posted Mar 30th, 2007 - Round 6 of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007 was the roughest round of the competition. Round 1 had only a total of three infringements, Round 3 had four formations that didn't count. Rounds 2, 4 and 5 were totally clean. Then came the sequence of Round 6 (M-13-17), which kept event judge Pete Allum very busy. He found a total of nine infringements in 15 competition jumps.

The NSL-TV audience is once again invited to check the meet videos for these rough spots. The Chicas from Germany and DeLand Groove lost two points each, the Golden Knights, Optic Nerve, Golden Leaf, Tunnel Chaos and FSC Wind Damaged had to swallow 1-point deductions.

It was the last round of the first competition day at Skydive DeLand, and it was the end of a very exciting world-class 4-way competition. Airspeed Odyssey was the only top team that went through the first six rounds without any infringements and ended up with a 2-point lead over the Golden Knights Saturday evening (137 - 135).

Team Fastrax was still three more points behind in 3rd place (132). However, Fastrax repeated in Round 6 what the team had already shown in Round 4. Both times, Fastrax came back very strongly from a lost previous round. The 25-pointer for the obviously most challenging sequence of the 10-round competition was the second sole highscore for Fastrax.

The other highscore was the 21-pointer comeback in Round 4 after the difficulties with the first page of Round 3. This time, Fastrax' 25-pointer in Round 6 beat the other top teams even by two points. Airspeed Odyssey posted 23 points, the Golden Knights completed 23 points in time, as well, but lost one point for the official score of 22 points.

DeLand Groove came actually closer to Fastrax than Odyssey and the Golden Knights with 24 completed points in working time. However, two points didn't count, and Groove had to accept 22 points as the official score. It was the last round for the reigning USPA champion of 2006 at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007, and DeLand Groove ended up in 4th place after six rounds (137 - 135 - 132 - 128).

This position was no surprise for Solly Williams, Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo. The line-up of last year's USPA Nationals had not made any training jumps at all prior to the Shamrock Showdown. The Groove members did not even know whether they would be able to get the team together until the last day before the competition began.

The groovy attitude of the DeLand team still allowed the attendance at the meet, even though the team members were busy with several other jumping and coaching commitments. Solly Williams, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo were also jumping with Optic Nerve, while Gary Smith was coaching Team Fastrax, Norway Arcteryx and the Chicas.

Round 6 was also the third time that cash and prizes of the Skins Game were on stake. United Parachute Technologies, formerly known as the Relative Workshop and maker of the Vector 3 and Micron, sponsored Round 6 with $200 cash and a set of T-shirts.

The strong comeback of Team Fastrax with the raw highscore in Round 6 almost guaranteed the first place for this round after handicap. Team Fastrax had now already collected a total of $350 for two skins.

The only other team, besides DeLand Groove, that completed only the first six rounds was Tunnel Chaos. FSC Wind Damaged and Tunnel Chaos both had their own difficulties with the AA Class sequence of Round 6 (M-13-15), including point deductions for infringements.

FSC Wind Damaged won this round by three points and finally turned the 2-point deficit after five rounds into a 1-point advantage at the end of the FSL 6-round meet. Both teams will most likely face each other again at the next Florida Skydiving League competition in April.