B6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 3, 1996

- SKEENA- ANGLER
ROB BROWN

Tagging tales

wo decades ago, when steelhead

radio tagging was in its infancy, the

scientists wondered if the un -

avoidable rough treatment of the
fish by the radio tagging crew would affect the
steelhead’s migratory behaviour.

But, as the first season wore on, the radioac- |
live fish left electronic footprints on stationary
scanners sct up along their route up the Skeena,
and on the mobile receivers thal were packed
around on foot, in cars, in helicopters and
aeroplanes.

Puzzle pieces began falling into place, Did the
gillnets hanging in the river at mamerous sites
along the Skeena intercept many steelhead? 15
to 20 percent of the radio tageed fish showed
that they did.

“At times things got a litile touchy,” said
program ram rod, biologist, Mike Lough.

“T remember following a radio signal into the
Indian Village at Kitsegukla, As I drove down a
village street the signal got stronger and
stronger, Finally, I pinpointed it behind a smoke
house and found it in the middle of a gut pile.”

Lough recalled wondering what would happen
if the owner of the smoke house should show up
to find a white man, packing a radio receiver |
and wearing headphones, swatting flies and.
rooting around ina fetid pile of fish offal.

Another time Lough choppered down to the
parking lot of a federal government office and
tacked a transmitter to the desk drawer of an
embarrassed Federal Fishesies officer who bad
forgotten to turn in a transmitter brought to bim
by an angler seeking the ten dollar bill and
baseball ‘cap ‘reward’ offered by the Fish aid
Wildlife Branch. - feel oo

“If the fisherman had released the fish then
reported it, his reward would have been fifty
bucks,’ Lough said.

Geiting paid to fish with rod, reel, and radio is
good, exciling work, but it can be dangerous.
Besides the inherent danger of flying the,
treacherous, steep-walled, wilderness valleys of
the British Columbia Coast, there are other un:
expected risks,

High in the upper watershed of the Sustut,
Lough and owe of his crew tubed a steelhead.,
While the fish revived the men took a quick:
flight, retuned and found the tube in shreds, the
steelhead gone, Tracks of a sow grizzly and cub
— or cubs — covered the spot where fish and
tube had lain.

It was early in the Fall, before the leaves had
fallen and the brush had withered. Lough re-
membered the uncomlorlable feeling of ginger-
ly threading through the thick shrubbery as the
signal on the receiver strengthened,

Even litde grizzlies are big bears, All of them
move fluidly and quietly and quickly.

Fortunately the bears swallowed only the fish,
Mike and his partner found it on lying on a
game tail, “disgorged,” he said, ‘like a giant
avocado pit.’”

There are also the unexpected hands dealt by
wildemess, the chance of toppling from peak of
exhilaration to frantic desperation in a second.

Ron Tetreau, for a long time the quarlerback
of the Fish and Wildlife Branch’s steelheading
team, remembered the day two anglers on the
team returned from ferrying a media man
around the river and discovered the rising
Skeena had moved one of the men’s jet boat off
anchor and cartied it down aside channel where
it was pinned, vibrating, against of one of the
river’s many sprawling logjams.

After the boat was moored, the skipper of the
‘endangered boat clambered over the bleached
wooden bones of the jam, then hopped in, As
his partner watched, he fired the 50 horse
engine.

The sled reared up like a bronco, then spun
and flipped in the twisted currents, While -this
was happening, the crew member leapt from the
bow and just managed to grab on to a log the
size of a piece heavy artillery. The river pulled
hard. The stranded man stil] bad on his chest
waders and rain coat. His partner yelled at him
to hang on, then disappeared over the logs,

After a few moments of panic the crewman’s
mind became clear and focused. With his
waders filling with water, he wouldn’t be able
to hang on against the current much longer. He
thought about his partner's boat, wondered if

‘the smaller engine would be strang enough to
negotiate the heavy Dow, then power the boat to
a spot where he could climb on board,

As it tumed out, there was no need to specu-
jate. His partner was back atop the jam, yelling
apologetically, His steering cable had snapped.

Continued Next Week, .-

638-7283

A day at the races

THREE HUNDRED borses thumping under the
hood. Raw power under foot. Gravily pressing
as you pull into a turn,

These are the things that drive stock car racing
enthusiasts. ;

Auld these are the things that keep them work-
ing on their cars in preparation for the next race,

“IV's certainly not the winning,” says Claus
Wolnowski, .

Woluowski is part owner and driver of car
number 406. “I just won my first race two
weeks ago,’ he says. ‘‘My first race in-two and
a half years. You're there for the fun, not to
win,” a

Wolnowski races in the Street class at the Ter-
race Speedway. The speedway hosts three

classes, Street, Hobby and Super, although only

Street and Hobby racers have shown up this
year. o

Street class is the entry level of racing, The
cars are stock vehicles, with no performance
parts allowed, The engines are limited to having

two-barrel carburetors and-bvo inch exhausts,

ALITTLE BANGED up, but still winning,
number 406 after a race,

es

CARS JOCKEY for position in a turn during fas

t action at the Terrace Speedway.

Wolnowski’s car is a 1975 El Camino with a
350 cubic inch engine boasting 300 horsepower.

