Andrew Holly Wins The 2011 Hot Air Ballooning Grand Prix Series

The series is spread across the year and accumilates scores but sadly the final event of the year was canceled by the organisers leaving results as they stand following the last event in Ludlow.

Andrew won with a comfortable margin to Richard Parry and David Bareford and the victory puts Andrew into the team for the 2012 hot air balloon World Championships in Battle Creek, USA along with Richard who secured his place with a podium finish at the British National championships earlier in the month.

Andrew said 'we've come close to winning the GP series a few times but to finally get the right colour medal is great. The qualification for the USA bound team is most important and winning the GP was our only chance to qualify as our team was organising and not flying at the national championships. My new team has been together for around a year now and in that time we have competed in half a dozen competitions and have only once missed the podium so we're now looking forward to 2012'.

Crew chief Phil Baker said 'our new team gels very well. The average age of the team excluding our pilot for the GP series was under 20 and Andrew is dedicated to bringing in new blood to the sport and enthusing as many people as possible and this just shows that with the right frame of mind age is not a barrier to success'.

Pictures: Bob Baker