of Red Bull Air Race 2015 was held on May 30 and 31 in the city of Rovinji, Croatia. On the original planning, this race should be staged in Sochi, but during the first months of the year, the Air Race Staff faced financial and organizational problems in Sochi due to the situation of the international markets, as underlined by Erich Wolf, General Manager of the Red Bull Air Race,“Our partners in Russia are facing extremely high exchange rates. This makes it impossible to set up an infrastructure fulfilling our high standards and also to provide our fans with tickets at affordable prices. Nevertheless, we still hope to stage a race in Sochi in the future.”

By the way, Rovinji has been for sure a good alternative with its beautiful scenario. The small city is a well-known tourist site located in the central part of the coast on the Istrian Peninsula. Its pre-Roman origin and the beautiful waters of the Adriatic Sea make the city the second most popular tourist site of Croatia. Together with the success of last year’s race won by Arch who beat Bonhomme for just eight hundredths of a second, the narrowest margin of victory in the sport’s history, these have been good guarantees to bring the race again in Rovinji for the second straight year. The race in Rovinj, the first of four European stops, paid tribute to the rich aviation tradition in the region, which includes nearby Slovenia, Austria, and Italy. For Dolderer and Martin Sonka of the Czech Republic as well as for Arch, it was also a sort of home race.