Warren Focke scored top honors taking first place,
George Merkert took second place, Dave Lambert came in
third place and Mark Henely finished fourth in the
IGSA California Series race number 4. Here's how the
race went down.

The Nor Cal contingent (Lambert, Focke and Henley )
arrived in LA early Saturday AM, to garner a few hours
of precious sleep before the competition. The So Cal
contingent was only represent by Merkert, who raced
despite battling a virus all week.

Merkert showing the rest of the field the great
competitor and athlete that he is, had the fastest
qualifying time of 58.6. Merkert was equipped in a
four wheel combination Solomon frame of three 100mm
wheels and one 84mm wheel with a Bont speed boot. He
qualified without a speed suit in leathers wearing a
motor cycle helmet.

Focke had the second fastest qualifying time of 59.3.
Showing a marked improvement over previous qualifying
times on the course. Focke was equipped with an
Icebeams polyurethane speed suit, with an
aerodynamically shaped skydiving helmet
and Maple 6 wheel 80mm frames with Rocces boots.

Henley had the third fastest qualifying time of 60.1
seconds, equipped with an Icebeams polyurethane speed
suit, motor cycle helmet and a 5x80mm Roller Blade
Fusion 10k frames with Rocces boots.

Lambert had the fourth fastest qualifying time of
61.00 seconds, in leathers, motor cross helmet and
Verdcci 5x84mm frame with Roller Blade boot.

The first heat began with Henley and Focke sprinting
out to a 1 meter lead over Merkert with Lambert
following. Lambert drafted Merkert to make a pass and
fall in behind the Henley and Focke draft going into
the hairpin. Henely drifted wide coming out of the
hairpin opening the door for Focke and Lambert to make
the pass turning into the flat. The skaters switched
from tucks into sprints for the 25 meter flat before
the final turn with Focke in a secure lead in first
over Lambert and Henley close behind Lambert with
Merkert in fourth. Focke secured first place for that
heat with about a 2 meter meter lead. Lambert took
second in the heat with Henely nearly closing the gap
for a 3rd place finish and Merkert finished fourth.

The second heat opened up with Henely, Focke and
Merkert and sprinting off the starting line. In that
initial sprint Lambert's skate boot gave out and he
was left behind unable to run and stand on his left
skate. Lambert had switched skates after qualifying to
a new skate setup of a 6 x 80mm frame with a Moscow
boot. The boot was too soft allowing the boot to flex
under extreme force and caused the frame to bend at
the mount plate, cracking in a couple of other places.

The second heat finished with Focke taking first,
Merkert sprinting out to a second place finish and
Henely taking third. Later Lambert slowly wheeled
across the finish for fourth with his broken skate.

With the third heat rider truck already loading,
Lambert hoped over and switched back to his 5 x 84
setup in time to make the rider van.

The third and final heat of the day would turn out to
be the most competitive with Focke at 2 points and
already guaranteed first place spot on the podium, the
final two spots would be highly contested by Henley,
Merkert and Lambert at 6 points each.

The final heat began with all the racers sprinting
out hard and the draft train order being Henley,Focke,
Merkert, and Lambert. Lambert used the hole in the air
created by the three man draft in front of him to pass
the train going into the front side of the hairpin for
the lead. All four racers rounded the backside of the
hairpin and broke into a sprint.

The video showed all racers were about side by side
with Henely in the lead by a slight margin about 3
meters from the final turn and finish line. Merkert
gained the lead in the final turn, with Lambert
following closely. Henely started to drift wide going
into the last turn while Focke maintained his line in
fourth place. Merkert's leading skate clipped a bale
of hey but he remained on his skates to cross the
finish line first, with Lambert close behind to
finish second. Then in a cloud of dust and hey bales
both Merkert and Lambert caught the hey bales and went
down tumbling on dirt and asphalt. In the meantime
Henely had swung wide
catching the bales before the finish, while Focke
rolled in for an easy third place finish for that
final heat.

After the dust cleared race officials required
Merkert, Lambert and Henley to see the medic. Lambert
and Henely shook it off, Merkert was a bit winded but
said he was ok, the medic insisted on giving him
Oxygen.

In the final analysis, the last heat third place
finish for Focke gave him a total of 5 points and the
victory
earning Focke the top podium spot. Merkert's first
place finish in the third heat gave him 7 points and
enough points to take the second podium spot.
Lambert's second place finish gave him 8 points and
enough to earn the third the podium spot. Henely who
had a great race had a total of 10 points placing him
at fourth.

Just to let everyone know the final race of the IGSA
race season and California series will be held in
November in LA, where Lambert will be presented with
his World Cup award for the 2004 season.

The IGSA has also announced that they're considering
changing the race season to start in November.
That change may effectively start the 2006 season this
November, please refer to the IGSA website for a final
announcement.

One final note, another world cup race has been added
to the schedule in addition to the Ohio world cup on
October 8 a race has been added in Brazil for January
14 of 2006!

If anyone has any ideas for funding or sponsor ship
and would like to travel as a team please email me at
skaternation@... I hear that travel is
going from 450.00 to 800.00 for a round trip ticket.

Keep skating, keep racing!

David Lambert