After double win in the first and second eVTOL EXA Circuit Races in 2022, Zephatali Walsh won the Airspeeder race held earlier this month at Stonefield Airfield in South Australia. That victory emerged him as the 2023 Airspeeder EXA Series Champion. What is more, Walsh made it in the first-ever race between three Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing craft.
More than a hundred spectators, including racing enthusiasts and aviation officials, gathered at Stonefield Airfield to witness the final race of the historical first, Airspeeder EXA Championship. The culminating race took place in windy and rainy conditions which made it a genuine test of the Airspeeder pilots’ skills and added even more thrill and excitement to the event.
Despite the difficult conditions, the competition between the three pilots – Zephatali Walsh, Bruno Senna and Lexie Janson – was fierce and evenly matched. However, even the rainy and windy weather did not stop Walsh from setting great lap times. It is enough to say that, in Race 2 of the final round of the championship, he completed a lap in just 0:13.857 seconds. The second-placed Bruno Senna showed resilience in flying in those difficult conditions. However, for Lexie Janson piloting the third Airspeeder it was a tough challenge, so that she proved the eVTOL flying car racing to be an unpredictable sport.
The world’s first race of three eVTOL vehicles marked a pivotal moment in motorsport and its innovation. That historic, challenging air race was not only a demonstration of the exceptional piloting skills of the Airspeeder pilots but also a proof of the resilience and adaptability of Airspeeder Mk 3 flying cars developed by Alauda Aeronautics.
The Airspeeder EXA Series and, in particular, the recent race at Stonefield Airfield that concluded with Zephatali Walsh winning the championship, represents a major step forward in the evolution of aero mobility and eVTOL flying cars. Additionally, the race was a dynamic test platform, so to speak, for future race broadcasts. Thanks to the use of innovative on-board cameras, images from all the three vehicles during the race could be transmitted live in 4K resolution. The whole event was also recorded as a live broadcast. Those technological solutions helped to bring the excitement of this emerging sport of the eVTOL flying cars racing worldwide and represented a significant step forward in race broadcasting setting a new standard in this regard.
The successful 2023 Airspeeder EXA Series of remotely piloted eVTOL flying cars was a prelude to fully manned racing, expected to begin as early as 2024. With the start of racing with pilots sitting in the cockpits of the Airspeeders, the formula is to be enhanced with rapid battery-swap pit stops and an element of strategic competition between the racing teams, similar to that known from conventional motorsport. Personally, we are looking forward to it and will certainly be watching further development of that very promising air sport.
If you want to learn more about the Airspeeders, be sure to check out our other stories under the following links:
- 250th test flight of Airspeeder racer aircraft
- First ever circuit race of eVTOL Airspeeders completed
- Alauda Aeronautics unveiled Airspeeder Mk 4
All photos © Airspeeder Ltd, Airspeeder press materials were used.
