Mount Snow GS and Slalom Races

By: Warren Palmer

As the 1997 - 1998 New England Masters Sise Cup begins to wind down, racers from around New England ignored an ominous forecast for the weekend of March 7 and 8 and descended on Mount Snow for what turned out to be some of the best race conditions we have seen in some time. On Saturday under cloudy skies with some light snow falling racers found the slalom hill on Ego Alley to have near perfect snow for a slalom race. The hard well groomed snow left the door wide open for the younger guys to attack from the back.

Class two racer Patrick McNamara took full advantage of the nearly smooth course conditions to give the rest of the field a lesson on how to generate speed on the flatter terrain of Ego Alley. McNamara won the overall by an impressive 1.92 seconds. Bill Skinner, a class four racer from the Intermountain region, and our USSA Masters Coordinator, finished a solid second place overall. There were several people wondering who was the big guy in the fancy cloths and sunglasses that skied so fast; well now you know, look for Skinner's name on the National results sheets. Sean Florian laid down two of his fastest ever runs to finish third overall. That was good skiing Sean; keep it up. Mount Snow's Wayne Wright, and Bob Hill finished fourth and fifth respectively.

On the women's side it was Tica Benson all the way. Although she says she's not a slalom skier Tica bested the field for the overall win by an impressive 1.62 seconds. Kimberley Wolff, Katie Lord, Margaret Zuccotti and Nadine Price finished second though fifth respectively.

On Sunday it was time for some Giant Slalom racing, under sunny skies and with colder than expected temperatures the conditions on the north face were perfect for racing. For the women once again it was Tica Benson, reinforcing her assertion that GS was more to her liking. With two very clean runs Tica won the overall by more than four seconds. She was followed by Brooks Axelson, Margaret Zuccotti, Kimberley Wolff and Susan Withington respectively.

For the Men, after the first run it was Mount Snow's Wayne Wright in first place with Andy Morse only one hundredth of a second behind. Wayne made a costly mistake in the third gate on the second run, and left the door open for Morse to take the win by eight hundredths of a second. Jim Harding and Bob Hill finished third and fourth.

It seems that the real battle was brewing in class four between Park City's Bill Skinner and Mount Snow's Bob Resek. Rumor has it that these two guys raced and trained together in New Jersey in the early seventies. Depending on who you talk to, you may get different stories as to who was really faster back then. On Saturday finishing second overall Skinner put Resek on notice. However on Sunday it was Resek giving notice that he was ready to ski some GS, laying down two clean runs leaving him in fifth place overall. Good skiing Bob; keep it up.

We should all be glad that there is no scoring for couples, because Tica Benson and her sweetie Andy Morse would be tough to beat.

The Masters' Sise Cup tour moves to mighty Sugarloaf, Maine, for the season finale this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, featuring a Super G and a Dual Slalom, followed by the awarding of prizes to the season's class and overall Sise Cup winners. Then it's on to the National Championships at Mammoth Mountain, California.