A lucky break for fire racers

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 556, 4 October 1994, Page 16

A lucky break for fire racers

The fire fighters who chose to stay around for a last chance to race in this year's New Zealand Fire Fighter's Championships were treated to some excellent skiing on Friday. Thursday' s racing was out due to Turoa being closed. Champs participants made up for the lack of. activity during the day with hilarious sumo wrestling in the fire station at night (wearing inflatable sumo suits). Auckland team 'Rough Edge' - Rik Walsh, Bull Rackham, Cam Marsh, Ralp Den Hartog - took first place. "Fumigator" - 'DC', 'TheBoss', 'Spiros' and 'Fizz' took second place. Ohakune third The hosts, Ohakune Volunteer Fire Brigade, took third place with skiers Dwayne Dixon, Steve Nation, Ben Goddard and Karen Hawke. Taking the coveted final place trophy was 'Agitator', whose average combined time was 102 seconds, com-

pared with the winner' s average combined time of 30.5 seconds. Fastest individual female was Karen Hawke and fastest male was Dwayne Dixon. Spot prize winners were: Dallas Eves for wiping out the 'slow' sign at the Giant Chairlift drive; Ian Goodison - a good Whakapapa skier who sadly lost out on a good time; Karen Hawke for 'not making the grade' on Thursday night and staying home with the answer-phone on; Pam Watson for having the closest crutch to the ground in a sumo suit!; Pal Curd for spending all day in the public conveniences when he should have been racing; George Chan for 30 days of skiing on the mountain and a different pair of skis every time; Kirk Solomon for being the only member of the Udder Cants to stay and race. Following the no-race day on Thursday and due to a poor Friday forecast, eight teams went home and missed out on the amazing Friday skiing.