posted Jun 28th, 2012 - The highest number of attended 4way meets by any team is four so far this year. Three teams competed at four different events, and they are all world class teams, with Arizona Airspeed on the very top. This is actually not a big surprise since the best teams know how important competition experience is.

SDC Rhythm XP and Thunder are the other two teams with four meets at this point in time. All three teams also attended two of their four meets together, and the outcome has always been the same: Airspeed on the top of this 3-some, followed by Rhythm and Thunder.

There was always a big gap between Airspeed and the other two teams, however, the distance between Rhythm and Thunder was competitive at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 and the World Challenge 2012. Thunder placed right behind Rhythm in DeLand as well as in Bedford and reduced the gap to only six points at the indoor competition.

Paraclete Outdoor 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	Q,8,H,22	16,19,13	10,14,2	E,C,20,K	5,M,9	A,6,F,17	D,21,N,B	P,O,G,J,1	18,4,7	12,15,3	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	25	20	18	35	36	25	33	31	23	20	266	26.6
2	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	21	17	15	28	29	23	27	27	19	18	224	22.4
3	Thunder	20	17	16	27	27	22	27	26	17	17	216	21.6

The fact that Thunder was able to keep up with a full time team as SDC Rhythm XP makes the team's performance even more impressive. However, it will become increasingly difficult for Thunder to keep up throughout the whole competition season, as the recent results are indicating.

The time for training is limited on the Thunder side, while Rhythm will continue to train as much as possible with less time constraints. The question is how much time off Rhythm's Center Inside Chris Farina needs to recover from his knee injury last week. Craig Girard filled the slot, and Rhythm posted a new team record average with 22.6 after all ten rounds at the Midway Battle.

World Challenge 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	D,Q,9,10	17,P,11	2,21,7	14,J,O,M	A,L,18,16	N,H,20,G	C,E,19,22	1,8,4	K,6,3	12,F,5	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	34	29	24	34	28	34	29	22	26	30	290	29.0
2	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	29	23	22	29	21	30	26	21	23	23	247	24.7
3	Thunder	29	25	23	31	16	23	26	21	24	23	241	24.1

Thunder finished with a 21.4 average after seven rounds at the Tomscat Trophy on the weekend before the Midway Battle. It was the highest meet average for the international lineup with team members from Netherlands and Belgium, but it was still further behind Rhythm compared to both previous meets where both teams competed together.

SDC Rhythm XP had the team's first meet of the year at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012 in February, while Thunder had launched the 2012 season with an indoor competition, as well, shortly later at the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2012.

Those events were followed by the two meets where both teams competed together before they separated again and posted their latest scores recently at different locations.

Tomscat Trophy 2012		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	C,5,D,B	3,22,17	10,M,2	18,16,6	21,4,19	K,G,7,E	L,9,P,A	Total	Avg
1	Thunder	26	15	19	17	19	22	32	150	21.4
2	Whooops (NL)	18	12	13	10	13	20	19	105	15.0
3	Creeps (NL)	13	7	14	10	13	17	17	91	13.0
4	Sky Dolphins (NL)	10	7	9	8	8	12	9	63	9.0

The Thunder members were not pleased with the scores at the Tomscat Trophy, and the video shows all seven rounds. The meet conditions were challenging since the teams in Hoogeveen had to wait all Friday long until the weather eventually allowed the jump planes to take off at 5:30 PM. The teams had to activate themselves late in the day and still completed two rounds after the long waiting time.

The seven rounds in Hoogeveen also included three 3-block sequences, while the ten rounds at the Midway Battle did not include any of those usually slower rounds. Thunder will surely analyse the current performance, and the two highly experienced 4way competitors in the lineup, former Hayabusa member Sven Ibens and former Dynamic Fource member Paul Hofstee, will find ways to continue with the progression despite the limited time and resources.

Thunder trains every other week for 30 minutes at Indoor Skydive Roosendaal and has the next outdoor training scheduled for August 11 - 19 in Spa, Belgium. The international team will then compete at the Open European Championship in Prostejov, which is hosting the World Cup 2012 simultaneously at the end of August. Thunder will also be able to compete at the ESL Championship 2012 in September, which will include the Belgian Nationals 2012 at the same time in Moorsele. The ISR Grand Prix 2012 will be Thunder's last meet of the year.