9
the top of the hill after a run, I kept asking
Hut where do I hit the turn?" You know, I
just kept asking him questions." The
problem was, Hutson may not have
known himself. Byron Miller, full knowing
that he had somewhat of a "home turf"
advantage, summed up the course in just
three words, "Isn't it NICE?"
Sunday morning the racers woke up to
the ultimate in high cholesterol breakfasts.
As everyone congregated at the bottom of
the hill, it was easy to see that there was
a separate faction of skaters already
using the hill that morning. Laydown, luge,
buttboarders, or whatever, many of these
guys were really moving down the hill.
Some of them had sophisticated pieces of
machinery formed out of sheet and bar
aluminum, while others had simple
skatedecks with handles bolted to the
nose. Five of these lugers squared off
against the infamous pair from the
Underground Racers Association-Roger
Hickey and Perry Fisser. While the rest of
the stand-up skateboarders looked on,
these seven laydown artists first qualified
then went head to head in some very
exciting racing. While the Washington
racers had sleek and short laydown
machines, the boys from L.A. had long.
rattling monsters that seemed to wander
all over the course. Evidence this by Perry
Fisser's near miss of the curb, sidewalk,
bushes and finally a fire hydrant. Although
it was the general consensus of the crowd
that the local Flying Wood Brothers
looked faster, the clock proved differently.
Fisser and Hickey qualified almost a half-
second ahead of the pack. After all was
said and done, Roger and Perry faced
each other in the finals, with the "kid w/no
respect' coming out on top for his first
victory since Laguna Seca. Hickey took
home $125.00 for first, Fisser got $75.00
for second and local Dave Wood took
third and $50.00
And now it was time for what everyone
had waited for-the Downhill. A fair sized
crowd had assembled, complete with
some of Bellevue's finest on hand. There
was also a police squad on video, radar
and band aids (actually complete mobile
medical unit, which later proved
invaluable...thanks go out to the Bellevue
Police Dept.) After a half-hour of practice.
the qualifying began. Everything was
going smoothly, until on his first qualifying
run, the "Masked Man" Hickey blasted
across the finish line with a very fast time.
His only problem was that he couldn't
slow down for the last turn in the run-out.
Roger then executed a very beautiful
superman dive off his board and onto the
asphalt at 36 mph. Luckily for Hickey, the
Metro/Medic squad did a 'bang-up" job of
repairing the fallen racer. The "masked
man" received a standing ovation from the
crowd (they were standing anyway, so
what the hell), as the shuttle took a
shaken up Hickey back to the top of the
course.
Washington local Charlie Cohan, who
was rumored to have practiced the
hardest for this race, also had a slight
mishap on his first qualifying run. Charlie
unfortunately drifted out of turn number 11
38
and onto the pavement, severing some
arteries in his chin and keeping the Metro/
Medics very busy. He too, got tough, and
tried a second time to qualify. But alas,
the fall was just too much to overcome
and his time was not fast enough. The
rest of the qualifying went without a hitch,
and the top 8 who went on to the head to
head finals were:
1. Byron Miller
2. John Hutson
3. Dave Wood
4. Rick Fike
5. Bob Denike
6. Chris Pettyjohn
7. Roger Hickey
8. Perry Fisser
near the finish, the local guy made the
crowd proud. The victory went to Wood,
the energy went through the crowd like a
lightning bolt. Their racer had handed
Hutson his very first loss of the contest. "I
really should have concentrated more, for
he was getting great times in qualifying!"
Hutson said, looking completely amazed.
The second race proved even more
exciting. Hutson told himself, "There's no
way he's going to get in front of me this
time!" He was right. The very next race he
pulled out all the stops and scored the
fastest time of the day-36.737
seconds! The two were very close
through turn #1 and #2, but then it
happened. A slight slip in turn #3 and
Wood was on the asphalt skidding to a
stop. Immediately after winning that race,
Hutson checked the video replay to see
exactly what happened to Wood. "I
watched the replay of Wood's fall, and
believe me...the guy couldn't have
traveled any farther if he'd been on a 'slip-
n-slide covered with Wesson Oil. It had to
hurt." Hutson has a unique way with
words. Wood, remarkably, wasn't too
shaken up on the fall, for he went directly
to the top to battle it out for third place
with Bob Denike. Denike won the first
race with a time of 37.657 and Wood was
victorious in the second. Wood's time.
however, was not as fast as Denike's, so
the pride of San Jose took the third place
trophy home (along with some cash).
C.R.A. racer Wood finished the day with a
very respectful fourth place.
So it was finally down to the last set of
races. Hutson, who just before recorded
the fastest time of the day, versus Miller,
who had led the competition up to that
point. These races, unfortunately, were
not to be as dramatic as the two previous
ones. On both races, Hutson got out in
front at the start and remained there all
the way down the hill. The two last
victories by the 27-year-old Californian
had an obviously sobering effect on the
once exuberant partisan crowd. Byron
Miller, settling for second place, said at
the awards presentation, I'll be in top
shape next year, and I'll definitely beat
him...(laughter)." Miller couldn't have been
too upset though, for he easily won the
overall prize with victories in the Pro
Slalom and G.S. plus his second in the
Downhill.
won." But it wasn't going to be a repeat
for Denike this time at Bellevue. Bob
bumped into Miller's skateboard while
pushing off at the start, fell off and was
disqualified for that race. The only
possible way Denike could have
advanced to the finals was it for some
reason Miller had fallen off his board too.
