SKIING : Happily, Mahre’s Life Still Goes Downhill

It has been 10 years since Phil Mahre started his string of three World Cup championships, but here he is, still out there slashing through slalom gates. And winning races.

He will be trying to make it two in a row, when the U.S. Pro Tour stops at Heavenly Valley on the weekend of Jan. 4-6. His first victory on the 1990-91 circuit was two weeks ago at Nashoba Valley, Mass.

“I’ve been skiing myself into shape,” Mahre said this week from his home in Yakima, Wash. “That was only my third race of the season. I missed the previous meet at Alpine Meadows (while tending to Mahre Training Center business at Keystone, Colo.).

“In my first race (on Thanksgiving weekend at Park City, Utah), I finished fourth with absolutely no slalom training since last spring.”

Mahre, 33, will have to hustle if he expects to catch Austrian Bernhard Knauss, who won the first four races, before hooking a tip twice and going out in the round-of-16 in the race Mahre won.

“Knauss is definitely a threat if he remains OK physically,” Mahre said. “He’s had back trouble and might have to take some time off.”

Knauss, 25, finished second to fellow countryman Roland Pfeifer in the overall standings last season, with Mahre third. Pfeifer, 26, lost to Mahre in the slalom final at Nashoba Valley.

Phil’s brother, Steve, is also competing again this season but will miss the Heavenly event because it is his turn to preside over a session of the twins’ racing instruction camps at Keystone.

The Mahre Training Center program isn’t the only collaboration between Phil and Steve, who won the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the 1984 Olympic slalom at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. They have also been driving race cars together for Zerex Team Reno in the American City Racing League, winning the championship last season in Lola T-89/90s. Phil, who won at Del Mar, finished first in the individual standings; Steve, who won at Dallas, wound up fourth.

“We’re moving up from the Sports 2,000 Class to the GT-1 Class next season,” Phil said. “We’ve sold our old equipment and will be driving an Olds Cutlass Supreme. Right now, we’re looking for sponsorship. Driving on the national level can be a money pit, and the last thing you want to do is have to spend your own money.”

Last September, the twins drove a Newman Sharp Racing Olds Cutlass Supreme to victory in successive GT-1 races at West Virginia’s Summit Point Raceway. Phil broke the track record in his stint.

They’ve both been spending the holidays in Yakima, near White Pass, where their father, Dave, manages the ski area. Their younger brother, Paul, will rejoin the pro skiing ranks after attending the University of Washington during the fall semester.

Although the pro circuit has a potential total of $2 million in prize money, with the champion conceivably able to earn as much as $1 million, Phil Mahre said: “Nobody will do it. A lot of that is bonus money for sweeping the Plymouth Super Series events on the tour. Those races are spread out, so it’s not like you could get hot and go on a roll. There are too many variables in the course of a season.”

Last season, Pfeifer, the champion, earned $221,816 in purses. Mahre made $76,767 for third place, but sponsorship money probably tripled that figure.

Mahre, who won the World Cup in 1981-82-83, said this winter might do it for him. “I’ve kind of reserved this year as my last in ski racing,” he said. “Although if a lucrative contract were to come up . . . well, I’ve learned never to say never.”

Skiing Notes

Bear Mountain, Snow Summit, Snow Valley and Mountain High continue to operate daily for all levels of skiing ability, with 12 to 48 inches of snow on their slopes. . . . Mt. Baldy is running its chairlift No. 2, serving a half-mile-long run for beginning and intermediate skiers. . . . Other Southland ski areas are closed, awaiting the arrival of another snowstorm. . . . Mammoth Mountain reported a base of 10 to 30 inches as the Christmas-New Year’s holiday week began. Twelve chairs, a T-bar and a gondola are on line. . . . Every other major resort in the High Sierra is now open, although obstacles still appear on many runs, which are covered with an average of 12 to 36 inches of snow. . . . The World Cup circuit has taken its usual holiday break. Alberto Tomba of Italy continues to lead the men’s standings with 97 points, followed by Ole Christian Furuseth of Norway with 88 and Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg with 78. Furuseth won last Saturday’s slalom at Kranjska Gora, Yugoslavia, when Tomba missed a gate on the first run and was disqualified. . . . The women’s leader, Petra Kronberger of Austria, suffered an arm injury Saturday in a slalom at Morzine, France, but, with 140 points, retains an 83-point cushion over runner-up Chantal Bournissen of Switzerland.