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Lexus Goes Racing, But Not the Kind That Happens on the Ground

It’s been two years since the Red Bull Air Race racing series bit the dust, and the world has been too much otherwise occupied to give a damn about it. But things are beginning to change, and someone somewhere feels the need to bring the insane competition back.
Lexus joins forces with air racing team 11 photos
Photo: Lexus
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Next year, Air Race World Championship kicks off, a series that will be “building on the legacy of the hugely popular Red Bull Air Race” and promises to “bring back the fastest, three-dimensional motorsport on the planet.”

The calendar for the series has not been announced yet, but the lineup of pilots, 12-people strong, is pretty much complete. This lineup includes Yoshihide Muroya, the 2017 Red Bull Air Race champion.

It was a year earlier than 2017 that Muroya struck a deal with Lexus to jointly work on cross-developed technologies for planes and cars. That agreement led to the creation of things such as the control column grip for Muroya's aircraft with built-in Lexus sensitivity technologies, or the carbon fiber spoiler fitted on the Lexus LC, made with “aerodynamic technology used in aircraft design.”

The agreement also made Lexus hungry for more, and the Japanese company announced today a new partnership with Muroya, one that will see the carmaker become an integral part of the new team being formed, Lexus/Pathfinder Air Racing.

To help with the future challenges of the joint team, Lexus will deploy a technical coordinator tasked with checking “technologies in the fields of aerodynamics, cooling, and ergonomics.”

The target set by Lexus/Pathfinder Air Racing is an ambitious one, as the team plans to win the inaugural season of the new series.

"With the strong support of Lexus, we will strive to become the first champion of the new Air Race. I believe that an exciting new story will emerge as fans and team crew come together as one," the pilot said in a statement.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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