Byron didn't, and he advanced to meet
the winner of the Wood-Hutson matchup.
John and Dave both got tremendous
pushes from the start of the first race, and
Wood pulled ahead for a good lead near
the middle of the hill. The crowd.
obviously rooting for their homeboy,
sensed a victory over the California Kid
and went into hysterics! Through turn #3,
Wood was yards ahead of Hutson, and
although the gap was closed somewhat
of
In the first round of eliminations, where
a racer needs the fastest time of two runs
to beat his man and advance to the next
round, Byron Miller shut down Perry.
Fisser and Bob Denike outdistanced Rick
Fike. Chris Pettyjohn came close but the
Berkeley speedster couldn't quite keep up
with Dave Wood, and Wood advanced to
the next round with Miller and Denike.
Hutson squared off early against Hickey
in a quasi "grudge match" race, a remake
the Laguna Seca matchup. John later
described the first runin this way-The
first race with Roger at Bellevue was hair
raising. I had some trouble on the hill. I
got ahead of Roger from the start and
was leading him. But going into the
second turn I tried to take a new line that I
wanted to experiment with. I tried to go
from the middle of the road (instead of
from the extreme outside) into the apex of
the turn and travel further out into the exit
than I normally would have. I knew that
this was the line that Miller and Fike were
taking...they had it wired and they were
going faster than I was."
So Huston tried the new line, with
some interesting results-1 totally missed
the turn! I came up off the pavement and
on the sidewalk, in a full standing position
and nearly blazed right through some
brush. The only thing I thought of was that
I still had to beat Roger down the hill. It
was pure luck, but I pulled back onto the
pavement, and for some strange reason I
was still ahead of Hickey." The two raced
through turn #3 and on towards the finish
line, with Hutson leading Hickey by about
a yard. Roger, in his straining to beat
John to the tape, fell just after he crossed
the finish line. "It wasn't that close."
Hutson pointed out later, "and it certainly
wasn't worth diving for!" Hutson defeated
a badly shaken Hickey on the second
race and the Hut advanced into the next
round of eliminations.
In the second round, it was Miller vs.
Denike and Wood vs. Hutson. Bob Denike
had some special comments on the first
race: "One of the best moments for me
that weekend, and I'm sure for Byron too,
was when we were first paired off.
Standing up at the start, getting ready to
go down, we looked at each other and
kind of laughed. For we were paired off in
the exact same position and situation one
week earlier at Capitola. That time I had
After the race, Hutson's victory
celebration was sweet, but all too short.
The King and His California court jesters
had to catch a 6 p.m. flight back to S.J.
and it was already 5:35 p.m. Martian
heard this and immediately went into a
full-on panic when he realized that it took
over 40 minutes to get back to Seattle. No
problem, Fike said with a smirk, as he
piled everybody into his 320i and hit the
HYPERSPACE button. Fifteen minutes
later they were safely in their seats on the
plane and loaded, headed home for San
Jose.
On the plane trip back, there was plenty
of time for the Hut and crew to think about
what had just happened that weekend.
The Cascade Racing Association proved
that they could pull off a major downhill
contest as professionally as anyone in
California. It was also the first time since
Colorado that John Huston had not had
the 'Home Turf advantage when racing.
He proved that it made no difference to
him. As Doug Hitch, head official for the
weekend and one of the founding fathers
of the C.R.A., put it, "If any race showed
that John Hutson is #1, it was Bellevue.
The "Hut" is certainly the best in his pro-
fession!"
In closing, the most important aspect of
the weekend was that the contest showed.
that events of relative magnitude actually
do happen outside the boundaries of
California and that they are quite worthy
of magazine coverage. The Downhill
world now looks to the Los Angeles area
to support and to complete this circuit.
The last major downhill contest in the
southland was the blood marred Signal
Hill, and it's time for something important
to come out from promoters and sponsors
there...
MARTIAN
1981 BELLEVUE OPEN
DOWNHILL RESULTS
PRO DOWNHILL
1. John Hutson
2. Byron Miller
3. Bob Denike
4. Dave Wood
PRO SLALOM
1. Byron Miller
2. Art Morrison
3. Rick Bates
AMATEUR SLALOM
1. Kyle Finn
2. Doug Hitch
3. John Bismuti
PRO GIANT SLALOM
1. Byron Miller
2. Rick Fike
3. John Hutson
PRO LUGE
1. Roger Hickey
2. Perry Fisser
3. Dave Wood
4. Scott Wood
Bob Denike applying the pressure on homeboy, Rick Fike.
John Hutson bag to the top