IT has been called the fastest and most exhilarating daredevil sport on the planet, and an Oxfordshire airman could become world champion.

The Red Bull Air Race pits pilots against one another around eight global aerial racetracks at breakneck speeds.

The final race is set to take place in Spielberg, Austria, this weekend.

And Nigel Lamb, of Sydenham, near Thame, is five points clear at the top of the masterclass league, on course for his first win in nine years of competing.

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The 58-year-old said: “It’s been a great season and I think I have a very good shot at the title.

“Just two other guys can still beat me, mathematically, but I just need one final good performance.”

The competition sees 12 pilots fly aeroplanes around a course through a series of gates – air-filled pylons – with the aim of getting round as fast as possible.

Pilots endure gravitational forces of up to G10 – almost three times as much as Formula 1 drivers.

Mr Lamb races with Breitling Racing Team in a MXS aircraft. Weighing 580kg, it has a top speed of 253mph and a wing-span of eight metres.

Oxford Mail:

  • Nigel Lamb in action

His career best so far is third place in the championship, in 2010, and he has been a pilot for four decades.

The father-of-three said: “It’s fast and it is mindblowing. You are flying between the gates and you have to pick the perfect line and get yourself at the right angle. The main difference from F1 is there is no obvious line.

“You don’t really think of the plane as a vehicle, it is more like you have built wings on to your body and you are thinking about how to get it around the course.

Oxford Mail:

  •  Nigel Lamb in his plane with a top speed of 253mph

“It’s very instinctive, but you have to do a lot of preparation for each race because there are thousands of different ways you can go round each circuit. You fly the track, then try to commit the line to memory, so that as you go round you are mentally keeping ahead of where you actually are.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Nigel’s aircraft

Mr Lamb was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in 1956 and was inspired to take up flying by his father, an RAF fighter pilot in World War Two.

He joined the Rhodesian Air Force at 18 and went on to fly piston aircraft jets and helicopters until 1980, when he left to join the Marlboro Aerobatics Team in England.

In 1986 he started competing in aerobatics events, and is still the only pilot to have won the British National Unlim-ited Aerobatic Championship eight times in a row.

The final Red Bull Air Race of the year takes place today and tomorrow.

See the video below

For more information, visit redbullairrace.com

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