www.probaseworldcup.com

The gold final is about to beginn, only 2 pilots are left on the ramp on the Via Ferrata. Ludovic Woerth from France, all things considered the best Wingsuit pilot in the world right now in the white lane and Dave Barlia, a veteran Wingsuit pilot from California and shooting star of this year´s Wingsuit Race, in the orange lane. The peep is sounding and off they go...

Until that moment however 3 days of training and racing had passed in Stechelberg, 24 pilots form 13 nations had gotten togehter to race for the World title in Wingsuit flying, for the 3rd year in a row in the BASE jump Mekka, the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland. For the first time ever a much improved, professional timing system from TAG Heuer was used to provide accurate timing throughout the competition. The Race was furthermore supported by Red Bull, Apex Base, Pressurized, Intrudair, as well as the Horner Hotel, the community of Lauterbrunnen, the Jungfrau Region, Schilthorn Bahnen, Bersteigen Fuer Jedermann, BASE House Stechelberg, the local Schuetzenverein, Chill Out Paragliding, Air Glaciers and Patagonia. 

 

On practice day Barlia surpirsed everyone with several amazingly fast times and he was only beaten by last years runner up, swiss local Matthias Wyss that day. That certainly was a good sign for the man from california who spends large parts of the summer in the valley every year to BASE Jump and fly his Wingsuit. On Friday the preliminary rounds were held and it showed immediatley that the slightly lengthened course was a bit more difficult to negotiate then in the previous years. With the mimimum canopy time set at 25 seconds for safety reasons, it quickly separated the semifinal contenders  from the rest of competitors. Hungarian newcomer Victor Kovats, who was still in the running for the overall win of the 2011 World Cup tour, rewarded with a full sponsorship contract by APEX BASE, flew the fastest time in the first round but burried his hopes of advancing to the finals with a slight low pull which left him with 23 seconds canopy time and thus a disqualification.
This opened up the field for others and several first time competitors took the opportunity to qualify for the semi finals. Amongst them Englands Gary Crisp and Trent Gilles form Canada, who also benefitted from the fact that Switzerlands Oliver Furrer had to leave the competition on Friday for personal reasons, sitting in comfortable 5th position. Matthias Wyss, Giovanni Silvestri, Michi Schwery and Reiner Ebert completed the semi final slots. 
Qualification for the finals was done in 2 rounds this year, the 4 best average times of the 2 semi final rounds qualified for the finals. Michi Schwery who had performed on an extraordinary level throughout the prerounds took it a tad too low and was disqualified, and Reiner Ebert, who had just returned from injury and competed in the race with virtually no practice jumps also got disqulaified for lane invasion. This left 4 contenders in the race for the finals, which were Barlia, Woerth, Wyss and Crisp, Giovanni Silvestri and trent Gilles not making the top 4.
In the bronze final, last year´s runner up, Swiss Matthias Wyss, who had started the comp in his V4 but switched back to his V3 during the comp, beat Gary Crisp for third place. That left Ludo and Dave to race for the win, and it would be a race to remember. Ludo Woerth got off to a quick start and punched out high immediatley, taking a lead. He held on to it for the entire distance however Dave Barlia was building speed in his Apache, catching up from behind and shortly before the finish line he pushed ahead, using that speed he had built up during the 20 second flight. Another dissapointing finish for Ludovic Woerth, who after 2 third places the previous years really went for the win. The emotion of Wingsuit Racing exploded in the landing area when both pilots congratulated each other, a heartbeat final that had Barlia see the better end for him.
Since the Wingsuit Race  also was the final season event of the 2011 ProBASE World Cup Tour, the overall World Cup Champion was crowned, and Finland´s Rami Kajala took the overall victory, and with it a One Year full Sponsorship contract with the world´s foremost BASE Gear manufacturer APEX BASE, after his main competitor left in the race for overal Champ, Victor Kovats, had been eliminated early on.
The organization was especially pleased with the great support received from eveyone involved and the fact that another Wingsuit Race could be completed without injuries or incidents in Stechelberg. 

Find the official ranking of the 2011 Wingsuit race here.