posted Jan 10th, 2011 - Tomorrow's Round 8 at the Dubai Championship 2011 is like a jump-off situation between NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Aerodyne Aerokart. The winner of this round will take it all.

Well, not quite, as the winner gets "only" $20,000 and the 2nd place will still be rewarded with $15,000. It is also a little bit different since a real jump-off does not have another team with a lower number of points in the additional round. Arizona Airspeed is also in the "jump-off" Round 8.

Nothing is impossible, and it would not be the first time that Airspeed pulls it off at the very last minute. It is actually still possible that a real jump-off could be added after Round 8 if Airspeed manages to score two points higher than France and Hayabusa.

The NSL News tries to bring up the audience to Hayabusa speed before Round 8 is on tomorrow at 2 pm Dubai time. Rob "Dutch" Kendall and Hayabusa videographer Danny Jacobs provided copies of Hayabusa's Rounds 5 and 6, and team speaker Roy Janssen gave the NSL News some additional background information.

Hayabusa is very happy with the progression of their new Point, Dennis "Bambi" Praet. The Belgian 3-way (Roy Janssen, David and Andy Grauwels) has recently produced two "Rookie Points of the Year", first Waedong So, who came up to high speed very quickly too, and now they did it again with Dennis Praet.

A very interesting aspect of Hayabusa's Rookie Points is the fact that they have taken the slot that belongs to Hayabusa's idol, John Eagle, who is now training and competing with Paraclete XP4, and fills the Tail slot for Arizona Airspeed in Dubai.

Roy Janssen makes no secret that "Fast Johnny" was already the Hayabusa role model when Sven Ibens was still a team member: "For us it's an honor to be competing against John Eagle. He has been our idol for very long and is still a legend for Hayabusa!"

New Point Dennis Praet is now two points ahead of the Hayabusa idol, and the Belgian team has to watch out that Airspeed is not catching up with them. Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard and Andy Delk will be out of the picture for now after this competition, but John Eagle will still be around.

He will meet Hayabusa again when Paraclete XP4 competes at the Shamrock Showdown 2011 and possibly at the World Challenge 2011. Hayabusa could still have an even longer lasting race with the team's American idol if XP4 wins the USPA Nationals 2011 and qualifies as the national team for 2012.

That's far away, and for now Roy Janssen and Hayabusa just want to win, no matter what. Even the money for the first three places in Dubai doesn't matter: "Honestly, I prefer to be first and have no money than be second and win $15,000 and that counts for my whole team."

Dubai 4-way Open Class
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