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Thunderbird Ski Club
RACE TEAM
Wanna’
Be Racers>>>>Listen Up!
The
Thunderbird Race Team is a group of app 50 members of the
Thunderbird Ski Club who participate in downhill ski racing (slalom
and giant slalom) in the Metropolitan Detroit Ski Council [MDSC] –
Michigan Alpine Competition Committee [MACC] ski race program.
The program consists of 12 races over 5 weekends, primarily at Boyne
Mountain in northern Michigan, with one weekend at the Searchmont
Resort, outside of Sault St. Marie, Ontario.
Am I a
good enough skier to race?
The answer is an emphatic, “YES”! You need no prior race
experience to jump right in. Coaching by the TBird veterans will
help you along. Racing is done versus other persons of the
same gender and similar ability [adjusted with handicaps] on courses
that are set for the ability level of that class. If racing
has ever, even remotely, entered your mind, you need to try
it!
Why
participate?
It's FUN
to race, and it will clearly make you a better skier. There
are also after-race activities on race weekends like Hot Tub
parties, a pizza party, spaghetti dinner, and an on-the-hill
barbeque with your fellow racers. The last race weekend
features the MACC Awards Banquet. We are working on other
activities for next season. The emphasis, however, is still on
having fun.
When do
the races take place?
See the 2007 schedule below.
You don't have to make all of the
races. Make as many as you want or can. And being a
“GUEST RACER” for your first time out makes trying it easy and
inexpensive.
Check out
more information about racing on the
MACC Website.
How do I
sign-up?
At this time, just provide your name, address, phone number, and
e-mail address, to
Jim Michon, Director of Marketing/Recruitment,
313-258-4522 Email:
Jim Michon.
He
will make sure that you receive the information and registration
forms when they become available as the race season approaches.
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Racing Schedule 2012 |
| Boyne Mountain |
January 7-8 |
| Boyne Mountain |
January 21-22 |
| Searchmont |
February 3-5 or 10-12 |
| Boyne Mountain |
February 25-26 |
| Boyne Mountain |
March 9, 10, 11 |
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THUNDERBIRD RACE TEAM
Newsletter:
First Race
Weekend: January 7 & 8:
The
first race weekend at Boyne
was a success, with 26 Racers going through the courses on Saturday
and Sunday. We are still
the largest race team in the MACC program. The Thunderbird Ski Club
members who made the podium (1st, 2nd, or 3rd)
are as follows:
Giant
Slalom (Saturday):
2nd
Steve Vollmer (SVCM), Bob Rossi (CM)
3rd
Janie Guiliani (E2W), Ted Jablonski (VBM), Jamie Pawelek (DM)
Slalom (Sunday):
1st
Zach Jablonski (E2M),
2nd
Mike Jablonski (SVBM), Steve Vollmer (SVCM), Jamie Pawelek
(DM)
3rd
Dale Pacynski (VBM), Chuck Trewin (BM), Bob Rossi (CM),
The Race Team “racer of the week” is
Scott Soucie (BM) with
two 1st place finishes.
Not far behind is Art Ellwanger (SVBM) with 1st and 3rd place
finishes. Ski Club members
Steve Vollmer (SVCM) had two 2nd place finishes nd
Bob Rossi (CM) and Jamie
Pawelek (DM), each with a 2nd and a 3rd
place finish.
In addition,
Zach Jablonski, in his
first weekend in his upgraded class (E2M) made the podium with a 1st
place finish in Sunday’s slalom race and was within 0.2 seconds of
first when he blew out of a ski in Saturday’s GS race.
The future looks bright for him.
The Race Team’s
fastest racer (in Elite, the fastest class on the hill),
Eric Klaban, just missed
a second podium finish by 0.09 seconds in the GS.
Not a shabby performance.
The race team had a
reasonable 46% of our racers (12 of 26) make the podium at least
once, with five making the podium twice.
Hopefully, we can build on this success at the next race
weekend.
