The 2014 Red Bull Air Race season is set for the closest finish ever as the competitor's go into the seventh round in Las Vegas this weekend.
Championship leader Paul Bonhomme on 45 points holds a one-point lead over British compatriot Nigel Lamb and Austrian Hannes Arch, who are locked together on 44 points.
Australian Matt Hall is fourth on 28 points.
Race Director Steve Jones believes the Las Vegas track will suit the smoothest fliers.
"It's even more important to fly the aeroplane so perfectly in Las Vegas, because every little movement on the controls that you make just costs you another tenth of a second," he explained. "So the guys that can fly smoothly and not make any errors at all will benefit from that. Generally that has been Bonhomme, Arch and recently Lamb.
"Equally there's the wild cards – Ivanoff and Muroya – who are also capable but just don't seem to be able to bring it all together as often. Ivanoff is certainly capable of winning. He'll do a perfect flight apart from one significant error that takes him to the back of the pack. Much like Muroya."
But Jones is not prepared to write-off any pilot who dares to risk it all to jump up in the standings.
"Taking a gamble in racing is always risky, but really it just depends how you gamble. Because of the density altitude in Las Vegas, I would say certainly for the guys who have less to lose there should be some experimentation. For them, it probably is worth gambling with some fuel mixture settings, for instance."
Matt Hall still has a mathematical chance in the championship, courtesy of third places and some other strong finishes. With 12 points awarded for a win, Hall would need to win both Las Vegas and the final round in Austria to overtake the leaders, but all of those ahead of him would need to score virtually no points for the rest of the year.
The race is scheduled for Sunday at 1220 Las Vegas time.