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C odie Bascue is very familiar with the Mount Van Hoevenburg track.
But over the past two weeks, he was nowhere near Lake Placid.
Bascue had to learn a new track as part of his continuing development as an international-level bobsled driver, learning all about the twists and turns and speed of the Park City, Utah, track.
“He learned real quick that Park City is the fastest track in the world in terms of the length of time it takes you to get to top speed,” said father Craig Bascue. “You are at top speed at the exit of turn six at just over 80-mph on a 15 turn track. Very quick.”
Codie Bascue adjusted quickly to the new track, and, as with his runs in Lake Placid, started to turn heads with his performances.
“Every day he was the fastest sled in his international drivers’ school sessions,” said the older Bascue. “After seeing how well he was doing, he was once again invited to slide with the U.S. team in the evening where he was between fourth to seventh quickest on a nightly basis out of 17-20 sleds against members of the U.S. men’s and women’s national Teams.”
Codie Bascue also was involved in the America’s Cup Park City race, where he was the forerunner sled.
“That is the first sled to go off before the official race starts to do a test run,” said Craig Bascue. “He has also been invited to forerun the World Cup race in Lake Placid Dec. 13-19, which is a great privilege.
Codie Bascue continued to work throughout the week to improve his skills in a bobsled, still with sights set on qualifying for the Junior World Championships, which will be held in Park City at the end of January.
“The U.S. wants to make sure there is a full contingency since we are the host country,” said Craig Bascue. “There is going to be a race in Lake Placid the first week of January called the Lake Placid Cup and the top three or four juniors that finish in that race will take priority to get starts in the next Americas Cup race the following week in Lake Placid and the following Americas Cup race in Calgary to qualify for the Junior World Championships. So needless to say he may be very busy in January.”
With the success of Codie Bascue and pushman Dan Southam, the latter got a chance to compete at a higher level.
“Dan Southam also got noticed and was asked to compete with Justin Olsen in the Calgary Americas Cup race this week,” said Craig Bascue. “Justin is a Vancover gold medal push athlete who is trying his hand at driving this year. I told Dan I hoped that pushing/braking for Codie would help get him noticed.”
With Southam working with other drivers, Craig Bascue said that he was hopeful his son would be able to use some of his teammates from another field to join him on the track.
“He would like to try and work with Josh Hoagland and Evan Mclaughlin, who both have expressed some interest,” said Craig Bascue. “The U.S. coaches have said that they will assign the fastest and strongest youth they can find for Codie, but maybe they would like what they would see in Josh or Evan.”
Codie Bascue could also be reunited with his brakeman over the last three years, Shan Beebe.
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