The 1998 World Honda Grand Prix third and final
round, held in Sendai, Japan, October 21-25, was a great success. Twenty-five
teams from 10 countries flew 18 tasks in 9 flights. The weather was perfect
with no canceled flights.The 1998 World Honda Grand Prix third and final
round, held in Sendai, Japan, October 21-25, was a great success. Twenty-five
teams from 10 countries flew 18 tasks in 9 flights. The weather was perfect
with no canceled flights.
The Grand Prix, conceived by Masashi Kakuda of Japan, was the first of it's kind with three different events on three continents: the first round in July in Monroe, Wisconsin and the second round in August in Bourscheid, Luxembourg and the third and final round in Sendai. Each of the twenty-five teams was made up of one, two or three pilots from around the world. The accumulative scores from the three rounds determined the winning teams.
First place and 5 million yen (about $42,000) went to the Magic Racer team of Texas pilot Joe Heartsill and his German teammate Uwe Schneider. Second and 3 million yen went to the Team Atlantic of Texan Steve Jones and Crispin Williams of U.K. And third and 1 million yen went to the Red Dog team of Colorado pilot David Levin and current world hot air balloon champion, David Bareford of U.K. Heartsill, Jones and Levin flew Monroe and William's, Schneider and Bareford flew both the Luxembourg and Japan events. The concept of the World Honda Grand Prix is truly international with pilots as well as officials participating from the world over.
Sendai, a modern city of one million, located 200 km north of Tokyo, is the administrative and economic center of North-Eastern Japan. The flying area consisted of heavily forested rolling hills with surrounding wide, flat valleys of harvested rice fields. A few days before the start of the contest, the area was dumped on by the remnants of Typhoon Zeb. Although the sky was clear and the wind was friendly, the fields were a muddy mess not allowing any vehicular access. In fact, we never did launch from the launch field. Launches and landings were made from small roads between the cut rice fields.
The spectators and farmers around Sendai were quite friendly, very curious and always happy to see the balloons. It appears that locals, sponsors and balloonists are all equally anxious to enjoy this beautiful part of Japan with another Grand Prix.
