From Lake Placid, USA
(March 24, 2023) – One day ago Pat Norton had the quick run of the second heat on his way to a bronze medal in the North American Cup two-man race in Lake Placid. On Friday, the Canadian backed that quick time up with two more quick heats on his way to his first North American Cup gold medal.
Norton opened up a .02 second lead over USA’s Frank Del Duca, with Del Duca’s Team USA teammate, Geoff Gadbois, in third.
On the second run Del Duca and brakeman Joseph Darius matched their first heat start time and backed it up with a strong slide to move into the lead ahead of Gadbois and Paul Rabic, with only the Canadians to go.
Norton and brakeman Keaton Bruggeling pushed a hundredth quicker than on their first heat, and as the duo made it through Curve 14 the race was a dead heat. Norton managed just a slightly cleaner drive through the final few corners to win by .06 over Del Duca.
Norton’s win was the first of his career, and was enough to give him the season North American Cup title. Del Duca won silver for his 11th medal in 12 NAC two-man bobsled races. Gadbois’s bronze was his fourth straight medal in NAC action.
Switzerland’s Timo Rohner finished the race in fourth, just ahead of Italy’s Mattia Variola in fifth. USA’s Kristopher Horn rounded out the top six.
USA’s Zach Snyder helped put all four American sleds in the top ten with a tenth place finish.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Norton / Bruggeling | CAN | 9 | 5.29 | 5.28 | 56.37 | 56.61 | 1:58.98 |
| 2 | Del Duca / Joseph | USA | 13 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 56.39 | 56.65 | 1:53.04 |
| 3 | Gadbois / Rabic | USA | 8 | 5.39 | 5.40 | 56.73 | 56.73 | 1:53.46 |
| 4 | Rohner / Matthys | SUI | 5 | 5.41 | 5.40 | 57.17 | 57.18 | 1:54.35 |
| 5 | Variola / Pagnini | ITA | 10 | 5.30 | 5.27 | 57.19 | 57.38 | 1:54.57 |
| 6 | Horn / Jetter | USA | 15 | 5.24 | 5.31 | 57.31 | 57.48 | 1:54.79 |
| 7 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini | ITA | 4 | 5.38 | 5.40 | 57.37 | 57.53 | 1:54.90 |
| 8 | Edelman / Fawarseh | ISR | 17 | 5.59 | 5.63 | 57.65 | 57.82 | 1:55.47 |
| 9 | Semmler / Wenzel | GER | 6 | 5.71 | 5.46 | 57.92 | 57.57 | 1:55.49 |
| 10 | Snyder / Reda | USA | 2 | 5.71 | 5.68 | 57.93 | 57.94 | 1:55.87 |
| 11 | Hannighofer / Róder | GER | 1 | 6.76 | 5.34 | 59.41 | 57.39 | 1:56.80 |
| 12 | Ammour / Engelhardt | GER | 11 | 5.76 | 5.57 | 58.60 | 58.30 | 1:56.90 |
| 13 | Illmann / Strauß | GER | 12 | 6.23 | 5.41 | 59.54 | 58.15 | 1:57.69 |
| 14 | Dos Santos Ferreira / Mirbel | BRA | 14 | 5.84 | 5.75 | 59.63 | 63.16 | 2:02.79 |
| DNF | Edwards / Postans | DNF | 3 | 5.59 | DNF | |||
| DNS | Vain / Prevost | DNS | 7 | DNS | ||||
| DNF | Pitter / Ellis | DNF | 16 | 5.60 | DNF |
