The 2nd annual Chevrolet Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge presented by Whelen Engineering was an absolute blast. The competitors had a good time and the event raised funds and awareness for the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project. The Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project is a non-profit organization that provides U.S. athletes with American made bobsleds that are designed and built by Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics.

Phil Kurze, who is the Vice President of Motorsports for Whelen Engineering is also the President of the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project. Kurze learned lessons from the first event. He enlisted the help of some people he has met in the racing world to make this year’s event held at the combined sliding track on Mount Van Hoevenberg a smashing success.

One of the problems that had to be solved from last year was communications. The only ways to transfer information last year had been in person, by physical notes or by cell phone. Phil arranged with Bruce Silver from Racing Electronics (R.E.) of Pleasantville, NJ to provide radios for the operations staff and more. R.E.’s Brian Sharp, a person who most of us are familiar with from the Modified Tour, was there to lend technical support including wiring some of the competitor’s helmets for sound.

I remarked to Phil that the bobsleds looked even sharper than they had last year. Kurze told me that John Morgan had enlisted the help Dennis Beardsley of PPG Industries who helped out with some of the materials and technical support. Justin Barnes of JB Grafix, who many have seen on a nationally broadcast motorcycle program, was behind the awesome graphics that graced the livery of these sleds.

Bob Cuneo provided new runners for all of the Challenge bobsleds. These new runners are similar to those that are used on the Olympic bobsleds. The bobsleds at last year’s event glided on “junior runners”. The conversion required more than just the change of runners and Bob was glad to have Mike Stefanik and a few others about to help him and Frank Briglia complete all of the changes before things got started.

Last year the “Challenge” was held under conditions that were quite similar to those of a traditional bobsled event. The weather was brutally cold under bright sunshine with plenty of snow as a backdrop. The conditions at this year’s event were sixty degrees warmer and intermittent showers under overcast skies with gusting winds.

The locals in Lake Placid have never seen conditions like this. In fact, the Lake Placid News featured a skiing story on the front page of their newspaper. It wasn’t a story about Alpine or Nordic skiing that one might typically find this time of year. A few local business people got together to celebrate the New Year, water skiing on Lake Placid Monday.

I’m not a big believer in global warming. If there is one group of people who I wouldn’t blame to champion this issue are the folks in the Tri-Lakes region this year. The whole weekend felt like late February on Long Island; rainy, the minimal remaining snow melting and a taste March winds.

Those spring-like conditions led to challenges for the event organizers and track officials alike. Tony Carlino, who is the venue manager of the Olympic Sports Complex, told us that the combined sliding track is temperature controlled with the use of 65,000 gallons of ammonia as refrigerant. Carlino aptly directs the laborers around the facility, puts out the fires, so to speak and despite his seemingly monumental daily tasks, Tony has a great disposition and a good sense of humor.

Once again, the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project was the beneficiary of support from Columbia Sportswear. Competitors and staff were outfitted with cold weather gear including items from Columbia’s “Titanium” line. I’d like to thank Phil Kurze for going out of the way to find a way to provide me with a one-of-a-kind event jacket.

The plan was for the competitors to do a few practice runs from starting area #4 and then move them up to #3 starting area for additional practice runs and qualifying on Friday. The new runners led to increased speeds and that combined with less than optimal conditions on the track likely contributed to several of the competitors flipping their bobsleds in turn #18.

When they attempted to send the veteran Bodine pilots down from the #3 starting area, three of the first five wound up flipping. The “Trickle” turn had done them in. The sudden reversing turn at the lowest point of the track, which is a part of the heart section, has been unofficially renamed in honor of Dick Trickle, who had the dubious distinction of flipping his sled there on two consecutive runs in last year’s event.

Kelly Weaver, who had served as Trickle’s brakeman on those two infamous, was there to enjoy the festivities. This year, all of the brakemen were National Guardsman. Bill Tavares who serves as the coach of the U.S. Women’s team secured the service of the Saranac Lake detachment of the New York National Guard B Co. 2/108.

All of the guardsmen had a great time and the drivers relished the opportunity to thrust each of them into the spotlight. Guardsman Mohammed was one casualty. He suffered a shoulder injury when Randy Lajoie flipped their sled in the Trickle turn on Thursday. He spent the rest of the weekend as an enthusiastic spectator.

