Old and Blue rides again — and fast!
For longtime bobsled enthusiasts, the top-ranking finish of the rustic Old and Blue was certainly a heart warmer.
“It used to be my dad’s,” said Darrin Albo, the city’s manager of public works and a bobsledder since it started again roughly two decades ago. Albo’s father also worked at the city alongside Sonny Samuelson, now memorialized by this race.
“[In the 1960s], they used to sled down the backside of the old Cascade highway,” Albo said. “When they decided to get it going again, my dad remembered having this Old Blue out there. They’d just left it where they crashed it in the trees, so they went looking and pulled it out of the trees. The same one, right where they’d left it!”
“It goes!” he continued. “We haven’t done a lot of modifications. The steering’s all original and the runners are original, but we changed the square tubing on the bottom and replaced it with angle iron that acts like a skate. We also put old cable guides, that yellow stuff that Fortis uses to protect their cables, and riveted it to the tube steel to give it less friction.”
Albo recalled how he, his dad, and his brother used to take part in the races near the Lion’s campground, out at Asshole Mountain. It was moved from there out to Mayor Road, near Black Jack for a couple years. Roughly 12 years ago, with all the festivities going on in town for Winter Carnival, the city wanted it back in town.
“It’s awesome,” Albo said about the town’s enthusiasm for bobsled races. “It keeps growing.”
COMMENTS
Let's keep comments:
We ask that all participants own their words by logging in with their Facebook account. It's a simple process that will take seconds and helps keep our comments free of trolls, cranks, and “drive-by” commenters.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using screen names, pseudonyms or false identities. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.