OCR Text |
Show Wednesday, February 16, 1977 Stay Tuned THE Page 7 SPORTS World Cup Skiers Place i Well In S.V. Can TP Am I fry ' - J At . By Peter Najar Wolfe's Repair Shop To end this series on bindings, a few tips on mounting are in order, especially since a few of you mount your own bindings. Placement of bindings varies from ski manufacturer to ski manufacturer. Usually, mounting a pair of skis on the center of the cord length (the distance between the tip and tail) or ahead of the center by a centimeter is correct where there are no mounting marks. Most new skis have a mark on the ski for either the toe line or the middle of the sole of the boot. In the case of the latter, measure the length or the sole and find the center. Place the center of the boot sole on the line and mark where the toe ef the boot is on the ski. The correct binding location is critical to the performance of the ski. If the bindings are mounted moun-ted too far forward, the skis will turn too much and the tails will not hold and will slip. If the skis are mounted too far back, they will want to run straight. If you are dead set on mounting your own bid-nings, bid-nings, make sure you know what the ski manufacturer recommends for proper binding location. Many binding manufacturers have switched to Fearson (European-Posi-drive) screws for use in binding retention. The advantages of this head are that the screw driver automatically centers on the screw head and does not slip off. A Posi-drive Posi-drive screw looks like a regular Phillips head except ex-cept that the slots are deeper and more squared off. Don't use a regular Phillips head on a Posi-drive Posi-drive screw. As soon as any force is applied the head will strip. You will have to buy a new No. 3 Posi-dri ve screw driver ( Stanley makes one ) . In mounting bindings the screw hole must . be the correct size. A 532 inch (4.0 mm) drill bit should be used for all metal skis. On non-metal skis, a 964 inch (3.5 mm) drill bit should be used. The holes should then be countersunk slightly to prevent the ski material from pulling up, and preventing the binding from seating properly. Some manufacturers recommend that some of the skis be tapped (pre-threading screw holes). Tapping allow the screw to go through the different dif-ferent layers of material in the ski without delaminating them. Not all skis need or should be tapped. In the days of the old metal skis all screws were epoxied. Now epoxy is almost an exception instead of the rule. Most new skis require the glue to act as a lubricant while inserting the screw. In most cases, regular white glue is all that is needed. The only skis that have to be ex-poxied. ex-poxied. that I know of, are skis with honeycombed honey-combed cores. In the shop, to make sure bindings are mounted moun-ted straight, we use a jig to mark the holes. You at home will have to make sure the bidnings go on straight. A crooked binding will cause the bindings release incorrectly, either too early or too hard. It was supposed to have been the Roch Cup, in Aspen and held January 28-30. Instead, In-stead, because of the Weird Winter of '77, scheduling was rearranged and it became the Sun Valley Cup, where else but in Sun Valley, and was held February 8-10. 8-10. Everywhere but on Flying Squirrel and Lower Warm Springs, the two runs the resort has based with man-made, man-made, snow was scarce and caused the cancellation of the Downhills. So, off to the left, looking up, of Lower Warm Springs, spectators (and racers, too were treated to two Giant Slaloms for both men and women the first two days, and a Slalom on the final day. And the final day of the Sun Valley Cup was also the final day for the entire Farah Canadian-American Ski Trophy Series. The disaster-forced rescheduling of the Canadian-American circuit seemed to work out well for everyone. The sun shone like a zillion watts, to the relief of the tour regulars, who had spent the past couple months in the record book frozen East. Skiers from the host Intermountain Division got a chance to show their speed to a class field. And it worked out especially well for the Canucks, who, afer a dismal year, finally proved they belong in the same gates. World Cup Skiers on Break But, the real benefit of the dates and the place of the race resulted from the break in European World Cup activity. ac-tivity. Because the World Cup circuit moves from races in France (for the men) and Austria (for the women) the first few days of this month, to Japan at the end of February, our heavyweight racers, the members of the U.S. "A" Team were able, if they so desired, to compete. Several of them so desired, namely Phil and Steve Mahre, Cary Adgate, Greg Jones, Viki Fleckenstein and Cristin Cooper. And compete they did. The coaches and racers from the "B," "C," "D," University and Intermountain Intermoun-tain Division Teams were interested in-terested (elated is perhaps a better description) in chasing these world class skiers, not so much to beat the pants off them-because in most cases they would have to DNF or fall to be dethroned for a day-but because of the Points they brought to the race. The Points? The Points. Anyone you talk to who is involved with ski racing, even if you speak with him for only five minutes, winds up talking about the Points. They are tF.I.S. points, and pretty much what the sport is all ijil " 4?f!i t i i I the'"fU:TK 5f racers have ine .