Events: 2002 Hot Heels AT - Race Results

2002 Hot Heels Event Summary & Results

Hod's Hot Heels Review 2002
Posted By: Richard Hod on Date: 7/15/02 @ 11: 17 a.m.

If you said that the fastest luge riders in the world were all American, nobody could reasonably disagree with you...Until now.
The Rogers bros and US riders of their quality have always come tops in internationally represented races. This year for sundry and weighty reasons there were just two American lugers in Hot Heels, but - and here's the rub - the top riders put in just about as fast times as any previous year.

Top luge qualification, by 'Lectric Lugemeister Leander Lacey, was 2 min. 12s. I may recall a rogers qualification time of 2:11 in 2000, but as far as I know nobody else has come lose. Second qualifier and eventual winner Olivier Wagner put in a 2.12 or 2.13 time too, and Pete Eliot and other high times were putting in 2.14. Fine stuff.

Now, this event was named "World Championship" by the IGSA. Almost none of the top US riders were there, so we could I suppose call this the "International Championship of the World", but the top 10 or so luge Qual. times were no slower for that. International luge has come of age. The event would have been considerably bigger and even more competitive with the American riders, but this year was by no means a poor one.

For Europeans, this is probably the biggest event in the world. Even more than Cape Town's DHX, which is the biggest in crowd, money, spectacle, or Tom Mason's SF Big Air next week (madness, and TV), this is an event which stands apart from other races. Whatever else is happening in the sport, HH has the most history (11 years!), the best scenery, and the most cows. One year they even ate the haybales... and all on a tiny budget: it's a riders' event, and as such great fun.
I hope next year that whatever (no, don't ask me) is required to make everyone happy again will come to pass. Until then, see you at some races.

OK, so down to the meat (or Nut Roast if you're a veggie). As usual, I can only say what I know, so others are free to add the detail to stories of other races I didn't see:

BUTTBOARD (Classic Luge)
Now, Race day was a deluge. Did I forget to mention this? Ah well, it's nothing special over here :-) but made for some fun racing. We were meant to have 1/8 finals with most heats where 3 of 3 transferred, and some with 3 of 4. Star Trek fans will be disappointed that 7 of 9 was not mentioned at any stage.

1ST ROUND: BUTTBOARD QUARTER-FINALS:
Because of the rain, delays and a couple of dropouts, we had heats of 6 and 7, with 3 transferring.
My 1st heat had Leander ahead all the way, with one French rider (Rene Marx I think, it happened so quickly) taking out an Austrian one, Marco, during the prolonged wet heavy early-braking before the 1st (LH hairpin) corner, from 60 mph to 10 mph... which left me, poor starter as ever, in 3rd behind Leander and Andreas Forstner, a very good indeed Austrian rider (soon to move, like me, to LA). I catch and pass Andreas who was going too carefully down the straight between the third corner (LH hairpin) and the s-bend RH-LH chicane before the Carousel (long faster-ish RH hairpin). sliding and sketching all the way through the S-Bends. After that it's an easy follow-Leander-to-the-finish. Leander catches a foot while braking and does a spectacular acrobatic leap head-first into muddy gravel. Now, Leander is a professional acrobat / circus man in Cape town, and I actually thought he did it on purpose. But he promises me it wasn't. Meanwhile, Andreas has crashed at Hell's Gate, and is passed by the erstwhile-dinked Marco, who comes in 3rd and transfers too!

BUTTBOARD SEMI-FINALS
Joining Leander, Marco and I were Werner Bucherl, Heiko Labitzke (GER), a vastly experienced buttboarder who turns faster than most, usually disappointingly slow, but who discovered the importance of aerodynamics at Aviemore this year, and young Robert Lammerlein also from Austria and very good for a novice qualified top 10 at least (way above my appalling time), and improving all the time: one to watch for next year. I'd have had fun racing him in the dry: he's light, agile and learns fast.
Off we go. I get a terrible start AGAIN, and enter turn 1 in 6th, braking so hard I can't make the right-hand turn so go really inside at the entrance. Lucky me: all the other riders pile up around the outside of the bend and I sail slowly and merrily by on my board, joining Leander at the exit. Lea nicely notices me down the straight(well I did shout to him) and doesn't move in front of me as we enter the second corner, I take it better and lead him down to the Carousel. So, I@m in front in a semi. Last thing to do is to crash, so I take it nice and slow, as I'd been cocking up on my BB all week. Right then (and usually) Leander-Slow is faster than Hod-slow, so he passes me at the carousel, and I follow him 5-10 yards behind to the finish and beyond.
Well, almost... Lea and I are both ecstatic at having made the BB final. So we're shouting Yeeeaaah! as we brake - remember it's raining, rivers of water - and I'm waving my hands in the air too (hard when braking on a BB, but anyway, I had been braking). Then LEa's feet find a sticky patch and brake really hard! Oops, he comes to a dead stop right be all the other riders and stands up. Meanwhile, I'm still dead behind him, 5 yards away going at 25mph. I shout, LEa looks BANG! My helmet hits his leg/arse, and he somersaults: he is a circus man, after all. Spectacular, apparently. I hope they have it on film. but for a moment I feared for my neck and his legs. Happily we were both OK, if a little surprised. Moral of the story: Don't follow dead behind somebody braking in the wet, especially if you're not concentrating on braking. Also, never stop and stand up halfway up the braking area, especially in a monsoon!

