MASTERS
Pepi Neubauer
“As we move up a class, we drop a few and pick
up a few,” said Willy Scroggins from Mount Hood,
Ore. “We never get a break. But that’s all right.
We’ve known each other for years and years,
and the camaraderie is unbelievable.”
March 19, C/D Super Combined
On the first day of competition, Class 6 had the
day off from racing while the C/D groups (60-plus
men and all women) raced the super combined.
Racers coming to the mountain that morning
were wary of even getting out of the car. More
than a foot of new snow blanketed the mountain,
the wind was howling, and snow squalls limited
visibility to a few feet. Athletes soon discovered,
however, that the races were not only happening,
but there also were no changes to the original
timetable.
Legions of course workers slipped the course
as the snow gradually dissipated, and by start
time, visibility was rapidly improving. The super
G course was fast and smooth. Class 9 ace Pepi
Neubauer set the pace for the men in the super G
portion of the combined while exceptionally fast
runs from Dana Alexandrescu (Class 3) and Jen-
ny Badger (Class 2) led the women’s field.
Many racers were skeptical that the one-run sla-
lom could be run in such soft conditions, but once
again, the Park City race crew worked magic by
providing the Cs and Ds with separate courses
and impeccable side-slipping. After putting up
first run leads in the SG, Alexandrescu and Neu-
bauer crushed their respective fields, leaving
Intermountain Class 5 Chris Katzenberger and
Class 7 New Yorker Bob Andree in the runner-up
positions for the day.
March 20, A/B Super Combined
After a cold and clear night, the snow set up into
hard packed powder for the A/B (men 59 and
younger) super combined, and the opening super
G was a bullet. “Someone setting this course was
feeling their testosterone this morning,” said Walt
Evans, the event’s technical director. But with the
race on the relatively benign Payday trail, speed
was one of the few ways to increase the degree
of difficulty.
In the battle of the 6s, Dennis Wilhelmsen took
the lead after the super G, putting down the
fastest run of the morning. In a display of class
depth, 13 of his classmates were stuffed into the
next three seconds. Wilhelmsen, a wide-bodied
rancher, builder and jack-of-all trades from the
mountains of Trout Creek, Mont., admitted that
mass mattered. “I might not be the prettiest on
the hill,” he said, “but I somehow manage to carry
speed.”.
Rich Slabinski, who works with a satellite com-
munications company in Salt Lake City, lurked
in second after the super G. “Slabby” typically
leaves little to chance with speed events. He had
tested wax the day before and then selected the
fastest pair of super G skis from the three that
he brought to the race. “Wax and aerodynamics
were important,” said Slabinski, who didn’t seem
particularly impaired by his artificial knee. “I skied
well with no mistakes.”
And let’s face it: The big boys, such as Wilhelm-
sen and Slabinski, can also light up a slalom
course. In this case Slabinski nosed out Wilhelm-
sen by a scant 0.02 seconds to take the win, leav-
ing Bobby Skinner in third. “I knew it was close,
but I couldn’t do the math in my head, so had to
