NASTAR Club Highlight: Pine Knob Ski Resort

2022 NASTAR Highlighted Ski Club & Resort

How long has your resort been participating in NASTAR?

Pine Knob Ski School has hosted NASTAR racing since 1991.

What resort do you host your NASTAR races at? What run do you race on?

Pine Knob Ski Resort, Clarkston Michigan. Shaboom off Chair 3.

What days of the week & times is your course open?

We host a public NASTAR race every Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 3pm. We also host closed NASTAR races for our Thunderbolt Junior Racer Development Program every-other Sunday morning (Pine Knob Sunday Series), every-other Saturday night (Pine Knob Saturday Night Slalom Series) and every Tuesday night for our Adult Race League Series.

Describe the energy of your home resort race series.

We have a very strong NASTAR racer following at Pine Knob. A typical NASTAR race is 60 racers, with as many as 150 when we run SL and GS.

What was the most memorable race day at a NASTAR race in the past few years?

The most memorable race day was after the NASTAR Pacesetting trials December 2018 with Daron Rahlves. We hosted a dual GS NASTAR race with Daron as Pacesetter with 300 registered racers! EPIC Day!

What's the best way to relax after a great day on the NASTAR course?

In our finish arena bleachers on a bluebird day for Apres’ with fellow racers and race crew members.

What is a piece of advice you would give a new NASTAR racer?

Practice good free skiing drills outside the course as much as possible. A good turn outside the course is a good turn inside the course. Take a private race lesson on where to initiate a turn in the course. Remember racing is about speed management. You have to know where you can push the pedal down and where you need to back it off based on your ability level. Start, make every turn and finish!

If you could bring your club to race anywhere in the world where would it be?

Kitzbühel, Austria home of the Streif!

Favorite US Ski Team Racer and why?

Mikaela Shiffrin. Mikaela’s training regime when she was a young racer is an excellent role model for Thunderbolt DEVO program (ages 5 to 14). Our foundational belief is strong skiers are better racers. The Thunderbolt DEVO Program assists motivated young racers strengthen and improve their personal skiing skills in a competitive alpine racing environment thru focused training of directed technical skiing drills and training courses

Who are you excited to watch in the Olympics this year?

The entire Alpine Team!! GO USA!

Who is a local NASTAR racer you'd like to highlight?

Jane Fall-Lakotos. Jane was part of our DEVO program for many years and also a committed and dedicated NASTAR racer. Her commitment to training, competitive attitude and consistent NASTAR participation enabled her to excel beyond competitors in her age category.

Any 'slalom tokyo drift' stories? // good crashes?

Too many to mention, but I did have a racer in skier’s right course catch an inside edge lock and skied across skier’s left course and onto the next run before the racer was able to recover. All I could say was, “apparently he is taking the scenic route” over the PA…LOL.

Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer

All images were taken at Pine Knob on Saturday, January 29, 2022.