Spanish FAI Sailplane Grand Prix, Contest Preview

In the beautiful setting of the Valley of Cerdanya in Catalonia The Aeroclub of Sabadell is host to the Spanish FAI Sailplane Grand Prix where 15 top sailplane racing pilots will compete to qualify for the final of the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix series in Varese in 2015.

There are several experienced SGP pilots competing who are committed to gaining a place in the 2015 final and from this group we expect the winners to emerge.

Four of the favourites flew in the last SGP finals in Sisteron in May this year Tilo Holighaus (GER), Kai Lindenberg (GER), Petr Panek (CZE) and Mike Young (GBR), of these pilots Mike and Tilo are the most experienced SGP pilots and on current performance we would expect them to be near the top in the final results. However in sport you never know, ask Lewis Hamilton about that. Sailplane racing provides excitement and entertainment as the leading pilots have to keep flying on the edge to stay at the top, lots of surprises come every minute producing great entertainment in great scenery. A real modern sport drama.

The contest also has several new pilots who have entered to find out what SGP racing is all about and we will bring you more news of their progress as the week goes by. Two of the competing gliders are of a much lower performance than the new hot 15m sailplanes but if you want to get a taste of SGP racing you have to compete in the sailplane you have.

We are looking forward to bringing you all the action both live tracking and with daily race reports.

The first race starts on Sunday the 7th September and we expect the races to start at around 15.00 local time. (13.00 UTC)

Follow the live racing and results at www.sgp.aero and keep up with all the news via the SGP Facebook page www.facebook.com/faisgp and updates on Twitter at twitter.com/faisgp