Matt Hall goes into this weekend's Red Bull Air Race in Chiba, Japan, brimming with confidence after his win at the last round in Cannes.
The Australian currently sits second in the championship table behind American Michael Goulian, and believes he is a chance to take his second season win on Sunday.
“We’re probably in the strongest position we’ve ever been in this early in the season,” Hall said. “This is the first time our team has ever had a race win this early in the season, and so we’re coming into the race in Japan reasonably confident. We’ve had mixed results here in the past, second is our best result, but we’ve never had a win.
Chiba, home race of 2017 champion Yoshi Muroya, has hosted a Red Bull round since 2015, and is very popular with the local crowds. It has been a bittersweet hunting ground for Hall over the years.
"I'd say we've always flown well in Chiba," he said. "We came second the first time we flew here in 2015 and in 2016 we were battling with an injury so we had modified the raceplane to try and help me fly, but it resulted in an over-G.
"The third time we flew here we flew really well and I think we would've made the podium, but there was what I'd call a 'controversial penalty' and we were booted out of the Round of 8. I was happy with how we flew but the result didn't represent it."
Hall was penalised two seconds for climbing in an air gate. Without that, his time would have been only 0.13 sec off that of eventual winner Muroya.
But for Hall, the encouraging result in France this year has him believing he can go one better than his best result in Chiba so far.
"In France we proved that we can win with our new plane and a new team. We've been consistent for a while now and we've finally got that first victory together. That says to me that we don't have to worry about who I'm racing against; the others should be worried about racing against me."
Round Three of the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship series is in Chiba, Japan, on Sunday, with the Round of 14 beginning at 3.00 pm EST.