March 11, 2006
-- Seattle, WA
High drama during the first races of the 2006 Northwest Downriver Cup Series promises an exciting season
of racing ahead. Turnout was lower than usual for the Cedar River Downriver Races, but the competitions
were still exciting with boat damage in the sprint and strainers in the classic. The race organizers
required a practice run of the classic course because of logs in several places. Our Friday evening
practice was in a beautiful snowstorm, but the weather was better Saturday morning for the second
practice run and races.
The sprint was a short race through the hardest rapid on the run. Tom Wier posted two fast times
to win overall, and Rufus Knapp found some speed on his second run to take second. Canadian Dean
Horsfall, down from Vancouver, was third on the strength of his first run time. Jennie Goldberg,
our only K-1 W competitor, put together two solid runs, but wasn’t to show her speed until the
classic race. After five successful and fast practice runs, Rich Roehner and Scott Chestnut had
trouble in the entrance to the rapid, and their day ended after some significant boat damage.
Two hours later, the long classic began. Jennie Goldberg passed Rufus Knapp on her way to taking
second place overall. Dean Horsfall was paddling well, but pinned on a strainer just as Tom Wier
was catching him. The two spent nearly ten minutes getting Dean, his boat, and his paddle off of
the branches and heading downriver (the times below reflect 9:20 subtracted from the finish time
for Tom and Dean).
Races # 3 and 4 in the Northwest Downriver Cup will be next weekend (March 18th) on the Chilliwack
River in British Columbia. Contact Tom Wier
(wierc1@yahoo.com) or Jennie Goldberg
(theleague@nwwhitewater.org)
for more information.
