SECOND ANNUAL LORITZ CUP: HEROIC SUCCESS
by WINA STURGEON
The second annual Loritz Cup had severe weather extremes, surprising defeats, amazing generosity and heroic race-saving by the Park City Mountain Resort Race Department.
The Loritz Cup, three days of Masters racing at PCMR, featured a super G, GS and slalom. It was named for Park City resident Gary Loritz, who was instrumental in creating the Masters five-days-a-week training program, considered one of the best in the United States. Loritz, an excellent and well known racer, died last March of Lou Gerhig's disease. In a "Flowers For The Living" mode, the first Loritz Cup was held while Gary was still alive to see how much he was loved.
Friday's super G, held on the long intermediate Payday run, required some serious prep by the Race Department after a foot of snow dumped overnight. The fluffy stuff was well slipped off by the time the race started. The men's winner was Andy Baillargeon, in 1:00.48. For the women, Dana Alexandrescu/Leach, whose time placed her ninth overall among the men, won the women's field in 1:02.83.
Unfortunately, defending super G champion Victor "The Inflictor" Roy fell hard while inspecting the course and dislocated several ribs. He sucked up the pain and raced, coming in 12th, in 1:03.65, but did not compete in the following day's GS or SL.
Perhaps the most courageous racer of the day was Dard Aller from Hawaii, whose first ever Masters event was the high speed super G. The 58-year-old man, who has not skied for 35 years, signed up for the race last summer because he would be in Utah at the time, then spent months thinking "What have I done!" He showed up a few days before the race for some training with the Skinners, and was surprised to find he needed A: a helmet, and B: skis that were newer than 35 years old.
Though Aller came in 77th, with a time of 1:26.25, he says, "I was so exhilarating. Now I'm addicted to Masters racing! It was absolutely thrilling!"
Saturday's GS had some surprises. "It was a picture perfect day. Everyone felt that Gary was looking over us," said head Masters coach Bill Skinner.
There were some unexpected victories. Masters racing is expanding, allowing younger racers to compete. Skinner explained, "We want younger racers to get into Masters, which is a lifetime sport. This weekend, we had a dozen racers from Weber State and BYU. As of this year, college racers who have a USSA license can race without having to purchase additional licenses."
One of those college racers, Natalie Brower, beat perennial women's champion Dana Leach, 1:53.60 to 1:54.37; but Leach was gracious about her first loss in two years. Her husband, who has been topping the men's field since his marriage to Dana, took the men's victory in 1:47.04.
But the real story of the weekend was how the PCMR race department pulled off a slalom under impossible conditions. High winds forced the resort to stop all the lifts that went to the top of the mountain, including the Eagle lift. This was after racers had already taken their race skis and packs to the start on Picabo's. Suited and freezing racers were standing around the bottom of the lift, wondering if the race would be just delayed or actually canceled, and how they would get their stuff? That's when the RD sprang into action.
They took a snowmobile with a basket up to the start and brought down all the skis, backpacks and jackets. They cut a crossover trail to the race hill beside the terrain park on the Three Kings lift, quickly rebuilt the timing start, and with the help of a dozen racers, quickly reset the entire course. Despite the wind and blowing sleet that reduced visibility, the RD held a perfect race, won by Dana and Ryan Leach in 1:16.79 and 1:10.16. It marked Dana's former rival, Chris Katzenberger's, return with a 1:21.60. The surprise of the superseed; the top ten men, was Bill Skinner's comeback to a competitive race with his brother Bobby, who is the Master's program men's head night coach. Bob came in right after Ryan Leach with 1:10.93, Bill took third place with 1:11.37.
The race was followed by the "Grand Finale," the awarding of the Loritz Cup for the best calculated combined results over the three days of racing. The names of the winners are inscribed on the beautiful bronze trophy every year, and the Cup itself is on permanent display at Adolph's restaurant. The Cup winners this year were Bill Skinner, who beat brother Bobby by a mere 4/10ths of a second, and Nancy Auseklis. Also on the podium from the weekend's overall results were the second placers, Bob Skinner and Anna Droege, and third placers Keith McCauley and Glenn McConkey. Though there were younger racers who actually beat them out, the age handicap in figuring the winners made older racers the champs.
But the heroes of the weekend, besides the PCMR race department, were Ernie of Boot Works, who gave away over $1,000 worth of merchandise, including boots, insoles and other goodies; and sponsor Jan's, who also donated over $1,000 to purchase all the food for the award parties at O'Shucks in Kimball Junction and Adolphs Restaurant.
The Loritz event is part of the Jan's Cup/Rennstall series. The next Jan's Cup race will be at Park City on Feb. 23-24. To sign up for the races, go to Intermountainmasters.com