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shoot there, the other top shootersadded their penalties retail whereasTodd had gotten his out of the waywholesale.The last two stages had the kindof photo finish that delights thespectators and gives the Grand Mastersulcers. With only six matchpoints as his cushion, Jerry Barrthartshoots a no-shoot on Stage 12,"Street Barricade." With one shot,his lead evaporates. Todd and RobLeatham cruise through the stage,looking for the last stage to be thedeciding one.The last stage for the SuperSquad was "Border Crossing." Thisone was 22 rounds and 110 matchpoints. A good shooter could makeup enough points to gain, or keep, alead. The first array was a trio ofmovers that were activated by theshooter when he lifted his knee offthe pressure switch. The draw forshooting order put Robbie first ofthe top three. On the buzzer, hepopped up, hosed the movers anddashed through the doorway. In alittle over 10 seconds, he had successfullyengaged almost all of thetargets, but one of the wide-opentargets is lacking a bullet hole. Bummer.Without mistakes from theother two, Rob is out of contention.Next up was Jerry Barnhart. Themovers were protected by steel hardcover, and the top target popped upand down behind a steel bar thatwas a truck windshield. On thebuzzer, Jerry blazed through thefirst array, but hit the steel bar.When he went back to that target, hewas out of the target sequence andhad to wait. Making up the miss puthis point total much higher thanRobbie's but the 14.5 second timehurt more than the points helped.Todd was last up. On the buzzer,he jumped up, blazed through thefirst array and sprinted off. As hedashed through the rest of thecourse, a couple of spectators pointat the steel bar on the first array.Todd had hit the bar in the exactsame spot that Jerry did, but didn'tsee it. The miss is not enough tokeep him from first place, however,as his run had one of the fastesttimes at 10.5 seconds. After nearlyblanking a stage, Todd Jarrett hadcome back to win the North AmericanChampionship.Crunching numbers will almostalways make you crazy, but oftenyou can learn something. What ifJerry had ignored the miss? Simple.He would have won the match. Byaccepting the penalty and shootingthe stage in 12 seconds, he wouldhave edged out Robbie. At 11.5 seconds,he would have nosed pastTodd. Could Jerry have done thestage in 11.5 seconds? Does the Popehave a balcony? While it is better tonot make mistakes, some are notworth going back and correcting.What do you bet that not only hadJerry done the math before the brasswas picked up, but that he alsowon't make that mistake again?As a bookend to the match, whilewe were in the lunch room waitingfor the awards ceremony, the rainsreturned, with lightning, thunderand wind blowing the rain sideways.It was so loud we couldhardly hear each other talking abouthow much fun we had at the match.If you missed it, you missed a goodone.USPSAWelcome toI 1911ne 11Your Complete One-Stop1911 Competition ShopWe have an excellentselection ofColt • Springfield• Kimber • STI andPara-Ordnance Handgunsto choose from!Home of theThoroughbred1911/20113016 North Dobson Road, #16Chandler, Arizona 85224(602) 897-0909 Fax: (602) 897-0099Sign on at NA VI NS .1911-heaven.com or e-mail us at sales@l911-hemen.comII On-Site PistolsmithingI Government Licensed ExporterEnormous Handgun Parts Inventory:• Aro-tek • EGW • MMC • Smith &• Arredondo • Harrts • Novak Alexander• Bar-Sto • Hogue • Nowlin • STI• BoMar • IVVI Night Sights • Pachma ■ r • Trijicon• Briley • Kings • Safariland • Videki's• Chip McCormick • Mepro Sights • Schumann-• Wolff Springs• Cylinder & Slide • Millett Ultimatch • Wilson Combat• Ed BrownNovembertDecember 1998 • FRONT SIGHT 11