In the fourth race of the RED BULL World Cup the few spectators in Hüttau saw the fourth Austrian winner. After Gerald Kallan (two wins) and Robert Batkowski (one win) now all-time-star Gerhard Pilz continued the winning streak of the Austrians. Not two perfect runs, but two good ones were enough to finish on top of the podium. “The track was very difficult, very rough and fast. In the first run we all were a little bit too much on the brakes as you can see in the faster times in the second run,” explains five-times-World Champion Gerhard Pilz. Speaking of the overall ranking in the World Cup, which seemed to be a competition between Gerald Kallan and Robert Batkowski only, Pilz sees still a chance: “Today it became a little bit more open again and it is always still a goal. Even though the seasonal goal is the World Championship in Slovenia.”
Gerald Kallan – ranked fourth today after some problems in the first run – lays 20 points behind his strongest competitor Batkowki and it was exactly his brother Roland who finished second in today´s race and therefore deprived Gerald of important points. Normally Gerald is the stronger one in the family-competition. But the brothers had no home advantage even though they live only a few kilometers from the track in Hüttau. “There were no training possibilities this year, just in the top part of the track and amazingly this is exactly where I lost most of the time, “says Roland Kallan.
World Cup leader Robert Batkowski stays calm and does not want to think of possibly winning the RED BULL World Cup, nor does he want to talk about the upcoming World Championships. “Sure, if it happens that I win them both, I won´t complain, but I concentrate from race to race and my today´s goal was to defend the World Cup lead.” Today´s third place was Batkowski´s worst season result and considering that Hüttau is not one of his favorite tracks he is “very satisfied with the outcome.”

Tomorrow, Sunday, the women´s and doubleseaters events will be held.

Final results men´s singles (30 starters):

1. Gerhard Pilz (AUT), 1:05,04 (1), 1:04,79 (2), 2:09,83;
2. Roland Kallan (AUT), 1:05,35 (5), 1:04,68 (1), 2:10,03;
3. Robert Batkowski (AUT), 1:05,26 (4), 1:04,87 (4), 2:10,13;
4. Gerald Kallan (AUT), 1:05,37 (6), 1:04,85 (3), 2:10,22;
5. Anton Blasbichler (ITA), 1:05,14 (3), 1:05,11 (5), 2:10,25;
6. Ferdinand Hirzegger (AUT), 1:05,39 (7), 1:05,38 (6), 2.10,77;
7. Gerald Kammerlander (AUT), 1:05,11 (2), 1:05,73 (10), 2:10,84;
8. Florian Breitenberger (ITA), 1:05,99 (9), 1:05,59 (7), 2.11,58;
9. Borut Kralj (SLO), 1:06,02 (10), 1:05,68 (8), 2:11,70;
10. Andreas Castiglioni (ITA), 1:06,88 (13), 1:05,72 (9), 2:12,60;
11. Thomas Damian (ITA), 1:06,85 (12), 1:05,85 (11), 2:12,70;
12. Rudi Resch (ITA), 1:05,93 (8), 1:07,23 (17), 2:13,16;
13. Daniel Quitta (ITA), 1:06,84 (11), 1:06,41 (12), 2:13,25;
14. Marcus Grausam (GER), 1:07,26 (15), 1:06,70 (13), 2:13,96;
15. Borut Fejfar (SLO), 1:06,98 (14), 1:07,05 (16), 2:14,03;
16. Georg Maurer (GER), 1:07,69 (17), 1:06,75 (15), 2.14,44;
20. Corey Pusey (CAN), 1:08,62 (20), 1:07,73 (19), 2:16,35;
22. John Gibson (CAN), 1:10,67 (23), 1:09,97 (23), 2:20,64;
23. Kaj Johnson (CAN), 1:13,33 (24), 1:13,28 (24), 2:26,61;

World Cup Standing (after 4 of 6 races):

1. Robert Batkowski (AUT) 340
2. Gerald Kallan (AUT) 320
3. Gerhard Pilz (AUT) 273
4. Anton Blasbichler (ITA) 230
5. Roland Kallan (AUT) 219
6. Florian Breitenberger (ITA) 208
7. Ferdinand Hirzegger (AUT) 191
8. Andreas Castiglioni (ITA) 176
9. Gerald Kammerlander (AUT) 152
10. Martin Psenner (ITA) 141
11. Georg Maurer (GER) 127
12. Marcus Grausam (GER) 111
18. Corey Pusey (CAN) 82
20. John Gibson (CAN) 67
40. Kaj Johnson (CAN) 17

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