BB FINAL
So, it's Leander, me, Werner Bucherl (3rd in our heat, one of the 1st-corner piler-uppers), Pete Eliot, Tom Mason (who made it on the last straight for his semi), and favorite Jeremy Gilder, whose qualification time in the dry of 2:16 was faster than 2/3 lugers, and more than 3 seconds faster than Gerhard, the second qualifier. If this was anyone's race, it ought to have been Jerry's. But then, this is racing... Off the line, and all 5 others are 2 yards ahead of me by 10 yards into the race. I really need some lessons here. Anyway, braking into the 1st corner, it's Leander/Jerry/Werner/Mason in some order, then Eliot then me all quite close. Then Mason decides to go for glory, is in the lead, then as we are 5 yards from the hairpin, totally falls off his board, board upside down, Mason on his knees in the grass, game over. But Tom is proud to have led the race, if just for a second or two. Never a dull moment! We all pass him without incident, yours truly still last, until corner two. Disaster! Jeremy Gilder slides disastrously and falls of his board, allowing all but Mason (still looking for his board at turn one) to pass him. I see him paddle as I go past. 4th, and all for just staying on my board! I go pretty carefully down the rest of the race, never feeling I can catch the front three who are all in a tight bunch. Perhaps I should've tried for a podium or 6th, but I'd been rubbish all the previous day on my BB and not feeling confident at the edge, so settled for 4th. Meanwhile, ahead of me, Leander is in front followed by Werner and Pete, marginally gaining and losing from each other. Lea stays ahead for a well-deserved win (some say it's the helmet, but that man has all the talent to win), with Werner and Pete less than a length behind. Pete drafts Werner up to the finish line .. and.. it's a photo.. eventually given to Werner.
A good race. The fastest man on the day won, even if he couldn't match SuperButt Jerry for absolute speed. That's racing, folks. But I'll eat my board if Jerry doesn't win sometime soon. Again, like the luge in Scotland, I had the best view, from 6th-4th, there's no better seat, and money can't buy it. Get racing, folks!

STREET LUGE LUGE QUALIFICATION, (in the dry, previous day) as above, was competitive and fast, with top time to Leander Lacey (in this event, many people's favorite), Olivier Wagner, and others like Pete Eliot, Tom 'I never qualify well' Mason, Richard Knaggs (RSA), Simon Monta Man Porlock (RSA), and some French riders. Jeremy Gilder was ignoring Luge as a bastard sport, and only ever rode it for qualification and racing. Which annoyed me, cos he's such a talented rider and his terrible qualification time meant I got him in my 1st heat...

RACE: Luge wasn't as bad as buttboard for rain, but the 2nd and later rounds were on wet road.

LUGE ROUND 1 (8th-finals)
Tom Mason runs away with his heat (everyone else crashing lots), so slows down in the final straight so as not to crash.. and gets caught on the line by two riders and doesn't qualify! Tom finds this hilarious, as indeed do we all. Life's never still around that man. Fortunately, Jerry does hate his borrowed luge, and doesn't challenge for a position. Monta wins by 10 yards from me.

ROUND 2 - QUARTERFINALS
Dunno about the other heats, but mine was eventful: Having exited turn one together just being Monta man, I follow 2nd-place Eliot into turn two, a right hander, both braking, (I think he should know I would still be there as we exited turn 1 together) he turns LEFT! To take the racing line to turn right. I have nowhere to go and my pegs hook up his back wheels and spin him. I guess I could have held back (but I was minding my own business? Ah, what to do?). So I wait for him to turn his luge round and we set off but with me in front this time. About to pass the new 2nd-place rider Martin 'Moatl' Wellein (GER), at Carousel, I feel Pete's inimitable style in my right hand side, wobble, scrabble and nearly fall off, but manage to make it back on and paddle to catch Martin. Now this is a wet run, and it's certain we have to brake through Hell's Gate. I have Pete on my tail, and manage to pass Moatl through the middle of Hell's gate, hit rough, sketch wobble, but through the finish in second with Pete close behind. Monta finished miles ahead. OK, I get DQed. I was behind when we hit, and I think I would have given it to Pete if I were the race organizer. Fair call, but damn, Bollocks! We all three would have had a really fun race if I@d stayed back more at that corner. Ah well, that's experience...

SEMI-FINALS
Lots of francophone riders in this..
Monta is in safe second place in his semi, but decides to try to overtake Olivier, because he can. Except it's still very rainy and Monta then crashes in Hell's Gate and out of the final. D'oh!

LUGE FINAL
Close, but not that close. Olivier from Laurent from Leander, all a couple of yards or six apart.

INLINE
All I know is that Scott Peer (USA) came Third: Hooray!

STAND UP
Rain.


Unofficial results - Collected from several messages...

Streetluge:
1. Olivier Wagner (SUI)
2. Laurant Sahli (SUI)
3. Leander Lacey (RSA)
4. ?
5. Simon 'Monta' Porlock (RSA)
6. Pete Eliot (GBR)

Buttboard:
1. Leander Lacey (RSA)
2. Werner Bucherl (AUT)
3. Peter Eliot (GBR)
4. Richard Hodkinson (GBR)
5. Jeremy Gilder (GBR)
6. Tom Mason (USA)

 

Stand Up - rained off, by qualifying time:
1. Yvon Labarthe (SUI)
2. Stuart Bradburn (RSA)
3. Sebastian Tournissac (FRA)
4. Mike Zietsmann (SA)
Inline
1. Werner Ladurner (AUT)
2. Yvon Labarthe (SUI)
3. Scott Peer (USA)



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