Masters Moments: Super Bowl weekend wrap

By Published On: February 7th, 2008Comments Off on Masters Moments: Super Bowl weekend wrap

Jim Roberts reports that Rocky Mountain racers are amped up after their series of speed events peaked at Keystone with two downhills. Rocky Mountain will host the Western Regionals at Winter Park this weekend Feb 7-10.  Sadly, according to Deb Lewis, the Far West division had to cancel their third weekend of racing, a pair of super G races at Mammoth, due to weather. Check out the Far West schedule as some of their events are rescheduled. Intermountain and PNSA took the weekend off. There was no report this week from Northern division or New England. Results from the Northern division can be found at  https://www.northernmasters.org/linkPages/results.htm. The New England racers headed to Cranmore, N.H., for the Gibson Cup, and to Wildcat for slalom on Sunday, but no report is available. Check the Web site for results at www.nemasters.org. The New York Masters held two GS races on Super Bowl Sunday. Midwest racers headed to Giants Ridge for four GS races.
Jim Roberts reports that Rocky Mountain racers are amped up after their series of speed events peaked at Keystone with two downhills. Rocky Mountain will host the Western Regionals at Winter Park this weekend Feb 7-10.  Sadly, according to Deb Lewis, the Far West division had to cancel their third weekend of racing, a pair of super G races at Mammoth, due to weather. Check out the Far West schedule as some of their events are rescheduled. Intermountain and PNSA took the weekend off. There was no report this week from Northern division or New England. Results from the Northern division can be found at  https://www.northernmasters.org/linkPages/results.htm. The New England racers headed to Cranmore, N.H., for the Gibson Cup, and to Wildcat for slalom on Sunday, but no report is available. Check the Web site for results at www.nemasters.org. The New York Masters held two GS races on Super Bowl Sunday. Midwest racers headed to Giants Ridge for four GS races.

Rocky Mountain Speed Freaks pay another visit to Keystone
It’s a Rocky Mountain tradition to visit Keystone Resort on two successive weekends; the first for a GS and a pair of super G’s, and the second weekend for a downhill speed camp, mandatory training and a pair of downhills. Running in this sequence on the same hill allows RMM members a nice progression as the courses lengthen, gates get removed and speeds pick up considerably. What is not readily apparent to racers is the fact that the GS course is the most demanding, the roughest and has the highest number of DNFs. The super G is somewhere in between, and the downhill is the easiest, the smoothest and as it turns out, the safest.
    So why do the numbers not reflect this situation? The GS had the highest turnout, the SG had fewer participants, and the DH had even fewer racers. This is a great question, and one that the 40 racers who competed in alpine ski racing’s premier event can all answer: because safe speed thrills the human body and mind beyond imagination.
    Swiss Am hosted Friday’s speed camp and on-hill activities managed by former U.S. Ski Team and World Cup racer Doug Briggs. Assistant coach Gunnar Sorensen offered a watchful eye at the bottom of The Richter and captured video for post-training analysis. The DH course set by Keystone’s Jay Sowers proved that he knows the hill incredibly well, while three rows of B-netting provided the safety margin on Lower Go Devil as speeds exceeded 75 mph. Add a manmade base, good natural snow and nice weather and you’ve got the recipe for a fantastic weekend of competition.
    Race day brought nice weather with good visibility early, so we ran our races back-to-back to capitalize on our good fortune. To prove just how smooth and safe the downhill track remained, the last racer on the course, DJ Otto, won the race by less than a tenth of a second. Erik Klemme was second and Franz Fuchsberger came in third. The only women’s battle was between Jennifer Kaufman and Susan Roberts, with Kaufman claiming both race victories.
    In the second race, Klemme poured on the juice and won the race, with Otto in second and Fuchsberger in third place. Harold Westcott (class 11), Rolf Funk (10), and class 9 racers Lee Kaufman and Bob Benson all proved that you don’t need to be a youngster to enjoy the thrill of safe speed events.
    — Jim Roberts

