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ESPN Winter X-Games VIII – Aspen, CO.

            January 24^th –27^th marked the eighth running of the Winter X-Games in Aspen Colorado.  This years events were moved to a Saturday thru Tuesday format to accommodate the live TV broadcasting on ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC and Sportscenter.  The weather was perfect for all of the events, Sunny skies and occasional light snow to keep things fresh made for a perfect weekend of competition.  Things started out on Saturday for the team, as Ski-doo Pro rider Noel Kohanski #37 rode a Team Bauerly Mod sled in the Snocross competition.  Noel ran very strong in qualifying, placing in the top 5 in each of his heats, and just missing the cut to the final running on Sunday by one spot.  He ended up 18^th out of 32 competitors after the finals were run.  It was a great fit for the team, everything worked out great for Noel, and it was a great experience for everyone else involved.  Next came the Hillcross competition, which was run in its entirety on Tuesday.  Chad, Paul and Ross were all a part of the big show.  After an early morning practice session and some quick tuning everyone was ready for competition.  The first segment of the event included a single timed run up the course by drivers to seed them in brackets for the quarterfinals.  Chad was elected to make the very first run, which was a bit nerve wracking in itself, but he did make a clean pass.  Ross also made a decent qualifying run, and like Chad made it through clean but again knew there was room for improvement.  Paul made an awesome run up the hill, posting the 7^th fastest time out of 27 competitors.  In the quarterfinal runs, Ross was up first, running a solid race, often times in the top 3, but eventually crossing the line in 5^th, which was not quite enough to make the Semi’s.  Chad was up next, and with his sled dialed in perfectly, shot off the line and into the lead up the first 2 steep inclines.  As they approached the first set of doubles after getting the hole shot, Chad’s motor gave out, bogging as he hit the throttle and his lead slowly slipped away.  By the time he crossed the finish line, he had slipped to a disappointing 4^th place finish, which was one shy of transferring on.  Paul had a tough heat, but he shot up the first hill right on the leaders tail, and then in the technical doubles started a pass to the lead.  As he was cleanly advancing forward, another competitor lost control of his sled and ran Paul right off of the course, ending his charge for a transfer to the main event and a possible heat win.  At the end of competition Paul ended up in 13^th place overall, with Chad at 19^th, Ross pulled off a 22^nd overall finish.  Despite some tough luck suffered by the team, everyone came home healthy, with no major sled damages, and a much brighter outlook for the future, as they all know they can run with and hang with the true big boys of the sport.

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