Monday, August 14

Luge vets rule Seal Rock Run

By Vince Castellanos
ESPN X Games research

SAN FRANCISCO -- Street Luge went back to the future as X Games veterans and street luge pioneers told the young guns of the sport to "bring it!". Dry, warm conditions made the track at the Seal Rock Run course fairly sticky and provided excellent traction. The racers reiterated that it was easily the best X Games Street Luge track in history. Champions were crowned in the Super Mass and Dual event finals and bragging rights were up for grabs in "King of the Hill".

Super Mass

The Final matched No. 2 seed Bob "The Piranha" Pereyra against top seeded Lee Dansie and the No. 4 and 5 seeds John Rogers and Sean Mallard. Five-time X Games Street Luge medalist Dennis Derammelaere and Dave Auld completed the field. Dansie burst out on the green light first and grabbed a commanding holeshot with Pereyra in second and Rogers in third. Entering the Cliff House Turn, Dansie still held a big lead, but Pereyra was closing. Knowing that the inside line through the Cliff House was where virtually every pass occurred, Dansie protected that line. He braked too late in the process, though, and he slid a little, scrubbing off speed. He quickly corrected and rode to the middle of the road, but it was the break Pereyra needed. "The Piranha" bolted to the outside and surprised Dansie by squeezing between him and the hay bales. "All of a sudden I saw these black shoes coming by me," Dansie recounted. Dansie almost drove him into the bales, but he moved back to the middle and gave Pereyra room. "I was gonna mooch bump him," Dansie admitted later. "It ran through my head big-time, but I think I'm the cleanest racer on the course and I just can't turn to the dark side. I don't want to be known as a cheater." Pereyra, though, never thought his friend would weed him. "I knew he wouldn't do anything. He's always the total gentleman."

Pereyra felt like he had something to prove after the 1999 X Games. A pair of controversial fourths left him unsatisfied, and he waited an entire year to earn his revenge. An admitted headcase, Pereyra likes to say, "It takes me a year to talk myself into winning and a half-second to talk myself out of it." This year, he used that half-second to complete the thrilling pass.

Dansie, the 32-year-old Pro Street Luge pilot, claimed his fourth X Games luge medal (and, when you add his 1997 Winter X Games silver medal in Super-Modified Shovel, that brings his total to five overall). Three of the Street Luge medals are silver, and, unfortunately, none of them are gold. Dansie earned the No. 1 seed for the third time in his six X Games, but he is still searching for the top prize.

Pereyra and Dansie are the only Street Luge athletes to compete in every X Games. Both are luge originators who have been riding for more than 20 years. They first competed against each other in 1985. "I remember him as this skinny little blond punk," Pereyra said of Dansie in May 2000. "And he talked endless smack even back then. I'll tell you, though, he can back it up. When he's focused, not much can stop him. You might as well race for second."

John Rogers captured the bronze for his first X Games medal. He appeared in great position to pass both Dansie and Pereyra in the final but couldn't find room. "I tried to do a repeat of what I did the heat before [when he went from third to first with a great Cliff House Turn], but Pereyra was where I wanted to be and I probably scrubbed a little. And Bob had a lot of speed, too. I was really glad to see Lee give him room, because a lot of guys would have just sort of run him into the hay."

Dual

Old school is served! Bob Ozman, the 38-year-old who was one of Street Luge's true originators in the late 1970s, used a series of spectacular passes in the dangerous Cliff House Turn to claim Dual gold. Ozman ruled Seal Rock Run and made a triumphant return to the X Games after failing to qualify for the 1999 event. He claims he hates the Dual event, but it loves him. After a middle-of-the-pack qualifying time left him seeded 11th, Ozman passed three higher seeds on his road to his first ever X Games medal.

Ozman's semifinal was his toughest test. Pitted opposite Bob Pereyra, Ozman made his typical Cliff House Turn pass. This time, though, his opponent tried to pass back. As Ozman exited the turn, Pereyra regained speed and attempted to slip by between Ozman and the inside hay bales. Ozman was close to the hay, however, and Pereyra ran out of room and brushed the bales. The force of the impact shoved hay right through Pereyra's leathers, and it scrubbed off enough speed to ruin any chance he had to complete the pass. At the finish, the longtime competitors conferred, and Pereyra decided not to pursue a protest. "I've known Bob [Ozman] for a long time and I respect him," Pereyra said. "So I told him, 'If you say you didn't screw me, I believe you.' He said he thought it was fair, and that was good enough for me."

In the final, Wade Sokol led early before Ozman blew past in the Cliff House Turn. "I was gonna pass him [Sokol] on the outside, but I didn't want to get stuffed so I went hard on the inside," Ozman recalled. "I started sliding a little and the adhesion started going away and I thought I was gonna lose it." He didn't, and when he saw the size of his lead on the Jumbotron as he approached the finish line, he knew he was golden.

Sokol, the 32-year-old health care professional was feeling good after the final despite losing to Ozman. "If you've got to lose, it's nice to lose to someone as great as Bob Ozman," Sokol said. "It took me five years to get to the podium, and this is what I've been after."

Bob Pereyra took bronze, adding a third X Games medal to a trophy case that already includes gold and silver. The No. 2 seed defeated the only Bay area lugers at X Games - 1999 X Games Dual winner Dennis Derammelaere and surprise quarterfinalist John Fryer - before his epic duel with Ozman in the semifinals. In the third place race, Pereyra beat John Rogers to secure his podium place.

King of the Hill

King of the Hill was not an official X Games event. This bragging rights race pitted six former gold medalists against each other in one winner-take-all run. Biker Sherlock (1996, 1997, 1998), Rat Sult (1998), Bob Pereyra (1995), David Rogers (1999 Super Mass) and Dennis Derammelaere (1999 Dual) joined the temporarily un-retired Chris Ponseti (1997 Super Mass) in a battle for bragging rights. With 11 gold and 21 total medals between them, they truly represented the best of the Street Luge bunch. Derammelaere and Sherlock burst out of the gate together, but D-Rom began to pull away just before the Cliff House Turn. When Sherlock and Dregs teammate Sult got tangled up and crashed into the bales, D-Rom was home free. Rogers made a strong move near the end, but he ran out of track and was unable to catch Derammelaere, the King of the Hill. "The monetary reward for this is a lot less, but the prize, the title, was worth more than any money I could have. I beat the best in the history of Street Luge, and I'm on top of the world."

The biggest surprise of the day proved to be the big names who either failed to qualify in the top 16 (for the Dual comp) or top 24 (for Super Mass) or who qualified poorly. Former medalists, and Dregs teammates Rat Sult and Todd Lehr failed to qualify, and they were joined on the sidelines by big names Tom Mason and Waldo Autry. Dennis Derammelaere barely slid into the Dual comp (he was seeded 15th), and Biker Sherlock was out of the top 24 until a great second run put him in 7th.