MAYNARD, Massachusetts – Michael Goulian had to wait four long years in the Red Bull Air Race to get his first taste of victory. But after winning the race in Budapest with a stunning performance over the Danube River last summer, the American is determined to get back on top of the podium more often in 2010.

The man from Massachusetts has hired one of the top technicians in the race, Dennis Sawyer. The American helped Australia’s Matt Hall to a stunning third last year in his rookie season but switched allegiances in the off-season to Goulian, whom he’s known for 20 years. The team has worked tirelessly through the winter to improve the Edge 540 that blew the rest of the field away in Hungary last summer.

“I can’t wait for the new season to start,” said Goulian, 41. “Once our plane arrived back in Boston after last season, we immediately started a test programme to give us base line data. After that, we systematically went after removing every extra ounce on the air frame. We even had new parts manufactured that look the same as the old ones but are made with slight changes to reduce weight.

“It’s expensive and time consuming, but that’s racing,” the always upbeat American added. “Give it your all or you will be left in the dust of the others.”

He has a clear goal for 2010: “Podiums! All the time!”

Goulian, who finished a disappointing 10th overall in the last two seasons, is chomping at the bit to get back closer to the top in 2010. He was 5th in his first season in 2006 before slipping to 8th in 2007 and then dropping two more pegs in the last two seasons. What was so maddening for Goulian and his fans in 2009 is that he showed he had the ability and speed to win – as he so clearly showed in Budapest. But he also stumbled after that with a discouraging 9th in Porto and even worse 11th in Barcelona. Before Windsor Goulian he had a solid 6th in Windsor but before that was a dreadful 14th in San Diego and 14th in Abu Dhabi. It was an exciting year for Goulian. But also a year with some parts he would rather forget.

“The biggest challenge last year was getting the plane on pace after we started the season with some incorrect mods and a very weak engine,” he said. “Our team put in a tonne of effort to make the changes, which gave us the success in Budapest.”

Goulian admits it wasn’t only an uncompetitive plane in the first part of the season that contributed to some sub-par results last year.
“I probably would not have tried so hard in some races, Windsor and Barcelona in particular,” he said when asked what he could have done differently. “In Budapest I flew my race and didn’t worry about the others. At other times I tried to ‘attack’ the course and it cost me in penalties. That’s not going to happen this year!”

Indeed, in Budapest Goulian did not even watch the lines the other pilots were flying and instead concentrated entirely on his own performance.

Like most Red Bull Air Race pilots, Goulian is loath to reveal many details about the mods he and his team have done over the winter. But he is full of confidence that his plane will be considerably stronger than in 2009 – especially because he will be getting a new, more powerful engine by the second or third race.

“We designed an updated version of our late 2009 race engine,” he said. “The new engine might not be quite ready for the first race but very shortly thereafter. It will be awesome!”

Goulian said the other improvements should make him more competitive from the season opener in Abu Dhabi.

“All in all we made great strides in our plane,” he said. “The aerodynamic mods we made are great. The cowling is beautiful and the plane is incredibly balanced. Our engine is now very strong too so I think we’ll be looking good right from the start in 2010. We’ve also reduced weight on the plane.”