One of the biggest events Furlong has traveled to since Red Bull Streets of San Francisco 2002, this race proved to be both fun and enjoyable, especially since GSI has worked hard to provide the racers with more value for their money. This was the first such event that Furlong is aware of that GSI actually did something different from what they have done in the past, and that was to allow as many practice runs (though limited to 12 riders) RIGHT AFTER each individual race heat, thereby increasing efficiency.

On Sunday, there was an incident whereby the U-Haul truck that transported the riders up and down (although mostly everyone agreed that taking the shuttle bus was more enjoyable, since air-conditioning is still the most important invention of the millennium!) leaked oil on the course. GSI officials as well as other people worked hard to clean up the oil by using kitty litter to absorb it, as well as using a street sweeper vehicle to speed things up a bit. This happened after the 2nd race heat of the downhill skateboarding class. It took an hour to clean up the course, which caused the racing to continue going on even at 6:30 PM, thereby effectively nullifying the road permit that had a 6:00 PM time limit. As such, the pro street luge class stopped right after the 3rd race heat. Had there been enough time to run the 4th heat as well as any potential tie-breakers, the results would have been a lot different. Nevertheless, GSI still remained fair to everyone and calculated every racer's points based on their performance in the 3 race heats.

RACE OVERVIEW:

In the 1st heat of the pro street luge class, Furlong took the holeshot at the starting line and lead everyone to the first right hand sweeper, at which he is passed by Beagle Jarvis on the fast straight leading to the high-pitched left-hander. Taking a shorter line on the inside, Furlong managed to come in real close behind Beagle and remained in his draft on the straight, hoping to set up correctly for the technical chicane towards the bottom of the course. Furlong out-braked Beagle prior to the sharp 90 degree right-hander, took the lead, and just hung on tightly all the way to the finish line. About 50 feet from the finish line, Furlong could hear the change in the pitch of the air, indicating that he was being drafted by someone. Sure enough, Furlong saw Beagle coming up on his left thru the edge of his visor. It was a photo finish at the finish line, and Furlong took first in the heat, having beaten Beagle by about 6 inches.

In the 2nd heat, it was a 5-man group as opposed to 4. Without a doubt, Pat Moody took the win, leading the other 4 racers by a huge gap at the high-pitched left-hander. Everyone took a different line at that turn, trying to brake minimally, but nevertheless, it was a close train of 4 racers upon exit of the turn. Furlong out-braked Justin Crenshaw prior to the 90 degree right-hander, and tried to make a pass on both Roland Morrison and Kyle Cayer on the extreme right, until Furlong didn't notice that his line was where Kyle also wanted to be. With Furlong's huge entry speed, there was no way to avoid making contact. The front boom of Furlong's luge made contact with Kyle's rear bumper, resulting in Kyle getting totally spun out and Furlong disqualified, placing him last in the heat. If there is a lesson to be learnt from this scenario, is that pegged luges do really cause entanglements! Jeff Schonzeit can attest to this fact as he was spun out by Beagle (on a straight!) in his heat, whereby both riders' luges scraped, making white marks on the road, with both riders falling head over heels into a ditch. Beagle was also disqualified.

In the 3rd heat, Furlong and Stacy Allen were basically fighting for 3rd place. Furlong thought he had it coming for 3rd place until he saw these shoes go by on his left at the finish line. It was yet another photo finish for Furlong, but this time, Stacy had her 6 inches on him. Stacy is going to be the next Pamela Zoolalian real soon guys, so you better watch out!