The First Weekend Dinner:
Fifteen TBirds gathered on Saturday night at the Vollmer condo
in Boyne Falls for a dinner of salad and seven varieties of pizza.
This was followed by a dessert of chocolate cake with chocolate and
white frosting baked by Mary Ann Jablonski. As you may have
suspected, no one in attendance left hungry.
The only downside was watching the Lions lose to New Orleans
in their first playoff game in many, many years.
This left Jamie Pawelek and Doug Fellman so despondent that
they knocked numerous beer bottles off of the wood stove.
Welcome to a New Racer:
The Race Team welcomes new racer
Mike Altenburg to the
team. Mike was a casual
skier who, after running 15 NASTAR runs with Mike Jablonski last
March, was bitten by the race bug.
He finished 7th in both the GS and slalom, which,
for his first race weekend, was not bad.
He is not a typical TBird, as he lives in Toledo and is a
certified cheesehead (Green Bay Packer fan), having grown up in
Wisconsin. Once he
overcomes his shyness, he will fit in well with the team.
Sick Bay:
The race season got off to an awful start for Ted Jablonski.
It started on Saturday, when he fell while working and hurt
his upper back. On
Sunday, he was having one of the best slalom runs on the course,
when he hooked the last gate before the finish, which sent him
flying through the air onto his right shoulder, sliding through the
finish line without both skis.
When he couldn’t move his arm without pain, we knew that
things were not good. A
visit to the emergency room confirmed that he had broken his scapula
(shoulder blade). The
doctor there said that the scapula is one of the harder bones to
break and that he rarely sees one.
Well, Ted showed him!
We’ll have to see if he heals fast enough to return to the
snow or race course this season.
We all wish him a speedy recovery.
Arlene Bellas,
having trained for months for the race season, did not get to show
her talents as one of her competitors, on the chairlift ride up the
hill for the first race, stepped on Arlene’s ski as she attempted to
exit the chair at the top of the hill.
This caused her to fall and twist her knee and prevented her
from racing either day.
Accident? I don’t think
so, but you draw your own conclusion.
Mike’s Musings:
The first race weekend of 2012 came off extremely well,
considering the low snowfall and mild temperatures that have marked
this winter.
Fortunately, the temps were fine for both of the race days, and the
race conditions were very good.
The battle of the brothers began (and probably ended) for
the season. Ted beat me
in the Saturday GS, which is not typical, and would have likely won
the Sunday slalom had he not crashed in his first run.
I suspect that his return to the race course this season is a
bit optimistic.
And then there is Will “I have to make two
runs?” Heckman. He had
one podium level run in the GS and the fastest run in the slalom,
but couldn’t put two of them together.
Now that we know that he is FAST, he just has to be a bit
more consistent, without losing the speed.
Go Will!!!
In addition, Dennis Parrott, returning in
earnest this season with much better feeling knees, didn’t make the
podium, but was skiing GS handicaps in the class ranges, which
portends well for the future.
I’ll see everyone at Boyne
Mountain on January 21st.
Your Thunderbird Race Team Director:
Mike Jablonski
734-283-5510
(Home)
231-582-7339
(Cottage)
mtjablonski@wowway.com
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THUNDERBIRD RACE TEAM
Newsletter:
January 31, 2012
Second
Race Weekend: January 21 & 22:
The second race weekend at
Boyne was a success,
with 26 TBird Racers going through the courses on Saturday and
Sunday. We remain the
largest race team in the MACC program. The TBird Ski Club members
that made the podium (1st, 2nd, or 3rd)
are as follows:
Slalom (Saturday):
1st
Jill Jablonski (E2W), Zach Jablonski (E2M), Doug Fellman
(BM), Jamie Pawelek (DM)
2nd
Patrick Smithbauer (SVBM), Steve Vollmer (SVCM)
3rd
Janie Guiliani (E2W), Mike Jablonski (SVBM)
Giant
Slalom (Sunday):
1st
Jill Jablonski (E2W), Steve Vollmer (SVCM), Jamie Pawelek
(DM)
2nd
Patrick Smithbauer (SVBM), Bob Rossi (CM)
3rd
Janie Guiliani (E2W), Dale Pacynski (VBM), Chuck Trewin
(BM), Gary Sonnenberg (SVCM)
Our TBird Ski Club “racers of
the week” are Jill
Jablonski (E2W) and
Jamie Pawelek (DM), each with two 1st place
finishes. Not far
behind is Steve Vollmer (SVCM) with 1st and 2nd place
finishes, Patrick
Smithbauer (SVBM) with two 2nd place finishes, and
Janie Guiliani (E2W)
with two 3rd place finishes.
