posted Jan 1st, 2015 - The Arizona Airspeed US and world champions of earlier days usually get back together at the USPA Nationals when it is time for 8-way competition. Then they join forces with the current 4-way lineup and win silver or gold in 8-way, plus additional medals in 10-way and 16-way.

Often they arrive earlier and use the 4-way competition to warm up for their 8-way meet jumps in different lineups. Once in a while, they also get back together in 4-way with Airspeed members of different generations, and then they become competitive without any training.

Three members of the first and original Airspeed generation competed at the USPA Nationals 2014. Mark Kirkby won his last USPA 4-way gold medal with the US national team, while Jack Jefferies and Dan BC had a competitive reunion with AARspeed.

USPA Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	L,F,3,D	8,C,Q,A	9,G,11	P,1,B,H	16,N,15	6,K,J,19	13,14,17	4,O,20	21,10,22	7,2,12	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	33	31	27	32	24	24	19	22	19	21	252	25.2
2	SDC Rhythm XP	31	26	23	27	21	19	19	19	17	18	220	22.0
3	Golden Knights	29	24	23	27	19	22	15	20	16	19	214	21.4
4	Carolina Turbo XP	28	26	23	27	17	22	17	20	15	18	213	21.3
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5	DNR	28	21	20	27	16	19	16	18	15	16	196	19.6
6	Voodoo	25	23	19	22	17	20	14	17	15	16	188	18.8
7	AARspeed	22	24	16	24	17	19	15	18	14	15	184	18.4

The AARspeed lineup in Ottawa was in fact the only team with four world champions in the lineup. Jack Jafferies and Dan BC collected their 4-way gold medals in the 90s, Josh Hall and Niklas Hemlin won Airspeed 4-way gold together at the Mondial Dubai 2012.

Thomas Hughes and Mark Kirkby were their team mates in 2012, while Chris Farina and Thiago Gomes still have to win their own gold medals for Airspeed. They ended up in 2nd place behind NMP-PCH Hayabusa at their first world meet this year in Prostejov.

The Airspeed "B-team" finished in 7th place after a good battle with two of the best unofficial amateur teams in the world, DNR and Voodoo. Jack Jefferies and Dan BC have turned into recreational 4-way competitors, and Josh Hall is not in serious 4-way training at the moment, while Niklas Hemlin is coming back to full time competition with the new Airspeed lineup.

USPA Nationals 2008		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	2,10,15	F,C,3,H	J,O,4,N	20,M,E,11	13,12,L	9,A,19	18,22,D	21,17,P	6,14,Q	B,1,G,7	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey (US)	20	31	28	23	20	30	18	24	22	26	242	24.2
2	Maubeuge (FR)	19	29	27	22	20	29	20	22	21	26	235	23.5
3	Black Cat (RU)	18	27	29	23	18	25	20	20	21	25	226	22.6
4	Perris Fury (US)	18	28	24	23	18	23	17	21	21	25	218	21.8
5	Golden Knights (US)	19	28	26	20	19	25	15	21	21	21	215	21.5
6	Mamba Pamiers (FR)	17	28	25	19	16	25	16	18	19	20	203	20.3
7	Performance Desired (US)	15	28	25	20	17	25	14	18	19	21	202	20.2

The two 4-way world champions of 2012 worked in the center slots together for AARspeed. Josh Hall gave up his point slot for Jack Jefferies, and Niklas Hemlin came back one more time as center inside. He will be in the point slot for the new Airspeed lineup.

The last time that four former 4-way world champions competed together in a pickup team was at the USPA Nationals 2011, even though it was not a complete Airspeed lineup. Former Airspeed world champions Andy Delk, Jack Jefferies and Dan BC had accepted Shannon Pilcher, 4-way world champion of 2006 with DeLand Fire, to compete with Oldspeed. AARspeed (18.4) and Oldspeed (18.1) finished with almost exactly the same 10-round averages.

There was an even more powerful Airspeed/Fire combination at the USPA Nationals 2008. Performance Desired had DeLand Fire members Ian Bobo and Shannon Pilcher together with Airspeed's Jack Jefferies and Dan BC in the lineup. Result was a 20.2 average after ten rounds.