When we

last left our local street luging firefighter from

Fayetteville, he had just won a race at Mt. Cheaha.

Al Braun,

known on the street luge circuit as Scarecrow, and his

teammates on the Bod Rodz Land Luge Workz Racing Team

have been tearing up the courses and storming up the

rankings recently.

Their most

recent race was in Madison, Ind. at the Hanging Rock N'

Roll Street Luge Race. Braun won every round, advancing

to the finals, while teammate Doug "Tin Man"

Anderson secured his first career street luge win.

Scarecrow was facing the Tin Man in the final, when a

disaster of sorts erupted. Braun came racing around a

corner and crashed, flying up the Hanging Rock wall.

"I was

going about 50 miles per hour," said Braun. "I

survived though and took fourth place. The crash was in

front of the bleachers and the crowd went nuts when I got

back up and finished the race." Anderson finished

first in the final.

Both Braun

and Anderson are planning on going pro in the very near

future. They continue to pummel the competition at the

amateur level and both feel that moving up a notch will

make them better racers. Braun believes that the team's

recent successes are due to several key things; superior

equipment, an excellent teacher and a winning team

philosophy.

Anderson is

the owner of Bod Rodz Land Luge Workz and has created the

current design of the luge. "It's just a fantastic

design," said Braun. "I only had to replace the

wheels after the crash and that's incredible."

Professional rider Ed Bryant has been a mentor as well as

a teammate to Braun and Anderson. Bryant has competed in

the X Games and was carrying a hefty ranking earlier in

the summer. Anderson's son, Landon, also races with the

Bod Rodz team.

The team is

now a force to be reckoned with and it may be because

they have adopted Nascar team driving tactics in their

racing style. They draft, position, and block for each

other, using their tactics to advance. They practice in

all types of weather with groups of seasoned veterans. By

honing their skills, the members of the Bod Rodz team

have avoided serious injury and improve at a dramatic

pace.

The pace

can tend to be a bit slow due to financial reasons,

though. Many of the important qualifiers and races take

place on the West Coast. Bod Rodz hopes to get some

sponsors to eliminate some of their costs and the riders

also are looking into taking on individual sponsors. If

you'd like to know more, keep your eyes open for segments

about street luge on Extreme TV on Fox Sports South or

visit the Bod Rodz website at www.freeyellow.com:8080/members7/streetluge .

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