The “heart section” is a part of the track that is actually shaped like a heart. It certainly helps to represent one of the Olympic Regional Development Authority’s (ORDA) sponsors, the New York Department of Economic Development and their I?NY tourism campaign. It is one of the reasons that this track is so technically challenging for world-class competitors and one of the reasons that the Bodine Challenge competitors made their runs from starting area #4 this year.

Phil Kurze also arranged for this event to be run in conjunction with the Whelen U.S. Bobsled Championships. One of the pilots entered in those races was a Bodine Challenge competitor last year. Stanton Barrett has come a long way toward making his way toward qualifying for the 2010 U.S. Olympic team in one year.

A couple of the folks involved with the event appeared to be a little under the weather on Friday. In particular, Randy Lajoie mentioned that he was “partly cloudy” and “down a cylinder” a few times. Apart from his late-night encounter with some “tainted ice”, Lajoie was a welcome addition to the Bodine Challenge lineup as he was without a doubt the most colorful person in attendance.

Boris Said, who was the star of last year’s Bodine Bobsled Challenge, established that he would be the pilot to beat during qualifying. Said laid down the fastest time in both qualifying heats. Our own Mike Stefanik was second best in the second heat and qualified fifth overall.

When qualifying was over we all departed Mt. Van Hoevenberg for the day. That didn’t mean things were over. There was a fundraiser to attend at Nicola’s on Main. Cocktail hour was an opportunity for the supporters to mingle with the celebrity drivers. We had a great time while the ORDA folks got to work grooming the track.

Before dinner got underway, the U.S. Bobsled team made a presentation to Whelen Engineering for their support of the team. Phil Kurze accepted beautiful plaque that featured a runner from one of their bobsleds. Phil accepted it on behalf of John Olson who sent his regrets that he could not attend.

Seating was assigned at this event with designs of ensuring that at least one celebrity would be at each table. I wound up sitting next to Mr. Colorful. Trust me folks, don’t hang around Lajoie long when he has a sharpie, you’ll have body parts that look like a crossword puzzle before you know it.

The food was outstanding. It was a great time and Nicola’s is a fantastic place. The auction and dinner raised over $13,000 for the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project.

I headed for Prague. No I didn’t leave dinner for Europe. Prague is a hotel that features cottage type rooms in Lake Placid. A couple of other folks from the Challenge were staying there, most notably Brian Danko from Area Auto Racing News and the aforementioned Brian Sharp from R.E.

I hit the pillow and slept for about eleven hours. That should be expected after staying awake for about forty hours straight and traversing Mt. Van Hoevenberg on foot all day. The accommodations were sparse but neat and considerably less expensive than those I had last year. The Brian’s seemed to like the place too.

Saturday greeted us with relatively warm weather and rain. Photos from the event look like there were snow flurries all day. The droplets of water that beaded on the waterproof Columbia sportswear reflected the camera flashes to create that illusion.

Mike Kohn took the Gold on Saturday morning in the 2-man Whelen U.S. Championships. He edged Steven Holcomb by twelve thousandths of a second. John Napier, the young man I wrote about last year from Schenectady, NY earned the Bronze.

When racers are around there are always those looking for a competitive edge. NHRA Top-Fuel Dragster competitor, J.R. Todd said, “Randy [Lajoie] told me it was all about the rocks.” Lajoie and Todd had stuffed rocks in the pockets of their jackets for extra ballast. J.R continued, “It looks like the ones he gave me were pebbles compared to his.” Lajoie quipped, “When you get a little older your rocks will get bigger.”

Boris Said was the class of the field. Kevin Lepage noted, “Boris is so calm and smooth with his hands, that’s what makes him so fast.” Said was fastest in the first heat of the second race despite Brendan Gaughan pulling a switch. Allegedly, he had U.S. Bobsledder John Napier pilot his sled while he went along for the ride.

Everyone expected Said and Lepage to be fast as they returned to defend their wins from last year’s Challenge events. The two new stars from this year’s Challenge were Morgan Lucas and Mike Stefanik. Both of these pilots honed their skills all weekend.

Bob Cuneo said, “Mike asked more questions than everyone else combined. I knew he was going to medal from the first day of practice.” Stefanik consistently demonstrated that he could get speed out of his sled at the bottom of the track where others faltered.

