I’d always wanted to visit Monument Valley on the Utah / Arizona border.

It’s amazing.

original – flickr

But when I drove up in May the entrance was congested with big trucks.

Monument Valley is managed by the Navajo Nation. (Red flag for me. My experience is that indigenous peoples are almost always the worst stewards of “the land”.)

They had rented the pristine landscape to Red Bull for a smoky, loud event tagged “formula 1 racing in the sky“.

I can argue this is WRONG in at least 6 different ways. …

But — like everyone else in the audience — I thought it was pretty bloody cool. See for yourself.

Details on the race:

Hungary’s Peter Besenyei, piloting a Team Red Bull Edge 540, beat 11 other air racers around a nine-gate airborne slalom course set up at Monument Valley, UT on Saturday, May 12, 2007, with a time of 59.87 seconds to win the third in the series of 2007 Red Bull Air Races. Besenyei, a former aerobatics world champion, attacked the race course by accelerating from a high perch position to the east in order to pass through the entry gate at 185+ KTAS. Passing through the second air gate, he had to pull 9.8Gs to reach the third air gate in minimum time. …

Eight additional Red Bull races are slated for 2007, including one in San Diego, CA on Saturday September 22nd, 2007. Other races will be held in Istanbul, Interlaken, London, Budapest, Porto, Acapulco and Perth. The race planes are disassembled between events and shipped by air freight to the next race venue. …

Red Bull Air Races now are carried by 97 television stations around the world, according to race executive Tino Landl. …

Red Bull Air Race sponsors Red Bull, Audi, Seat and Breitling teamed with the Navajo Nation to develop the Monument Valley race event venue. Landl estimates that the television exposure for the sponsors is worth up to $500-million annually, but the event has yet to reach the financial break-even point after the first two full years.

Aviation Week