Ultimately, lean and tenacious lays waste to buff and pumped in the Peach Bin Races, now back from pandemic hiatus and rebranded as the Jennifer Casey Memorial Peach Bin Races.
That was the message early this afternoon from Greyback Construction marketing coordinator Kirsty Brenneman after her squad, the Greyback Hammerheads, hammer-timed the Canadian Forces Skyhawks Parachute Team in the final race of an event that traditionally but unofficially kicks off the Penticton Peach Festival.
We asked Brenneman how the Greyback squad, today featuring runners Eric Bilodeau, Mike Symonds, Konnar Dechaine and Tyrrell Buckley and pilot Amy-Liz Pryce, beat not only the hyper-fit Skyhawks but a group of Penticton firefighters too.
"Luckily," said Brenneman, "our office team is a fit group of people. We have Division I hockey players, triathletes, and more. There's no formal training that goes on and we haven’t run this since 2019 (due to the pandemic). But we're lean and mean."
Brenneman was quick to admit, however, that it was the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic team that emerged victorious in 2019.
"The Snowbirds kicked our butts in 2019 for the first time in many years," she said. "So we came back this year to take our title back. But the Snowbirds weren’t here."
(The team canceled its 2022 Peach Fest appearance last night pending an investigation into a crash yesterday at Ft. St. John).
"We went toe to toe with them in 2019 and Jennifer was driving the bin, so it was wonderful to meet her and speak with her. She was so nice."
Brenneman referred to Snowbirds' public affairs officer Jennifer Casey. Casey was with the team at their 2019 Penticton Peach Festival appearance and indeed was the driver of the Snowbirds' Peach Bin too. Nearly ten months later, she was tragically killed following a bird strike during take-off from the Kamloops airport.
And this year the Peach Bin Races organizers rebranded their event to commemorate her. It was a great touch for a person Penticton found positively wonderful when we briefly met during the 2019 stop.
Brenneman believes the Hammerhead Peach Bin dominance will continue into the future and challenged both the Skyhawks and the Snowbirds -- and the firefighters, for that matter -- to prove otherwise in 2023.
But despite the win, it's the Skyhawks in the spotlight for the rest of the day.
According to Master Corporal Kazz Gallant, who took the role of driver today in the runner-up entry, the show at 5 pm this afternoon will be "awesome."
"There are only two members of the team that have done previous seasons," she said while still in the bin. "We had two unfortunate years with no team because of COVID, so most of us are new this year.
"But we're going to do some awesome canopy formations tonight. We'll open our parachutes and come together in the sky under the canopy and join our canopies together. And when we come down, we'll let people see how the parachutes work and look at the gear.
"We love to interact with everyone."
Gallant promises a jump from 6,000 feet with 14 people and five different formations. And lots of colours and smoke.
For more info on the 2022 Peach Festival, go here.
