The five balloon teams racing in the Chrysler Transatlantic Challenge will have to sit tight for a few more days, as weather is expected to prohibit a safe takeoff until at least midweek.

Midnight Saturday was the opening of the official window for the crossing. Race director Alan Noble said balloonists were hoping for low pressure followed by a relatively tranquil air mass, then another low-pressure system a couple of days later.

That is not expected until Wednesday and possibly may not occur until the end of September, Noble said Saturday at a Bangor press conference.

Leaving early, Noble said, could land the balloonists in the middle of the Atlantic, already a fair possibility. Of 16 known trans-Atlantic balloon attempts, only five have succeeded. Five others ended in tragedy.

“It might be quite pleasant to have them in the Azores, but it’s not really where we want them to go,” Noble said, referring to a cluster of islands that sit about midway between the United States and Europe.

Decked out in white Chrysler Transatlantic Challenge sweat shirts, 15 crew members from the five teams — the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — appeared eager but at relative ease as they met with reporters. Responding to questions, Noble and the balloonists stressed that although they consider the challenge to be the biggest balloon race ever, competition does not overshadow a sense of camaraderie and humor.

Awards will be given to the first team to cross a paved road in Europe and to the team that completes the longest flight. On a map, it appears there are only a few routes to take them there from Bangor, but team members were mum on their strategies. Asked where they planned to land, U.S. team member Richard Abruzzo said, “Somewhere in mainland Europe, that’s all we can say.”

“We’ll be thankful not to get our feet wet,” said Donald Cameron, the British pilot whose 1978 attempt to cross the Atlantic left him in the ocean just shy of France.

Evert Louwman, a pilot for the Netherlands, also went for an unplanned ocean swim, waiting 10 hours for a rescue after one unsuccessful flight years ago.

“To be honest, at that time I said, `never again,”‘ Louwman told reporters, “but I also learned never say never again.”

When the balloons finally lift off into the Bangor sky, spectators will be able to tell the difference between the teams only by logos on the gondolas. Noble pointed out that all teams have identical equipment, and all will share identical weather information. While Noble handpicked many of the team members to meet exacting standards, he acknowledged that nature would have as large a role as anything.

“You can check all your supplies, cross all your i’s and dot all your t’s, but you can’t do anything about the weather, really,” he said.

So, in advance of their expected leave of Bangor sometime in the next six weeks, Noble, sponsors and team members thanked the city for its hospitality.

“Most people, if we told them we wanted to race balloons and wanted to take off from their city, would think there’s a screw loose,” Noble said. “Whatever we asked for, no matter how outlandish, it’s appeared. Bangor is very much a can-do city.”

As the launch day nears, the city appears to be increasingly fascinated with the race and the international attention it will bring Bangor. On Saturday night, thousands of residents poured into Bass Park to get a closer look at five non-race balloons, one of which was a hot-air mock-up of the race balloons.

A few residents received brief flights in the tethered balloons, and the crowd oohed and clapped as pilots ignited burners, lighting up the inverted cones against the night sky.