[FWM News] Bernard Cup; nationals; April races

[Far West Masters news]

The annual Bernard Cup trophy races were held last weekend at Squaw.  
It was a busy but successful weekend of racing on the 
always-challenging Exhibition race hill.  Deb Lewis (W07) and Kurt 
Beldon (M06) defended their titles and proudly took the Bernard Cup 
trophy home for another season of polishing.

Next week are the Masters's National Championships at Copper Mountain 
CO.  Updated competitor list and detailed event schedule were posted 
yesterday on the Nationals page, where event results will be published 
throughout the event next week.

   http://ussamasters.org/2011/nationals

Coming up in April are our final two race weekends of the 2011 season, 
with the McKinney Cup at Mt. Rose and the season finals at Mammoth.  
See the news story below and the race announcement flyers on the 
farwestmasters.org Schedule page for details.

   http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/current/schedule

Bernard Cup results
-------------------

The 2011 Bernard Cup races at Squaw Valley offered a busy schedule of 
racing on the always-challenging Exhibition race hill. With 2 SL races 
on Saturday, the Squaw race crew worked hard all day on course setting 
and maintenance and provided us with 4 excellent courses and all runs 
going off as scheduled. Sunday's GS had everyone watching the skies as 
an approaching storm system loomed, but the race came off well with 
only light snowfall on the second run.

Saturday's post-race party was a fine addition to the Squaw tradition 
of good parties with plenty of raffle prizes and food for all. Special 
thanks to Brian Smith for providing us with some excellent BBQ from his 
Kinder's Barbeque in Reno.

The Bernard Cup trophy for the overall weekend champion, founded by Bob 
Bernard and using an age-handicapping scoring he invented to "level" 
out racers across the wide range of age classes, was won by Deb Lewis 
(W07) and Kurt Beldon (M06). We all owe a great deal to the inspiration 
and contributions of Bob to make masters racing a challenging sport for 
competitors of many ages.

Complete weekend results are posted on the Race Results page along with 
the updated Season Standings rankings for 2011.

   http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2011/results
   http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2011/standings

April Races
-----------

Following the March national championships at Copper Mountain CO next 
week, Far West Masters have two final race weekends on our 2011 season 
schedule in April. Opening the spring leg at Mt. Rose on Apr. 2-3 is 
the annual McKinney Cup trophy races. This year we will be racing on 
the "Slide side" of Mt. Rose, with Saturday's SL on Sunrise Bowl and a 
full-length GS on Sunday on the Silver Dollar trail. Mt. Rose is always 
a welcoming venue, treating us to a continental breakfast at 
registration, good racing, and reasonably priced lift tickets. A 
special SL training session is offered on Friday - for only $40 you get 
your lift ticket and 9:15-11:30 SL training.

Our season finals will be a full program of racing at Mammoth on Apr. 
13-17. Wednesday opens with DH racing - a training run followed by two 
DH races and we continue on Thursday with two SG races. Friday and 
Saturday will be GS and SL, the final scoring races of the 2011 season, 
with the season banquet held Saturday evening. Sunday we wind up with a 
dual "fun race", with family and friends welcome as we form teams that 
mix masters and junior athletes for a day of head-to-head racing that's 
always a fun time for all.