New York Masters
Unpredictable weather is a mainstay for central New York and this year was no different with an ice storm, sleet and freezing rain two days before the event. All that mushy glop set up to a World Cup-style water injected surface … naturally. Racers gathered on the premier racing trail called Odyssey for three runs of GS (two races). Race organizers also offered a parent-child division, only the second event where masters and juniors have raced together. Mark Sertl with his (secret weapon) daughter Katja stole the show.
    Retired (and legendary) Greek Peak head coach Steve Travis, fresh off a knee replacement this past spring, and feeling pretty spry, set two great courses. Race result reporting will be a little less specific this week due to the fact that no results were provided to the writer, and no one seems to be able to find a copy. If you really need to see the results, they’ll be posted eventually on the NY Masters Web site.
    Hailing from Tonawanda, N.Y., John “Tuck” Keleher started off the day racing with bib No. 1. Born in 1920, this amusing and witty man thinks he’s getting younger every year and will turn 88 years young in September. Tuck assures everyone that he’s planning on racing as a class 14! He wasn’t the fastest on the hill this week, but he’s been known to be one of the speediest drivers to and from the races as long as he doesn’t make an errant detour along the way. A lot of fun at the start and at the apres ski activities, racers of all ages had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Tuck, along with the usual adult beverages and fare, apples and cider were provided by Jamie McLusky.
    In race No. 1, and with no shortage of confidence, Megan Thayer blasted away at the bumpy, bulletproof course and took the first run for the women, placing her near the top of the men’s race as well. Skiing on the same course for the second run, Thayer was bumped off the men’s podium and settled for taking the women’s race by several seconds. With confidence at an all time high, she should be a contender for overall results at Eastern Regionals and Nationals.
    When the older men hit the course, it’s usually Pepi Neubauer on the leaderboard. Neubauer hammered the top headwall flawlessly but ended up being tossed out of the middle of the course at the under gate. Bob Andree and Mark Knapp represented the home hill crowd well, both skiing aggressively. Mark Sertl and Jim Thoman, along with visitors Roman Matusinski and Berni Resch from Pennsylvania entertained as well. With a course and hill conditions as they were, not many racers went error free.  
    The highlight of race No. 2 was Jim Thoman finding himself actually laughing on course in the single run race. Being an “all or nothing dash-for-cash,”  Thoman flew over the headwall, was shot through the under gate like a cannonball, then he executed a perfect 360-degree pirouette without as much as a fault and continued on course without missing a beat. At the finish line his only comment was a dead pan “I really hope someone saw that, because they’ll never believe me!”  The accidental freestyle maneuver was witnessed, and Thoman, a slalom skier, actually won that run. Again, look for results on www.nymasters.org along with race schedules.
    —Barb Brumbaugh

Midwest Masters race at Giants Rid
ge

Deep in the hills of the Minnesota iron range, and north of the famous Hockey Hall of Fame, sits a little town called Gilbert. Long known for its reputation as “the Red Light District of the Iron Range,” Gilbert boasts a population of 964 and has 12 bars.
    With temperatures in the mid-20s, “hero” snow, world cup level GS courses, and a ton of après ski shenanigans, the Midwest Masters enjoyed the weekend. Giants Ridge hosted an awesome two-day GS event for the Midwest Masters. The mature trees make for excellent wind block while riding the lifts, and create a very quaint setting with a variety of great terrain offered at Giants Ridge. In fact, during the race, several family members and friends were off enjoying the trails through the woods, terrain park, and other runs cut through the dense forest.
    The Midwest Masters “best-in-the-nation” Race Crew, led by Peter Maxwell, were hard at work setting/tending courses that challenged everyone. By the way, a huge thanks to all the Race Crew who worked hard at Giants Ridge. These crew members are Chris Gydesen, Tom Brace, Greg Able, Jeanine Kooman, Ryan Fuller, Lindsey Shields, Dustin Roberts and Mike Auge. Special thanks to Junior Race Crew member, Austin Buyse, for grabbing a gate key and unscrewing/flipping gates at the end of the race.   
    Special guest racers included fast skiers Marta McCormack (donning her “pink” Spyder GS suit) and Jim and Janice Cameron from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Thanks to Janice for running timing in the top start house. An additional thanks goes out to Duluth’s own Jeff “Mojo” Moe. Fueled and sponsored by Heineken, Jeff skied unbelievably fast all weekend, found a wonderful couch to crash on after enjoying Holland’s best.
    Early on race day, a somewhat sheepish Lee Erickson headed toward the back shop area holding onto the zippered front section of his GS suit. “Does anyone have any duct tape?” Lee asked a Giant’s Ridge mechanic. “What for?” the worker asked.  Erickson replied, “A broken zipper on a GS suit and (spinning on his heels and making full eye contact with David Buyse), “this better not make the race report”, Lee said, while holding his suit together in a very vulnerable position! “Your broken zipper on your fly region is safe with me.”
    A fight to get out of the start gate, skate through the first four gates, over the knoll and onto the steep and icy face was the order of the day. Hard edge-angles combined with high/early turns rewarded skiers with a smooth entry into the rollers at the bottom. The second “roller” (now named Johnson’s Jump) caught Class 6 racer Randy Johnson back on his tails. A quick flick of the race stock ski tail sent Johnson flying into the air in a sideways mess somewhat reminiscent of Scott Macartney’s now-infamous crash in Kitzbühel. Johnson hit hard, knocked himself out cold, and tumbled, skidded and rolled to a stop. First on the scene was Steve Lindemer, with several others arriving quickly, while the course was put on hold. Thankfully, a headache, fat lip, jammed thumb and some facial abrasions were the worst of it for Johnson. Shortly thereafter, Pete Sampair challenged Johnson’s Jump … and lost. A bruised tailbone and headache were, again, the order of the day. Get-well e-mails can be sent directly to Randy (randy.johnson@toro.com) and Pete (psampair@sampaircos.com).
Day two GS action and racers were awakened to the sounds of howitzers hammering away at the heavy snow from the night before.
    Flat light in the first run gave way to some sunshine in the second. Course conditions held up well, thanks in part to the boilerplate base and the dropping temperatures. Everyone skied well, and Lindemer had fun calling the play-by-play on the loudspeaker facing Innsbruck. An excellent day capped without an injury.
    Please remember that this program would not exist without the generous support and gifts of our sponsors as well as race results can be found at, https://www.midwestmasters.org/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsItemID=175 .
    — David Buyse

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About the Author: Pete Rugh