Can Hannes Arch Break Air Race's Version of the Madden Curse?

If there's any consolation that Paul Bonhomme can take from this year's Red Bull Air Race world series, it's that Hannes Arch won't win a race in 2009—or so history says.

Since the Air Race stepped into a world series, the defending champion has never been able to win a race during the next season. This is a pretty interesting phenomenon to look at.

After the first world series in 2005, Mike Mangold was the champion. Come 2006 it was Kirby Chambliss up against Peter Besenyei for the top honours, with Chambliss taking the crown.

In 2007, Chambliss was off form and it was Mangold against Paul Bonhomme. These two pilots had exactly the same number of points by the end of the season and had the same number of wins, podiums, and fifth places—the lowest position each pilot had finished.

It came down to who was a more consistent qualifier, and the crown went to Mangold for the second time.

In 2008, Bonhomme dominated the early part of the season, taking three wins out of the first four races. Kirby Chambliss had also come back to form and took two wins throughout the course of the season.

Unfortunately for Bonhomme, a pylon hit in London and an over-g moment in Porto caused him to lose out. But wait, where was Mike Mangold?

Mike Mangold started fairly okay with two podiums in his first two races, but he started to slump from then on, finishing with a ninth place in the final race of the season and just one point from that entire weekend.

So what is the cause of the champion failing to defend and even being unable to win a race?

Could it be that they are on cloud nine? It's not possible. These pilots would like to win more than anything because they are after all in the top flight, both figuratively and literally!

Changes in how qualifying and points are distributed could be a possibility. But with 2008 being so different than 2007, that would be the only sensible explanation for Mike Mangold as to why he didn't win a race this year—and not for why he did not win in 2006.

Overall, it is a strange phenomenon that the previous year's champion will not be able to retain his crown or win a race, for that matter. Hey, who knows, it might just be the Red Bull Air Race's version of the Madden Curse that haunts players in the NFL.

So can Hannes break the jinx? There's only one way to find out...