[FWM News] Mid-March News

[Far West Masters news]

Plenty of action as we swing into spring in the Far West.  A great 
weekend of spring weather and racing last weekend at Squaw for the 
Bernard Cup GS races; more on the way with the McKinney Cup this coming 
weekend.  Still to come: national championships at Sun Valley next 
week; a great week of racing planned for our season finale at Mammoth 
Apr. 13-18 and the season banquet.

*****Entries have been slow coming in for Mt. Rose races this coming 
weekend.  This is always a great weekend and the weather forecast is 
calling for warm and sunny spring conditions, so if you can make it 
please get your entry in and come on out!  See below for contact number 
for putting in your entry this week.

Mt. Rose McKinney Cup Info
--------------------------

Our next race and the penultimate event on the 2010 Far West calendar 
is the Mt. Rose McKinney Cup on Mar. 27-28. Saturday will be a SL, 
followed by a full-length GS Sunday; both races will be on the Slide 
Mtn (east) side of Mt. Rose. Morning registration will be at the Mt. 
Rose base lodge.

Mt. Rose is always a popular race, where racers receive a warm welcome 
and a breakfast buffet at morning checking followed by fun racing and 
an apres sk party. Please send your entries in!!! Race entries will be 
accepted anytime this week. If you haven't yet sent your entry but 
would like to compete this weekend, please give race coordinators Rees 
and Dani Palermo a call at (775) 345-6709 - leave a message with your 
name, bib #, age class or year born, and your phone number so you can 
be reached if needed.

Squaw Bernard Cup
-----------------
The 2010 Bernard Cup race weekend at Squaw Valley was a spring-fest of 
GS racing on the always-challenging Exhibition race hill. With 
delightfully warm and sunny spring racing conditions, competitors 
started the day with a firm first course which gradually softened 
without getting sloppy. Our scheduling experiment with holding 3 races 
in 2 days by taking 3 runs each day turned out very well, as the Squaw 
race crew worked continuously through the weekend to maintain good 
conditions.

A good turnout of competitors was leavened with a welcome dash of new 
faces and a weekend with lots of smiles all around. The key tactical 
decisions of the day were (a) sunscreen and (b) The Road. Spectators at 
the mid-course crossing were treated to a wide variety of styles on the 
transition onto the steep middle pitch of the course (and thankfully no 
serious crashes, just a few "fly-bys" of the gate below the breakover).

The weekend wrapped up on Sunday with awards on the deck and the 
presentation of the Bernard Cup trophies to the fastest overall man and 
woman racer of the weekend, using the age-handicapping formula created 
by founder Bob Bernard to "level" the competition across age groups. 
Hometown boy Kurt Beldon once again demonstrated speed and consistency 
to take the men's title in a close battle, while Deb Lewis led the 
women's field. Special recognition goes to the hard-charging Gate de 
Mattei, who posted phenomenal runs all weekend out of class 12 to 
finish a very close third in the final standings - that's 80 years and 
and still smoking hot!


Mammoth Season Finals Updates
-----------------------------

Updated information on the April season finals races and banquet at 
Mammoth has been posted on the Season Schedule page. We're making one 
change in the race schedule: a second DH has been added on Wednesday 
4/14, so there will be two DH training runs on Tuesday and two DH races 
on Wednesday. (Reminder: training runs are mandatory for USSA DH 
competitions) For details, see the event information announcement, 
which includes information about group rate lodging packages and 
discounts available to the Far West Masters.

The season banquet will be Saturday Apr. 17 at the Mountainside 
Conference Center in the Mammoth Main Lodge. This is a nice room that 
we've used before and provides a pleasant setting for the evening's 
buffet dinner, season award, and raffle and auction activities. See the 
banquet info flyer for details. Sign up for the banquet along with your 
race entries to make your reservation; indicate number of tickets, 
bring family and friends!

Race Info Announcement:
    
http://farwestmasters.org/announcements/2010/RaceInfo_Mammoth_Apr2010_Season_Finals.pdf
Banquet Details:
    
http://farwestmasters.org/announcements/2010/FWM2010-SeasonFinals-Banquet.pdf