posted Dec 15th, 2006 - Yesterday's NSL News story broke the news that Mark Kirkby left Team Fastrax and joins Airspeed Odyssey for the 2007 season. The same story went far back in time and to the very beginnings of the entire Airspeed project. Mark Kirkby is one of the original Airspeed members and now goes back to where it all began.

There are many interesting aspects of this surprising move. One of them is the fact that Team Fastrax has created a similar project within the skydiving community as Airspeed did in 1994/95. Fastrax founder and manager John Hart created the Fastrax project with a long-term vision in mind, and the project has already gone far beyond the original 4-way team, as John Hart's recent interview with the Skydiving Magazine showed.

John Hart is also reaching out to the general public and the corporate business world, which requires a more professional approach with all of Team Fastrax' skydiving activities. John Hart's project was launched in 2003, and Mark Kirkby experienced the Fastrax world only for one year before going back to the Airspeed project.

The business part of the Fastrax project is already extraordinary in the skydiving community. It aims at providing an independant and healthy financial foundation for the actual competition teams. However, even the Fastrax progression on the athletic side of the project throughout the first four years is impressive enough.

The first line-up of 2003 consisted of John Hart, his brother David Hart, Bob Akers, Niklas Hemlin and Kip Lohmiller on camera. John Hart provided financial support for the team. However, he did not hire world champions to launch his project. The young player coach Niklas Hemlin was the only professional leader of the first line-up.

Comparing the beginnings of both team projects Airspeed had a great head start. Each team member in 1994/1995 was already a seasoned and experienced world class competitor when Airspeed was formed. Dan BC's NSL Profile story includes additional insights of the early Airspeed years.

The second phase of Team Fastrax (2004 - 2005) included a new line-up with more experienced competitors (John Hart, Niklas Hemlin, Billy Andrews, Eric Gin and John Judy on camera). However, the new team members were still not representing the top level of 4-way competition in the USA by then. John Hart was looking for young and hungry talent at his side for the next move up the career ladder.

The professional business part of Team Fastrax was consistently developed, while the 2004/05 line-up climbed from a 15-average in 2004 to a 19.7 average at the World Cup 2005. Team Fastrax attended a total of seven 4-way competitions in 2005, which contributed obviously to the meet experience of the relatively young team members.

John Hart felt obviously well prepared for the next step up when he and Niklas Hemlin recruited a new 4-way line-up for the 2006 season. This time, two former 4-way world champions were hired to initiate the final Fastrax move up to the very top level of 4-way competition.

Team Fastrax' business arm was now strong and successful enough to carry the expenses for a fully sponsored professional 4-way team. In fact, John Hart's skydiving business had already become profitable, as he mentioned in the recent interview. Team Fastrax now consisted of the 4-way competition team, a Canopy Piloting team, a Skysurfing team and the most important Demo and Tandem team. The 4-way competition team was able to focus only on the athletic part of the project.

Mark Kirkby (Airspeed) and Doug Park (DeLand Majik) brought the expected new skills, expertise and experience to the Fastrax plate. The progression was consistent (20.2 - 20.6 - 21.2 - 21.6) and brought the according success. John Hart himself had moved from a 13.4 average at the USPA Nationals 2003 up to a 21.6 average in 2006.

The end of the 2006 season was not supposed to be the end of this line-up's time together. Team Fastrax had made plans for a 3-year commitment, which still has the world championship title as the final goal.

This goal has now become very realistic. The Fastrax 2006 line-up already kept up with the DeLand Groove 4-way world champions and the Russian team Black Cat throughout most of the competition rounds at the USPA Nationals 2006. One more year of training and competition in 2007 would put Fastrax into the position of the top contender for USPA gold medals in 2007 and the slot as the US national 4-way team in 2008.

The Fastrax plans now required an adjustment when Mark Kirkby decided to move back to Arizona. John Hart was not too shocked or even impressed when Mark Kirkby told him about his new plans. He felt confident enough that Team Fastrax is now in a position where top players will be eager and motivated to get a slot.

In fact, it really did not take very long until the open slot was filled, and John Hart was very excited when he lifted the secret: "There could not have been a better choice than Thomas Hughes. He is one of the most talented flyers in the history of the sport, and he is young and eager. Niklas and Thomas are both so young, and they will probably still win many world titles in their careers. We will be even stronger with him in the line-up."

The detailed career story of Thomas Hughes can be found at the NSL Profiles. The profile was updated at the end of the 2005 season, and the NSL News will soon add missing information. However, the Fastrax plans for the next two years will not change, and the training continues as it was planned. The next camp is scheduled for the upcoming week in DeLand, and the NSL News will use the opportunity for a live update.

Fastrax has the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 on the team agenda, as Airspeed Odyssey has. The event will probably live up fully to its name. The first 2006 competition between the new line-ups of Airspeed Odyssey and Fastrax promises more than enough excitement and world class 4-way for the FSL season opener.