posted Oct 26th, 2010 - The NSL News story on 18 October 2010 broke the news of a new Arizona Airspeed lineup, and the story on 19 October 2010 followed up with the background of the team's rear piece, Mark Kirkby and Niklas Hemlin.

The story on 20 October 2010 explained how Niklas Hemlin and Thomas Hughes connected with Team Fastrax. Last not least, the story on 22 October 2010 went further back to the time when Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes trained and competed together for Arizona Blade.

There is a former Fastrax member who trained and competed with all three Airspeed members of 2011 and knows them very well. Doug Park, who is a 4-way world champion of 2004 with DeLand Majik, was also the first Center Inside who posted scores of only 20 points and higher in a 10-round meet with DeLand Majik at the Malevsky Cup 2002.

Doug Park with DeLand Majik at the Malevsky Cup 2002

DeLand Majik was not able to ever repeat this special achievement as a team. However, Doug Park joined Team Fastrax in 2006 and helped his new team into the 20-point elite club of 4-way teams. Only four teams (DeLand Majik, Team Fastrax, Arizona Airspeed, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge) have earned the club membership so far. Only Doug Park did it with two different lineups.

DeLand Majik still moved on successfully, won the USPA Nationals 2003 and qualified as the US national team for the World Meet 2004. Majik then won the gold medals in Croatia, and the team members (Joey Jones, Doug Park, Solly Williams, Gary Smith) went different ways from here on.

World Meet 2004		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	B-P-C-18	9-15-16	K-11-19	E-F-7-5	A-J-21-12	6-4-10	17-Q-L-1	H-14-3	13-22-O	N-M-D-2	Total	Avg
1	USA DeLand Majik	29	23	17	30	18	19	27	21	19	24	227	22.7
2	France Maubeuge	28	22	18	30	17	19	23	20	18	24	219	21.9
3	Russia SkyPanthers	24	21	19	25	22	15	28	19	16	22	211	21.1
4	Italy Sinapsi PD	22	21	20	28	21	18	23	19	16	22	210	21.0

Doug Park joined Fastrax in 2006 where he had Mark Kirkby and Niklas Hemlin in the lineup. Fastrax of 2006 beat Airspeed at the USPA Nationals and won the silver medals. His former Majik team mates Solly Williams and Gary Smith took the 1st place with DeLand Groove.

Doug Park continued with Team Fastrax in 2007 and now had Thomas Hughes and Niklas Hemlin in the lineup for a very busy and successful new season. However, Arizona Airspeed with his Fastrax team mate of 2006, Mark Kirkby, won the USPA Nationals 2007 and traveled to the World Meet 2008 in France. The Fastrax lineup disbanded.

Doug Park lives in DeLand where he runs his Sky Systems operation successfully. The NSL News was interested in his feedback and thoughts of the new Airspeed lineup and invited him for a new NSL Talk session. The video of the live conversation is now available for reviews.

NSL Talk with Doug Park: Arizona Airspeed lineup 2011

The two years that Doug Park spent with the three Airspeed members of the new lineup for 2011 give him obviously a very good idea of the team's potential. He also mentioned during the NSL Talk that he met Niklas Hemlin actually even much earlier.

It was at the time when Doug Park trained and competed with Space Center FX, World Cup winner of 1998, that he met Niklas Hemlin. FX was ready to welcome him as a new team member, but Niklas Hemlin decided to join the PD Blue project in DeLand.

Doug Park knows Josh Hall, as well, since he has worked with Perris Fury as a coach at some point in time. He has also met him at many meets in the past years. He said that Josh Hall has to fill some big shoes, as Eliana Rodriguez has been an incredible Point for Airspeed. The NSL Talk session also touches the topic of the new French 4-way lineup briefly at the end.