With the 2009 Maryhill Festival of Speed now in the books, one thing is certain - Andy Lally has not missed a beat. After spending several years away from street luge racing while racking up wins in the Grand-Am series and the like, he made his return to the gravity sports world at the North American mecca of downhill racing. With wins in King of the Hill (race between the fastest qualifiers), classic luge and street luge, Andy showed complete dominance under race conditions.

However, the man who smashed the track qualifying record was the two time defending champion, Matthias Lang. With cool weather and a tail wind, times were bound to be quick in the second round of qualifying. As we all took the hill, many of the top riders picked up their time from the previous day. By the time Lang completed his run, he brought the street luge qualifying record down to a stunningly fast time of 3:01.908. Qualifying behind Lang was the rest of the top 6: Andy Lally @ 3:03.869, John Rogers @ 3:04.087, Mike McIntyre @ 3:04.919, Justin Tolman @ 3:06.354, and David Dean @ 3:09.129.

In Classic Luge qualifying, Lally held down the top spot (with a time of 3:11.802) by nearly 3 seconds over second place qualifier Jon Huey (3:14.627). Rounding out the top 6 was: Kyle Castaneda @ 3:16.230, Justin Tolman @ 3:17.831, Andreas Johnsen @ 3:18.000, and Adam Yates @ 3:18.460.

As race day neared, so did the weather. Rain was in the forecast for race day several days in advance but nobody believed the weather man. Unfortunately, their predictions became a reality by mid-afternoon on Saturday. Just after the first round of qualifying was complete, the skies opened up and the rain began to fall.

King of the Hill took place without 2 of the qualified 6 riders on Saturday. Top qualifier Matthias Lang opted out in hopes of keeping his recently injured ankle in good shape for racing on Sunday. John Rogers also did not take part. As the rain fell, riders scrambled to make changes to their sleds, be it rain wheels or whatever. Lally on the other hand, opted for a completely different approach; he entered the race on a modified classic luge. Extended to meet length requirements, Lally was ready to go on his water logged buttboard against a field of street luges. Lally got the jump at the start with McIntyre playing catchup throughout the run. Dean and Tolman were left to fight it out for 3rd. David Dean snuck by Justin in the final left to take the 3rd position.

On race day, the weather appeared to be for the better. However, sunny skies were short lived when rain moved in mid-way through the afternoon.

For a complete race report, check out IGSA's writeup.