Rogerson 500Mile California Open Race
What started out to be a personal dream of mine to compete against not one but rather 4 different combines turned into a reality on Sunday May 28th 2006. One of the main attractions for me in this wonderful sport of ours is the competition of fellow pigeon flyers. Competing in a larger body of flyers is a bigger challenge and to me also much more rewarding. By adding a larger and more prestigious race with more lofts flying together could be an added attraction and possibly add more flyers down the line. The successful New England Open Race is a very good example of this.
To get our race off the ground, flyers from the Bay City Combine, North California Combine, Visialia Combine plus the Mid Valley Combine were all invited to participate in this race. From North to South the 4 combines are up to 140 miles apart. So in this case picking a proper race station was very important. After playing with different race station for 2 days on the computer the race station Rogerson Idaho was selected and would give us a 500 Mile race and have flyers with about 100 mile short to long variation. To make this race as fare as possible for all we also added 4 different sections. This way we would have an overall winner plus first section winners in the remaining 3 sections. The 4 sections would cover flyers from south to north and also sections from short to long. This way if mother nature was not in your favor on race day you could still have a great bird in your club or in your section. The original start date for our race was May 13th but was delayed by 2 weeks because of bad weather. The 3rd week was not a picture perfect day on Saturday again but from the consensus on both ends and keeping the welfare of the birds in mind decided that it was a go the fallowing day being Sunday the 28th.
Because of the cross or head winds along parts of the race course it turned out to be a good but tuff race with 89 total day birds. The total number of birds in the race was 955 birds and flying to 97 different lofts. The over all winning bird owned by Soto Family Loft was clock a few minutes after 6 PM and covered 485 miles with a winning speed of 1204.313 YPM . The Soto family loft is in the No.4 south/long section and one of only two day birds in this section. The winning bird was a BB Cock 05 MTZ 1069 flown on the double widowhood system. The Sire of his wining bird comes from a Zazueta/Verenazza Janssen matted to a Beakert/Devriendt hen. The next 6 birds were clocked in the No.1 Short/North Section. The winning bird BBWF/H 04 FSC 40678 with a winning speed of 1157.986 is owned and flown by the Kwoka Family. She has the blood lines of Tournier x Janssen on one side blended with Smulders Janssen on the other side. She was flown on the natural system and sitting on 8 day eggs. The Winning bird 04 SOC 1494 BBPD/C in Section No. 2 and the 8th over all bird in the race with a speed of 1091.658 was owned and flown by De La O - Siino Loft. His first section winner comes from his Galaxy Devriendt Family and flown on the widowhood system. My hats are off to the flyers in Section No. 3 Flyers in this section reported no day birds. The flyers in this section normally fly from the north and mainly stations down the cost of California. The Rogerson Race Birds on the other hand come from a North East direction and fly over the Sierra Mountains. For next year we have made plans of adding a short station that their birds can also get accustomed to the North/East race Course. If all goes well they should be a dominant force in the near future. The Winning bird in this section was clocked the next day having a speed of 819.628 YPM The proud owner and winner of Section No. 3 was Randy Greenlee with his 03 Man 31474 RC/C Having sent only 4 birds to this race shows the quality of Randy's distance birds. They are from the Grondelaers x Janssen V.D. Flaes blood line and raced on the widowhood system.
Listed are the first 5 birds in each Section.
Section One 1.
Kwoka Family Loft
Section Two
1. De La O- Siino Loft
2. Mike Kurtzner 2. Tom Kearne
3. Bob Crosbie 3. Tom Kearne
4. Mike Kurtzner 4. Alex Bieche
5. Mike Kurtzner 5. Alex Bieche
Section Three
1. Randy Greenlee
Section Four
1. Soto Family Loft
2. Woody Loft 2. Ron and Marge
3. Hay Boy Loft 3. Soto Family Loft
4. Big C Loft 4. Bogart Loft
5. Relax Loft 5. Bogart Loft
Due to bad weather and than resulting in cancellations of three weeks in a row the Bay City Combine this year did not line up with the Rogerson race station. Without this body of flyers this year resulted in a smaller race than we first anticipated. All in all we will settle for close to 1000 birds in our first year. With a few adjustments made for next year and most of all mother nature playing us a better hand we anticipate a even bigger better race for next year. A perpetual trophy past on to the winner each year along with a 1st over all section winner for the other 3 sections will be handed out during banquet dinners of each Combine. Until than we are looking forward to next years race.
Alex Bieche