“We built it through the winter,” Wolnowski
says. “‘It’s easy if you have the tools, You just
need the time.’ me

Anyoue with a valid drivers: licence: can get
involved in stock car racing; Wolnowski says.
The youngest driver right now is only 17,

All you have to do is buy a’car, strip it down,
install a roll cage, remove the glass and any
fammable material, installa window net, seat
belt harness and fire extinguisher and voila!
You've pot yourself a stock car.

Of course, negotiating the thing around a track
at 100 kilometres per hour is another matter,

“It only gets really tricky when the’ track’s
wet,” says Wolnowski. “Then it’s a totally die
ferent race.”? re

As long as the car is stock, teams can use any
size engine. So teams: try different ways to-in-
crease their car’s torque. ——

“Some people have tried ‘using big-block
engines to gel more power,’? Woluowski says.

“But they weigh too. much.” He smiles, “You |

can have all the power you want, but you still
have ta get around them corners.”?

- Wolnowski says racing is a great hobby that’s
not too expensive if you get several people in-
volved or sponsors.

“IVU- cost you $1,100 or $1,200 yearly, in-

‘cluding gas,” he says. “But it takes lots of

lime:””

The sport gets more expensive in the higher
classes like Hobby and Super, because: these
cars have more expensive performance parts
and require more maintenance.

Walnowski- says maintaining bis own car is
fairly'simple. - :

“After a race you check the oils and bear-
ings,”’ he says. ‘And you bang out the dents.”

Wolnowski just wan bis second race two
weekends ago, Although he says he’s not in it
for, the winning he was pretty pleased, after his. -
first win last month.

“*Yeah, that was nice,” he says.

“‘Nice?’” pipes up his friend-and fellow driver .
Jules LaFrance. ‘‘We coulda’t wipe the smile
off his face all week!”

The winning spirit

FROM A DISTANCE, number 96
looks pretty much like all the other
stock cars racing at the Termce
Speedway. ,

It flies through the straights like -
the other cars and banks into the |

tums just like the other cars, The
difference is that alter the race, the
driver climbs out of the car and into
a Wheelchair. o
Ken Legros is a quadriplegic.
“Man, you wouldn't have
believed how nervous I was belforc
my first race,’’ says Legros. ‘I'd

‘spent all winter preparing and there

Iwas.”

This is Legros’ first year on the
wack, The 31-year-old broke his
neck 10 years ago this August in a
car accident. He had. fallen asleep
al the wheel, missed a tuni and
weit over a bank, oe

_ Drifting in-and out-of conscious-
ness, Legros lay in -the’ car for six
‘hours before help arrived, The acci-

deat left him paralyzed’ from. the
Shoulders. down,’ with only limited
use of his arms and hands. -

But six months later, he was on
the road again, this time in a

specially-equipped van,

“T coulda’t go without driving,”
Legros says. ‘There was just no
way.”

Racing runs in Legros’ family.
His father raced Super Stock back
inthe “80s and Ken hung around
the pits, helping out whenever be
could. ee _
After the accident, Legros lived
in Vancouver, then Prince Gearge.
He wanted to get back to his family
~ “Tt took. a. lot of work,’’ says
Legros. ‘But it was my: first car
and I wanted it to look goad.”’

The vehicle is specially outfitted

| for Legros, with boosted steering, a

quick-release ‘slecring wheel - and
hand controls for both brakes and
acceleration. Se
Legros says he’s pleased with his
performance so far, but he plaus to
improve. oe
“By the end of the year.I want to

have my times down to the low |

20’s,"’ he says. ‘Every race day
I'll push just a little bit harder.”

Legros says that he’s still Icarn-
ing and hopes’ to be even ‘more
competitive next year, although he
points out that he docs it moslly for
fun and challenge.

“It’s a great challenge for nie,’
he says. “And it shows people that
if they put thelr minds to some-
thing, it will pay off in the end. It
did for me”?

:

and friends in Terrace, bul there
was io Wheelchair-accessible hous-
ing available. So

Then, last year, a town house was
built and Legros finally managed to
come home, And he started to hang
out al the track again, /

“I was visiting the old guys,
watching the races and I said - ,
Wow, I'd like to do that," Legros ~
says. ‘The other guys just locked
at me and said — Well, why don’t
you?"

So Legras spent the winter pre-
paring a car. His dad gave him the
old: racer, and Legros used the
engine and transmission to put to-
gether'a new car, But he was far
from finished’ —-' he needed

_ Sponsors,

“The first phone calls were dis-
couraging,” Legros says. ‘They
didn’t want to take a chance on me,
But then things really took off.”

Legros. now has a whopping 16
sponsors helping him out.

One of those: sponsors is Claus
Wolnowski. -of First Choice
Radiators. Legros says that Wol-
nowski and: his’ friend Jules
LaFrance have been especially sup-
portive, =~ ;

La France does all the mechanical
work on the Legros vehicle and the
two help hin get in and out of the
car at the track. . ;

That car is a 1980 Chevy Malibu
with 2350 engine.

beginning of the season.

CLEAN AND SHINY, the specially-equipped Legros racer at the