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From: Hank
Date: 1/12/00
Time: 3:14:58 PM
Remote Name: 207.121.75.214
The most important thing about passing in competition is to communicate with the other driver. If you are being passed, ask them which side they prefer, should you stop or just slow down, etc. Likewise, if you come up on another team, tell them what you want but be understanding if they can't completely accomodate your desire. I like to contact the team ahead and behind me in the starting order before the race starts to see if they have any concerns or needs about passing. Then if the situation arises, we both know what to expect. One thing that works well sometimes is to let the leaders of the passing team reach the front of your sled while your still moving slowly, then jam on the brake so their team can shoot by quickly. For training, I believe it was George Attla who recommended training your team to always pass on the right whether parallel or head-on passing. That way the dogs never question which side they should pass on. Unfortunately, many drivers don't understand this so they may haul their teams off to the right side, even when you tell them you want to pass on the right. So the best thing is to practice on both sides and hope your leaders can manage to figure out the best way by in a race.