posted Apr 8th, 2007 - It looks as if the two leaders are planning a showdown in a jump-off round. Round 8 did not bring any changes, Team Fastrax and Airspeed Odyssey are still tied in 1st place. The Sky Panthers lost two more points due to high-level flying, XL lost one point due to an infringement.

Airspeed's Craig Girard mentioned earlier today that his team followed a different strategy for Sunday's five rounds: "We tried to make it as easy as possible for the judges yesterday. But we saw that none of the other teams really seem to care much about how it looks like in the judging room. Now we have been going pedal to the metal, as well."

It is true that there have been many situations where the calls could have been different. The speed of the wind tunnel performance is obviously higher than in freefall, and the teams are going full speed from the second to the last second.

The available time for judging is also shorter since there are no planes climbing to jump altitude necessary. The turnaround times for the teams are shorter, and the time pressure on the judges is higher.

There is no subterminal page where the teams move naturally slower. The tunnel flyers are also very well trained and skilled in building the first formation of each sequence very quickly. The top teams need hardly more than a second until they move with full power.

Results of the much earlier time when the teams can use the full airspeed are a faster pace and higher scores for each team. There are also no serious "exit problems" at all, which can have a significant impact on the scores when teams jump from real planes.

Thus, the extremely high scoring level is not only caused by a fast competition draw. The conditions at the World Challenge 2007, with the strong and consistent airflow from the very beginning, allow the teams to post higher scores than ever before.

The combination of well trained and skilled teams, perfect airspeed for 35 seconds, a friendly judging room and a very comfortable and supportive environment will make the Bodyflight Bedford experience for the World Challenge 2007 teams a lasting one.

There are two more rounds to go though, and the Fat Lady will sing after Round 10, maybe even after Round 11. Stay tuned, Round 9 is in progress.

Fastrax and Airspeed take control of the leaderboard

XL is out of the race for the £5,000 slot now. The Fastrax and Airspeed patience and hope turned out to be right. They waited for XL to finally make mistakes, and it happened. The trained teams have taken the lead and will not give it up anymore in the remaining three rounds.

The XL flying quality and the pace is still the same and would be good enough to keep up with Fastrax and Odyssey. However, the two leaders hardly make any mistakes so far and will probably not make any, and no major and costly ones.

XL lost communication in an early Block 14, which caused confusion, penalties and delays. 17 points for 11-14-7 ended up on the scoreboard. It was the end of the XL rebellion against the trained teams. XL will probably come back and might even win another round, but the dollar amount is most likely down from £5,000 to £1,500.

The neck-to-neck race on the very top has become even closer. Team Fastrax and Airspeed Odyssey are now tied in 1st place after Odyssey won Round 7 by one point over Fastrax. The Airspeed line-up had continued with its peak performance, while Fastrax had a few little flaws, which slipped through the judging room though.

The Sky Panthers were closer than before and lost a point and some time at the very beginning of the 35-second working time when a Photon of Block 11 was incomplete and caused a delay, as well.

The two best Swedish teams, Team 42 and Team Spai, are now separated from each other by seven points. The French Aerokart team tries to catch up with Team Elan. Ex3mo's 4-way line-up is winning over the Italian rival Vertigo so far. Vertigo is a new name for the team formerly known as Fast+Furious. Round 8 is in progress.

Fastrax lead and new team photo

Only Team Fastrax and Airspeed Odyssey were able to maintain their 30+ average throughout Round 6. Their last two rounds were almost exactly identical in timing and execution. If there is any meaning in a "neck-to-neck" race, then it is happening in Bedford between Fastrax and Odyssey right now.

The Fastrax video was shown first and simply demonstrated perfection. It was a flawless round to the highest (currently) possible and (currently) thinkable score of 26 points for this sequence (8-16-D), which ended for Fastrax and Odyssey both at the top of Block 8 (Canadian T - Canadian T).

It was difficult to expect any other team to match this performance level. However, the Airspeed Odyssey members felt good after coming out of the flying chamber. The video of the Odyssey performance was shown 30 minutes later, and it looked as if the Fastrax video was just shown again.

Fastrax and Odyssey also conquered the top of the leaderboard for the first time in this meet. XL has been defending it strongly and almost desperately throughout the first five rounds and the whole first day of the World Challenge 2007.

The end of XL's top position happened due to two main reasons. Team Fastrax and Airspeed Odyssey deliver incredible performances and push each other to higher levels. At the same time, XL had a terrible start into the sequence of Round 6.

The entrance maneuver into the flying chamber and the start of Block 8 did not go as planned, and Steve Hamilton ended up on his back. Only his outstanding flying skills allowed him to recover so quickly that he managed to flip over and back during the inter of Block 8.

However, the damage was already done. Fastrax and Odyssey both had perfect starts into the sequence and were already far ahead. A missed completion of Block 8 added to the XL losses, and the previous leader ended up five points behind Fastrax and Odyssey.

XL is not out of the race yet at all, not even after a 5-point loss in one jump. There is only a difference of three points between the new leader, Team Fastrax, and XL in 3rd place. It is still difficult to imagine that Fastrax or Odyssey, or even both, could lose their current momentum.

Fastrax celebrated the top position in the team's own way. The team members missed their videographer, Steve Redinbo, in the most current team picture, which was taken in Bedford. They manipulated the NSL photo and asked the NSL News to replace the current one with a new photo. The NSL News reacted quickly... Stay tuned, Round 7 is in progress.