-there is no way you can be gyped by a judge. The best points are the fewest, and you own Points for each discipline, for Downhill, GS and Slalom. Every F.I.S. sanctioned race (and if you strive to become a big fish in a big pond, those are the races to be in you enter has a certain number of Penalty Points, and races with the fewest number of these are the best, for the Penalty is computed by the points of the five best skiers entered in the race. If it sounds confusing, it is. Also, the seeds for the race are determined by, first countries (and no one agrees as to whether that is completely com-pletely kosher), and then points. Ideally you would find in the first seed a dozen or so skiers with the fewest amount of points. What you do find is each country's best point skiers. So, say you are from the U.S. and have 30 points, the eighth best from America-you could easily be in the third seed fighting the ruts while some kid from Bolivia who has 85 points, but is the best from his country, coun-try, gets to cruise down an unpot-holed course in the first fir-st seed. All's Fair And it's highly improbable that you'll win any race coming from the third seed. So, the Points mean just about everything. Again the best racers today had to start somewhere, and that was undoubtedly pointless poin-tless and with a last seed bib number. Another thing, though, is that you can have great points poin-ts brought to the race, but if the guy bringing them totally outclasses the field, no one benefits. Which was exactly what happened to the men's GS races in Sun Valley. Phil Mahre, one of the twins from White Pass, Washington, showed the home country why he is currently in third Heidi Preuss the World Cup books. Phil Main e Show He not only won, but. as H i c h a r d B a r n u m -Re e c e wrote for the Wood River J'jurno'.also using someone else's words. "he conquered." Tuesday Mahre coasted to a two and a half second victory over Cary Adgate. also of the "A" Team. More tlian five seconds back was their colleague Greg Jones, and only there did the times begin to bunch up, with Bob Hill. John Teague and Mike Durtchi, all "C" Team members, and Canadian Rob Safrata all within tenths of Jones. Phil 's brother Steve, who was second alter the first run, fell in the second and. frustrated, flew home. Twenty-four hours later Mahre quit playing around. He won again, but this time the second place finisher. Masami Ichimura from Japan, was an incredible fi.l m-cos.. liHiiad. ,Adtfatc, Jones. Hill.'TPague and Durtchi Dur-tchi DNFed. It was a bleak day for the American men Can-Am regulars, especially for Teague, who could have taken the lead in the overall standings, had he finished second, and for Durtchi, who was leading, but by too few points. The women's . Giant Slaloms were considerably closer. Viki Fleckenstein, coming off a fourth place finish in Europe, won the first GS a little more than a second ahead of Heidi Preuss, the fifteen year old "skiing sensation" Ho use the words of the Can-Am media wizard, and the Newspaper's own Greg Schirt i who had already, in the battle to top the Can-Am overall standing, left the rest of the girls in the dust. Leslie Leete Smith, of the "B" Team. Susan Aslett and Vanita Raining, both Canadians, completed the top five. The next day, Wednesday, Wed-nesday, Heidi won. redeeming her solo Can-Am GS loss of the year. Cristin Cooper was second, Fleckenstein third, Haining fourth and Smith fifth. Canadians' Day Then came Thursday's Slaloms, and both proved fatal to all the Americans, both men and women, except for guess who: Phil Mahre. People were thinking before the races had even begun, before Mahre had even arrived, that if he could be beaten, it would be on Slalom Day. Slalom is not Mahre's forte. Adgate has much better bet-ter F.I.S. points, and others are not far behind. But Mahre refused to be beaten, and turned down the hill a full two seconds ahead of Adgate; and then, just behind, in third place, came the story of the week. Raymond Pratte. Pratte, a Candaian rookie on the Can-Am. Can-Am. needed third place in the Slalom to w in the overall crown, and simply took it. It was as if this youngest member of the Canadian Team had never even heard of the word pressure. Fourth was Ichimura and in fifth came Ron Fuller from the United States. To brighten the day even more for the Canadians, their girls finished one-two in the women's Slalom. Jane Tidball. who had done just about nothing all year, and who did come from the third seed. w:on it, and Haining came in second. Heidi Preuss, who led