Before his winter break, 2008 Air Race World Champion Hannes Arch took his racing skills to a new level, competing against former DTM pilot Hubert Haupt and his Porsche GT3. With Arch in the air and Haupt on the ground, the race saw the pilot flying to new heights in his home region of Styria. In the end, however, both Arch and Haupt were winners in this spectacular race.

Even before the sound of the starting signal it was clear that both athletes were born competitors: while 44-year-old Arch couldn’t wait to send his Zivko Edge 451 HA race plane shooting into the sky, to his left the former winner of the “24 hours of Daytona” race was raring to put the pedal to the metal in his Porsche. Once past the starting lights on the start-finish straight, there was no holding back the two racers, with the Porsche shooting across the track at 190km/h. Hannes Arch took to the skies in a cloud of smoke and remained hot on the heels of the car all along the 4.3km race track.

“Flying so close to the ground yet fast enough to be able to pull up the aircraft in the next turn and always having an eye on the car is pretty tricky – you have to keep a cool head and always stay alert,” said the pilot from Trofaiach after landing his plane on the ring’s long straight. With the racetrack situated in the Styrian town of Spielberg, Arch was eager to do his home region proud, but saw the race against motorsports pro Hubert Haupt as a “friendly game”: “We both live life at full throttle and love the speed. We’re having fun with our respective racing vehicles and this is a dream come true for both of us!”

“I really gave my all to be able to hold the speed. It was a head-to-head race, with my wheels almost touching the aircraft’s propeller. In the end, the race was so close that we passed the finish line at the same moment,” says 42-year-old Haupt, who used to be a successful DTM pilot alongside his team colleague Joachim Stuck.

The race took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on occasion of a photo and film shoot for fitness equipment provider milon (www.milon.com).