Some pics from two days of racing in St. Louis.
The Daggers always put on a good event. It's easy to say it's as much of a Memorial Day Weekend party as it is a race. The entire weekend was fun without a single incident of strife or miscommunication. It's getting so that the "grassroots race" organizers are getting so much experience that every race is top notch. Goad, JBH, Chiggy, Mary, Ellen and Paul covered all the bases and made it more than worth the trip.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-02.jpg)
Setting Saturday's course under a blanket of shade trees. It was really warm all weekend but with a decent breeze it wasn't debilitating like racing here in the South in May.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-03.jpg)
Everyone staked out a spot under a shade tree in the pit area.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-05.jpg)
One of the big attractions during the weekend was watching Bara and his shoulder. The guy had to be hurting but he never missed a start. Bara let us know that St. Louis is probably it for him this year as he's going to have the shoulder operated on in coming weeks.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-09.jpg)
Yeah, I know: what kind of narcissist posts pics of himself? Brock Foster, though, took my camera down the hill and got a really good sequence. Good slalom pics are good slalom pics no matter who's the subject.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-12.jpg)
After watching JBH walk away with the jam race fast time of the day by over a second, the Daggers put out a spread in the park for some good grilling.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-11.jpg)
I wonder if they are talking about bushings?
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-13.jpg)
Sunday morning saw Goad sporting this season's latest in runway fashions. He took a gnarly beef on Saturday that left him "screaming like a little girl." (Don't get on my case. That's a direct quote from the Goadster himself. I had to pass it along!)
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-14.jpg)
Laura Henn was the fastest woman in the race. She's here qualifying up against The Chainsaw.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-16.jpg)
Ok. I had a choice: keep the camera on Chainsaw or Laura. Guess who wins? Laura is really faster than last year and has obviously worked on getting some acceleration early on the course. Now, if only I could accomplish that.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-17.jpg)
Nathan and Ben Favero took a break from trying to strangle each other to run in the duals. Ah, big brothers and little brothers. . . you just can't beat 'em . . . no matter how much you want to!
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-18.jpg)
One of the locals, Jeremy Jones, (left) went up against Bara in qualifying. If Jeremy ever gets serious about slalom, he'd podum every race. His running start was the fastest on the hill all weekend.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-19.jpg)
Lemonboy Oles is healthy again and "almost" as fast as ever. Coming off a long layoff and still placing second to Harms shows how much he'll kick it this summer and fall.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-20.jpg)
Sunday's brain trust at the timing table: Laura, Mary, Ellen, JBH and their personal bouncer to keep away the inquisitive.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-21.jpg)
JBH was just unstoppable all day. He really should have ridden switch foot just to make it fair.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-22.jpg)
CFav and Byrrddog were evenly matched in the run for 3rd and 4th place in the "B' bracket
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-23.jpg)
Bara was grimacing and high on morphine and Vicodin but was still able to edge Goad for 3rd in the "A's"
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-24.jpg)
Paul Graf (left) was the fastest "B" guy on the hill all weekend and even managed a 3rd place in Satuday's jam session. He was fastest all weekend right up until the last race of the day. Frank Henn grabbed the top "B" spot in the finals.
![Image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/DownHillBillies/2006%20Saint%20Louis/StLou06-25.jpg)
This is the way to do it: stage a race, not travel, invite in a few friends and then rage faster than a bat out of hell to win it all. Jonathan and Paul put a lot of effort and time into making some really cool trophies. JBH was absolutely certain he was going to keep at least one of them!