Ski Racing - March 12, 2012

MASTERS

tions were perfect, however, for Class 1 Adam
Weiss, who won the first masters race of his
career. He’s been closing the gap this year, but
finally sealed the deal after first-run leader Ben
Green ejected out of his bindings in the second
run. Weiss, who manages an indoor baseball fa-
cility in White Plains, N.Y., could only shrug his
shoulders as to why he has become a contender
in nearly every race this season.
“I really wasn’t thinking about winning,” said
Weiss with a big grin that lasted well into the
awards party later that afternoon. “I’ve been feel-
ing good on my skis this year, which has given
me more confidence, I guess.”
Perhaps more remarkable was the second-
place overall finish from New York Class 9 racer
Pepi Neubauer. Confirming that age is just a
state of mind, Neubauer won the second run to
finish less than one second behind Weiss. Com-
pleting the geographically diverse podium was
Jim Thoman in third overall.
The closest race of the day occurred in Class 7
when Rick Walters nipped perennial New York
ace Bob Andree by 0.01 seconds. That scant dif-
ference broke a tie in the combined standings
after the slalom and landed Walters a spot on
the Eastern Masters Regional Team. As to the
secret of his success that day, Walters could only
modestly offer:“I don’t know what happened. I
guess I had a pretty good run.”
Katie George has been decimating the wom-
en’s field in the New England Masters Series
races this season, and delivered once again
in the GS. Her time put her in seventh place
among the men and gave her a winning margin
of nearly three seconds over Lisa Marien and
Jesse McAleer. Any of the men seeking excuses
knew better than to claim course deterioration,
given that the icy surface didn’t have a dent on it
after the final racer.
George, from Barre, Vt., who has just taken on
a new job with the State, joined the other “shoul-
der-shruggers” when trying to explain her mete-
oric rise this season. “I’ve been skiing a bit more
this winter and I’m comfortable with my equip-
ment, but really, there’s been nothing different,”
said George.

Slalom
As the saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather
in New England, just wait a minute.” The bottom
dropped out of the thermometer for the final day
of slalom at nearby Pico Peak. With tempera-
tures hovering at zero and a stiff breeze blowing
up the hill, the courses were shortened, but no
one was complaining.
“It actually worked out well having the slalom at
Pico,” said the A/B Group winner, Jim Thoman.
“It was cold, but nice and sunny; we had our own
lift, the snow was good, and we were the only
ones on the hill.”
Separate courses greeting the A/B and C/D
groups on snow that was firm, but grippy. Slalom
being slalom, some carnage ensued among the
men. Potential winners Ben Green and Rick Ce-
sati got tangled up on a particularly nasty hairpin
near the bottom of the course, but Jim Thoman
put down two clean runs to take the win, as well
as the combined for the series in his Class 2. “I
knew there’d be trouble at the bottom, so didn’t
want to run it super-straight,” said Thoman. Ter-
rence Fogarty, a Class 5 racer from Lake Placid
who’s always a contender in slalom, took sec-
ond, just in front of Adam Weiss, who also locked