after the first fir-st head and seemed assured of winning another grudge match against Fleckenstein, fell a little past midway down her second run. Maggie Crane took third, Fleckenstein was fourth and Smith again finished in fifth position. Park City was represented in the races by Karri Hayes. Koxanne Toiy. Mark Grower. Gr-ower. Steve I'rie and John Donner. Hayes was 45th in Wednesday's women's GS. Also Wednesday, in the men's GS. Urie took 40th and Brower finished 48th. Tuesdav Brower was 52nd place for that discipline on LA i ta . ri PV p Main Street 649-8051 Q!JlAldLI p fy DOWN UNDER p SAVE UP TO 50 rWxl I ON OVERSTOCKED li ITEMS I f ' , l GUEST ENGAGEMENT $ fM AT THE RESORT CENTER I V iuiviuioimu v NEXT TO THE GONQi By Brown College Basketball The collegiate top 10, after having an uneventful uneven-tful week previous to last issue, was once again riddled by upsets this past seven days. Leading the way was the University of Washington as they leveled the second rated UCLA Bruins 78-73. In the Big 10, the University of Indiana, who so far this year had not been playing up to preseason pre-season expectations, let number 5 Michigan know that they are still a team to be reckoned with, as the Hoosiers stopped the Wolverines 73-64. 73-64. Further down in the Top 10, it was sixth rated Louisville being dealt a heart breaking loss by number in Nevada-Las Vegas. Marquette, after finally climbing back into the Top 10, fell to lowly Depaul in a double ovei-time game played Tuesday night 77-72. Earlier in the week Marquette had little trouble in handling Manhattan 86-60. In reviewing action elsewhere in the Top Ten, I shall spare the reader all the over worked adjectives adjec-tives and just report the scores: No. 1 San Francisco Fran-cisco 99, St. Mary's 82; this victory clinches at least a tie for the West Coast Athletic Conference championship for the Dons; No. 3 Kentucky 89, Auburn 82; No. 4 Wake Forest 84, N.C. State 77; No. 7 Alabama 73, Mississippi State 69 and No. 8 Minnesota 61, Iowa 58. NBA Basketball NBA teams received a break in regular season action this week as players from the defunct ABA sparkled in the 27th Annual National Basketball Association All-Star Game. It was the Western Conference, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Abdul-Jabbar, winning a thrilling 125-124 victory over their eastern counterparts. Jabbar's 17 points in the first half kept the West in the game as the East was in front by ten points 68-58 as the teams headed for their dressing rooms at the end of the first half. In the second half it was the West's Paul West-phal West-phal of Phoenix who scored 20 points, taking up the slack as the West forged ahead. Julius Er-ving, Er-ving, of Philadelphia, led a comeback in the final minutes (as did teammate Bob McAdoo,) was voted the game's Most Valuable Player. Checking the league standings at this point in the season we find Philadelphia well ahead of Boston in the Atlantic Division by seven full games ; the Washington Bullets have maintained their slim lead over Houston by one game. Here in the West it is Denver still leading in the Midwest Mid-west Division, holding a three game lead over the Detroit Pistons; and rounding things out, the Los Angeles Lakers have moved back ahead of the Portland Trailblazers in the Pacific Division by one game. Golf In a tournament whose most exciting moment came when five time winner Arnold Palmer split his pants picking up a ball, it was 30 year old Rik Massengale winning the Bob Hope Desert Golf with a 23 under par 337 total. Massengale, in winning win-ning his third tournament in three years, left little doubt from the beginning on who was going to walk away with the winner's share of prize money as he answered Bruce Lietzke's late challenge with a six stroke victory. Lietze, winner win-ner of last week's Hawian Open, finished second with a 343 total. Horse Racing In a sport which is easy to forget while living in Utah, we find a teenage sensation coming to the headlines in the world of horseracing. Steve Cauthen, a 16 year old apprentice jockey from Kentucky, rode his 28th and 29th winning mounts in nine days on Saturday at Aqueduct Raceway. Cauthen came within two necks of making it three wins in a day, as he came back from dead last only to be nosed out at the finish line in the feature race for 3 year olds. His two wins in New York Saturday, gave Cauthen a total of 96 winners on the year as well as finishing in the money 100 other times. Tenuis It was a relatively uneventful week on the pro tennis circuit as we find the big names of tennis absent from the headlines. It was tennis bad boy, Hie Natase, returning to the winner's circle in the one tournament of note; the World Championship Cham-pionship Tennis Old Spice Tournament. Natase beat Poland's Wotjek Fibak in Mexico City last Sunday in three sets, 4-6, 6-2 and 7-6. The victory was worth $30,000 for Romania's Natase. 0. wM FEB., 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 U |