posted Nov 25th, 2013 - The A Class competition at the ISR Grand Prix 2013 ended up with a complete Belgian sweep. All three sets of medals went to teams from Roosendaal's neighbor country in Europe, and the first team from a different nation was the Dutch team Gravity Abuse in 6th place.

The top half of the A Class leaderboard was filled with Belgian team names, with that one exception, while teams from the Netherlands and Italy ended up on the bottom half. It was completely different last year at the Grand Prix, where only one Belgian team made the top half, Play Again, in 6th place.

Several A Class top teams of 2012 have moved up into the AA Class competition, including last year's winner Blue Rebels from Greece, who placed 2nd in the higher category last weekend. The Belgian A Class teams had also indicated at the ESL Championship 2013 that they would be more competitive this year compared to 2012. Belgium won the ESL Spirit 2013, and four of the TOP 5 in the A Class had competed for Belgium on home turf in Moorselen.

There was a part of not only the A Class competition that was almost more important than the numbers on the scoreboard. The Sun Path Products NSL News reported a tragic plane crash in Belgium on 8 November 2013.

The story finished with a paragraph that explained how Thunder members planned a special memorial at the ISR Grand Prix 2013: "Indoor Skydive Roosendaal has officially registered 52 different teams, and the 53rd team is Newton's Maniacs, with the two original members, the Thunder ringers and the three spiritual flyers somewhere over the net..."

Thunder followed through with the plans, and Newton's Maniacs even won the bronze medals in the A Class.

ISR Grand Prix 2013		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	2,6	D,21	F,O,E	J,9	Q,K,B	M,G,A	C,N,P	7,H	Total	Avg
1	Cosmic Noise	12	15	34	19	22	22	18	19	161	20.1
2	Team Rudi	9	14	28	18	23	17	21	21	151	18.9
3	Newtons Maniacs	12	14	27	21	20	14	22	16	146	18.3
4	Fast Forward	10	14	30	15	16	18	20	19	142	17.8
5	Jetmax	9	11	27	15	17	19	17	19	134	16.8

Thunder member Paul Hofstee explained that two of his team mates flew together with Newton's Maniacs Pierre Peet and Ritchie Houtmeyers, each for four rounds. Paul Hofstee and Sven Ibens were in the lineup for the first four rounds. Wesley Claessens and Jacco van Eerden did the second half of the meet.

Pierre Peet was the Point for the Newton's Maniacs, while Ritchie Houtmeyers was actually filming the team in training and competition. He was now in the active lineup and won his bronze medal. Winner Cosmic Noise was far away, however, the changing lineup of the Newton's Maniacs claimed or tied highscores for three of the eight rounds.

Paul Hofstee said that he felt honored that his team could use the ISR Grand Prix 2013 for the special memorial and fly with the Newton's Maniacs. Thunder also competed in the AAA Class with the complete lineup.

The procedure of the special memorial was also different than it usually is, Paul Hofstee said:

"We did not start the meet with a minute of silcence. There was a big applause instead to honor the team and what happen to all the people in the plane crash. It was really touching."

The original Thunder lineup had a good competition, which was the team's 6th one of the 2013 season. Sven Ibens provided a brief review of the eight Thunder rounds:

"We are happy with our performance. We feel like it was a consistent meet for us, and it all felt really controlled and collected. The meet organization was brilliant, and the atmosphere amongst the teams was the best... We had a blast!"