Stefanik was pumped after his last heat. Mike said, “That was the cleanest run since we’ve been here. My brakeman is awesome, right Matt! I didn’t hit one bump until we got to seventeen.” Stefanik took the Bronze in both races.

The Whelen Modified Tour champ said, “It was a great run. We had the Olympic support. Those guys are so fantastic and so pumped. It just makes you want to just do the best you can.”

I asked Mike, “Are you going to come back next year?” Stefanik responded, “I was talking to Phil and he says that he’s going to make that part of the championship package. If you win the (Whelen Modified Tour) championship, you’re going to get invited back here. That’s more incentive to go out there and try to get another one.” Can anyone say ten?

Morgan Lucas, who like Todd drives NHRA Top-Fuel Dragsters, was pumped about bobsledding. Lucas scored a Silver medal in the second race. Morgan plans on taking bobsled lessons and practicing with the U.S. team in Utah later this year. Perhaps Lucas will become the Stanton Barrett of ’07 and return next year to compete with the U.S. Team.

Another of the competitors was Philip Morris. Although there was a previous sponsor of the series, in typical NASCAR fashion, Philip was the 2006 Whelen All-American Series national champion. Morris was a good sport and certainly looked like he enjoyed himself. Dick Trickle and Todd Bodine were two of the veteran sliders to return this year and both did well. With as many pilots that flipped bobsleds this weekend, it was nice to see Dick get through the whole weekend right-side up.

Todd Bodine took special interest in another sliding discipline this weekend. Todd will be trying to generate interest and support for the U.S. Skeleton team. He wants to help fund, re-engineer and build their sleds. I’d love to see that as a part of the program next year.

Between the two celebrity races on Saturday, the Whelen U.S. 4-man national championship races were run. Grayson Fertig earned the Gold medal with a super drive in a sled that is actually owned by Stanton Barrett. Grayson had been a big help to all of us who were involved in the press race last year. Stephan Bosch, a transplant from Germany, who is competing for a spot on the U.S. team, edged Mike Kohn for the Silver.

One of the people that will never get enough recognition for his efforts in support of American bobsledding is the man one hears whenever there is a bobsled race on television. I call John Morgan the Dean of American bobsledding. It is amazing to watch how many people he meets, how much information he absorbs and relays and how much effort he puts forth.

His enthusiasm during the broadcasts isn’t an act. He is psyched every time a sled is in the track. John’s enthusiasm is contagious and he infects everyone he meets. I only wish we could have spent more time with him.

The Olympic bobsledders pushed the celebrity pilots off on each of their runs in the second race. They each put five bucks in a pool that was given to the athlete that got the best start time. There were times when they were pushing each other half way to Shady II. It really bonded our athletes and gave the racers some added speed. John Morgan called down from the production truck chuckling, “Keep it up! This is great television!”

Phil Parsons took part in the practice session on Thursday and had planned on being part of the event. My understanding is that Phil flew home to be with his brother Benny as his conditions have worsened. We also learned that we had lost Bobby Hamilton, Sr. this weekend. Our prayers are with Benny for a speedy recovery and with the Hamilton family in the wake of their loss.

It takes quite a bit of planning to get all of these people together. The Bodine Bobsled Challenge would like to thank the Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports for providing air travel for many of the participants.

Sunday came and it was time for us to take our turns sliding. Denis Morgan and I took rides in the first 4-man sled. Denis had to get Eric Morse to the airport and I wanted to get started on my trek home.

When we signed our lives away at the base lodge, it was pointed out to me that it was Guy Ronzoni’s birthday. Fifty years old and sliding down the mountain. The only thing I can say after our run was that the ride in the 4-man articulated sled seemed much less violent and slower than the ride Denis and I had taken last year in the 2-man Bodine Challenge bobsled.

Special thanks to Stephanie Ryan from ORDA for providing all of us media vermin with everything we needed at Lake Placid. This weekend is the Motorsports Show in Atlantic City combined with the Atlantic City Indoor races. I can’t wait to get down there. Hampton Jitney will be running a one-day trip for the show only from Long Island. If you are interested in taking the bus, email Ted Baxter at hamptonjitney@yahoo.com.