Hans-Jorg Trachsel methodically moved his hands over the cold concrete curve, searching for any imperfection. Then he pressed his cheek against its seemingly smooth surface, just to be sure.
Trachsel, a Swiss Olympic bobsledder, and other members of an international inspection team spent much of Thursday examining every inch of the state's mile-long bobsled and luge track being built for the 2002 Winter Games.They were checking the concrete for lumps and bumps, which can hurl a high-speed bobsled or luge racer off course, as well as measuring curves and other design features of the track.
The team, made up of representatives of the International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation and the International Luge Federation, must approve the concrete work before the track can be iced.
Approval appears likely. "The concrete is good. We have only small concerns," said Trachsel, vice president of the bobsled federation. Bobsleds are called bobsleighs overseas.
The main concern raised during the Thursday inspection and a Friday morning meeting with Salt Lake Organizing Committee venue and sports experts was that the protective lips over the track's curves are too short.
"Pretty much they were completely pleased with it. There were a few things we knew they would need to change once they saw the lips with the track finished," said Anne Marie Jensen, the organizing committee's sports director.
This was the inspection team's fifth visit to the bobsled and luge track, being built by the Utah Sports Authority with more than $21 million in tax money.
The track will be sold to the privately funded organizing committee before the 2002 Winter Games along with the rest of the Utah Winter Sports Park. The park includes ski jumps that also will be used for the Olympics.
The state hopes to test the ice-making facilities for the track next month and send sleds down in December. The grand opening for the facility is scheduled for January.
The inspection team members said they couldn't wait to test the track themselves. One of just 14 tracks in the world, it's designed to send sledders down faster.
"This is a very good track for speed. The speed is very fast, so it's interesting for us," said Walter Plaikner, an official with the luge federation.
Plaikner knows something about speed. He won a gold medal for Italy at the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, and now is coaching the Japanese team that will compete in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
Trachsel, who competed for Switzerland in the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., said it's the curves that make this track special. One, nicknamed the Wasatch Fault, is supposed to drop much like an earthquake.
Randy Will, the Utah-based program director for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, already has a roster of would-be sledders that includes some University of Utah football players.
"This is so great to have this facility. For years, we've been really behind the times, using the track at Lake Placid. It's not designed properly," Will said. "This puts us on an even keel with Europe and Canada."