Campo

Campo, CA '00

The first race of the Millenium, and EDI's 2000 season took place in a SMALL town about an hour east of San Diego on the Campo Indian Reservation. The town had about a dozen homes, a "resort," and a store. There appeared to be a single road through town, up hill. Drive up the road, under I-8 and you have arrived at the top of the race course.

The race course started about 200 feet from the Tecate Divide. The course was about 9 tenths of a mile. It started out in the open, susceptible to wind gusts, leading up to a slight uphill. A couple of short turns led into a large sweeper at the bottom. The large sweeper was narrowed to one lane by a series of cones. 

The nearest hotel as 5 miles away right of the interstate. The hotel had about a dozen rooms, and apparently only one clerk. While the hotel is only a few minutes from the course, if we ever race there again I recommend a hotel in Alpine. The hotels in Alpine have swimming pools and are right next to a dozen restaurants. And to top it off there is a casino right outside of Alpine.

As usual the race starts off with everyone lining up for tech. Gerek Maddox showed up with a new luge design. Darren Lott brought his modified "spooncat." Bob Swartz showed off his brand spankin' new Blue Smoke leathers. . Al "Scarecrow" Braun also spouted some new leathers. Someone tried a fresh approach to adding traction.

The plan was to practice Saturday morning, qualify in the afternoon, and race on Sunday. This year EDI restarted the amateur program. We had about a dozen amateurs running. They were qualifying first. About halfway through qualifying someone wrecked in the sweeper. He was "rushed" to the hospital. The race course was about an hour from San Diego. But as the ambulance arrived in San Diego they were diverted to a hospital north of the city. The claim was it took them almost three hours to get to the hospital. Fortunately there was no serious injury. Due to the lack of any EMT's the race as called for the day.

Sunday found head wind and a much slower course. The pro times were seconds slower than the day before! Once racing started there was some close racing. Yet Kurtis Head dominated in his races while Biker eeked out wins in his races.  When they met in the final, Biker managed to hold Kurtis off, with Rat taking third.

While the cones made the course more harder they were also a danger. Because they are made of rubber the cone will stick to the ground when hit, and grab the luge. Darren found out the hard way that hitting the cones is a Bad Idea. While Darren was uninjured enough to finish the race he did break a small bone in his foot.

 Some of the standup riders found an easy ride to the top of the course.

And finally the podium shots. Amateur Luge , Standup , and Pro Luge

Back at the hotel, some people come TOO prepared. All in all a great start to the new season.