Portland/Cascade Fall Final Slalom |
17 Registered Contestants.
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Event Date and Time: |
Saturday, September 06, 2003 11:30 |
Event Duration: |
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Location: |
USA, Washington, Vancouver, Salmon Creek Park and Ride |
Entry: |
Open |
Helmets: |
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Organizer: |
Portland/Cascade Grass Roots
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Map: |
Click here for online map
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Entry Fee: |
$00.00 |
Contest Info: |
The final race of the NW season is coming up. Everyone is getting faster and better, so this promises to be a very competitive event. Date: Sept 6 2003 (Saturday) Time: 11:30 course open for practice, and racing starts very soon after 11:30 (Hint: be there early and lend a hand in setting up). Event: Dual Hybrid Slalom (3 Qual runs; Then 6 "ladder" final runs in head-to-head format). EVERYONE gets 9 runs Location: USA, Washington, Vancouver, Salmon Creek Park and Ride. Take I5 to intersection with I205, turn off at the Hwy 99 and go North as close to the intersection of I205 and I5 as you can get. Entry Fee: $0 nadda, zip, zilch, zero, goose-egg, none, (Donations accepted for timing equipment improvements). Advanced Sign up requested on NCDSA.com (see events calendar). Racing! Trophies! Prizes! (Prizes given via raffle) Trophies, prizes, bragging, speeches and excuses will be done immediately after the race at the nearby McMinneman's Road House (children OK). Thanks to our sponsors: Daddies Board Shop Pleasure Tool Bearings Gravity Sports Polliwog Bogus Sportswear Curve Skatboards Columbia Sportswear
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1st Place Finisher: |
Open: Paul Howard PRO: Michael Dong |
2nd Place Finisher: |
Gareth Roe |
3rd Place Finisher: |
Stephan Daddow |
Overall Results: |
From Gareth Roe:
"Special Thanks to Pat Chewning and the rest of the Portland guys for putting on a great race this last weekend in Vancouver, WA. Despite the best efforts of the local security patrols and the City of Vancouver Police Department - we raced! (Note: the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department was very helpful, didn't agree with the security patrol's conclusions and even had dispatch looking for alternative sites for us to race on! - THANKS!)
Michael D. set a great 50 cone tight course that had lots of the cones set right at 6 feet on center. He threw in a nice "Gilmourian Curve" and a couple of step-overs for good measure and then finished it off with a tight 6 cone stinger section.
Most notable was the level to which everyone has improved over the season. This was no beginner course by any stretch of the imagination and everyone was making it through the cones with confidence! The times ranged from Michael's blistering 15.9 second run to the high 20's and low 30's. Most of the pack was right in the 19, 20 and 21 second range. There were only a handful of clean runs all day - Everyone was charging!! Another great feature of this race is the bracket format that allows EVERYONE to race right up to the end. No one gets sent home early. If you win your bracket, you move up a notch. If you lose your bracket, you move down a spot. No one gets knocked out.
After the race we retreated to the local watering hole, McMenamins for a great meal and some brews along with the award ceremony and raffle drawing. Pat provided some great trophies for the first, second and third place finishers and there were tons of great raffle prizes from Columbia Sportswear, Pleasure Tool Bearings, Curve Longboards and others. Dave Mitchell went home with a very nice Curve Longboard Complete (Abec 11 Flywheels, Randal Trucks).
Michael, being the great sportsman that he is, dropped out right before the last round and let Paul Howard and I battle it out for first and second place. Paul ran faster and cleaner than I did and ended up winning – GREAT Job Paul. Maybe Pat can post all the results as I can’t remember them all off the top of my head. Also, someone post some pictures of that great hill and the wonderful group of racers.
First – Paul Howard, Corvallis, Oregon Second – Gareth Roe, Seattle, WA Third – Steven Daddow – Australia
It was great seeing Steven Daddow show up at our little race. Steven is traveling around the world competing in every downhill or slalom event he can make. He is excited to get back to Australia and see if he can get slalom races going “Down-under.” Steven, you have the support of RoeRacing if you need it!
We missed the Daddies crew. It was Saturday and the shop was open and they could not attend. Business before pleasure I guess! Dan and Melanie have been very instrumental in getting slalom racing on the map. They carry a huge range of slalom-specific equipment and have been one of the main sponsors of the Portland Grass Roots series. Thanks Daddies!
Thanks again to Pat for the hard work and dedication for putting on a great race series! "
See you all soon! Gareth
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From Pat Chewning:
Yes, the final race of the season was quite a nomadic affair. We were all set to race on June 6th (Saturday) on 167th Ave in Beaverton. Then "Krispie Kreme" donuts opened a new shop (one of the first in Oregon), and car-fulls of donut-crazed people were detoured onto the race hill.
So I went door-to-door in my neighborhood and got permission from the residents to run down Yorktown Drive -- still scheduled for Sunday June 7th. I submitted this to the county for a "block party" permit -- they denied it! (A first for me).
The weatherman then predicted rain on Sunday anyway (first rain in about 1-1/2 months). This prediction looked very likely because it didn't change for several days. So we decided to race on Saturday. This started another brand-new search for a site. (YES, it did rain on Sunday).
We started out at the Vancouver Park-and-Ride on Saturday morning. We swept off a runnable surface, set up the cones and timing system and were about to get started when Barney Fife (rent-a-cop security) showed up with a list of "Criminal Activities" not allowed on the property. The list included skateboarding. Between sips from his large coffee cup (filled with wiskey?) he was telling us to leave.
Then not one, not two, but three county sheriff deputies arrived. The first deputy, Linda Hayes was very willing to let us stay, but the property was not county, but state-owned with security outsourced to Barney Fife and company. Linda contacted dispatch and suggested several other sites for us to run on.
We convoyed over to Mill Plain Blvd, which has a new section of road just completed and resurfaced, which is presently closed to traffic. We had set up there and run the first Qualifying rounds when another rent-a-cop showed up who represented the building development. Soon after we were joined by the Vancouver city police. After much discussion of who actually owned the road (City, County, Developer?), the city policeman called his supervisor who said "OK" to run for this time.
I was about to throw in the towel and call it quits. In addition to the law enforcement hassles, I had been a victim of vehicular sodomy (rear-ended) on the way to the 1st skate location.
Many thanks to Michael Dong for course setting (twice), Gareth Roe for timing equipment setup (twice), Tim Lyden for bringing great prizes from Columbia Sportswear (even if he couldn't stay to race), Pauliwog for donating a board, and MUCHO thanks to Scott Moore of Curve Skateboards for donating a complete board for the raffle. We had lots of positive energy from the skaters to keep plugging away until we could pull a race off.
The final standings were:
PRO 1st -- Michael Dong
OPEN 1st Paul Howard 2nd Gareth Roe 3rd Stephen Daddow 4th Pat Chewning 5th Dave Anderson 6th Matthew Anderson 7th John Stryker 8th Dave Mitchell 9th Mark Sellman 10th Thor Janda 11th Carey 12th Aaron Burks 13th Joshua Burt 14th Scott Moore 15th Adam B 16th Severin
NOTE: Robin McGuirk was in 14th place and had to drop out after the 1st final round.
Each racer ran 8 runs (two Qual runs, and two runs each in 3 final rounds).
Complete times, cone penalties, and results will be posted at www.pgrass.00sports.com
-- Pat
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