Jill Jablonski,
in her first appearance on the race course this season (she lets
school get in the way), won the slalom by over two seconds and the
GS by 1.5 seconds in the tough E2W class.
Obviously, missing the 2011 season hasn’t hurt her racing
performance. Go Jill!
Jamie Pawelek
may not be long for the DM class as he won the slalom by almost
seven seconds (on his hot new slalom skis) and the GS by over
seven seconds. He is
getting faster every week.
Go Jamie!
The TBird Race Team had a very reasonable
58% of our racers (15 of 26) make the podium at least once, with
five making the podium twice.
Hopefully, we can continue this success at the remaining
race weekends.
The Second Weekend Dinner:
Sixteen TBirds gathered on Saturday night for dinner at the
Vollmer condo in Boyne Falls.
We began with a veggie tray appetizer and Chuck Trewin’s
bear sausage (you’ll have to ask Chuck how he killed the bear).
Next came the salad and dinner, consisting of Hawaiian
dinner rolls and three varieties of rotisserie chicken. This was
followed by a dessert bar of home-made goodies, which consisted of
Mary Ann Jablonski’s cherry cheese cake, Judy Sullivan’s brownies,
and Mike Altenburg’s (actually his wife’s) chocolate chip cookies.
As you may have suspected, everyone was stuffed when this
was over.
Sick Bay:
Ted Jablonski made the trip north to cheer Jill and Zach to
success on the race course while hobbling around the ski hill.
His broken shoulder blade left him in pain for days after
the fateful fall at the first race weekend.
Because of this, he avoided coughs, sneezes, laughing, and
other sudden movements.
About four days after the “event”, he was not able to avoid
a sneeze. When he
straightened up after the initial painful movement, the shoulder
pain was gone.
Apparently, the sneeze realigned the break, and the need for pain
pills went away. His
doctor does not want to operate, so he recommends that Ted wait a
month to confirm that the natural healing process is going well.
Arlene Bellas, having tweaked her knee when tripped
getting off the chairlift during the first race weekend, tried to
ski on her bad knee during the Boyne Bash weekend.
She found that it still gives her problems and will have to
miss the planned Searchmont race weekend.
Hopefully, she will be back on the race course later in the
season.
Mike’s Musings:
The second race weekend of 2012 came off very well, as Boyne
received lots of natural and man-made snow prior to this weekend,
leaving us with much better race conditions.
The battle of the brothers is probably over for the
season, as Ted is not likely to return to the race course in 2012.
New TBird racer, Mike Altenburg, had to miss the Saturday
race because of work (what a bummer), but he came up later on
Saturday (in time for dinner) and raced the Sunday GS.
He just missed his first podium by ½ a second, but had the
second fastest second run in his class (a strike and three seconds
faster than his first run).
The person with the fastest run was upgraded to BM after
the race. Mike’s
future looks fast, especially if he can put two fast runs
together.
Your Thunderbird Race Team Director:
Mike Jablonski
734-283-5510
(Home)
231-582-7339
(Cottage)
mtjablonski@wowway.com
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For more information about TBird Racing contact: |
Mike Jablonski
Director - Thunderbird Race Team
Chairman - MACC
h734 283 5510
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or |
Jim Michon
Director of Marketing/Recruitment
313-258-4522
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