From Lake Placid, USA
(December 13, 2021) – Frank Del Duca defended drove the United States to a gold medal in Lake Placid in the sixth race of the North American Cup tour, cruising to victory over China’s Kaizhi Sun.
Del Duca and brakeman Kyle Wilcox were out-started by only Sun and his brakeman Zhitao Wu, but Del Duca was able to outdrive Sun and everyone else by a sizeable margin to win by 1.13 seconds.
The gold was Del Duca’s third straight in two-man NAC action.
. Canada’s Taylor Austin and Chris Patrician came into the second heat tied for second with Sun, but fell to third after their second run.
Geoff Gadbois and Tyler Hickey of the United States finished fourth and fifth, while Youngjin Suk finished sixth.
With two races to go in the North American Cup season, Del Duca leads Austin by 16 points.
Pat Norton finished eighth in the second Canadian entry, while Liechtenstein’s Martin Kranz finished 13th in his first North American start.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Del Duca / Wilcox | USA | 6 | 5.18 | 5.18 | 56.16 | 56.80 | 1:52.96 |
| 2 | Sun / Wu | CHN | 1 | 5.17 | 5.16 | 56.79 | 57.30 | 1:54.09 |
| 3 | Austin / Patrician | CAN | 5 | 5.24 | 5.27 | 56.79 | 57.45 | 1:54.24 |
| 4 | Gadbois / Mitchell | USA | 7 | 5.25 | 5.26 | 56.89 | 57.50 | 1:54.39 |
| 5 | Hickey / Cheek | USA | 12 | 5.29 | 5.28 | 56.95 | 57.47 | 1:54.42 |
| 6 | Suk / Chae | KOR | 10 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 57.13 | 57.41 | 1:54.54 |
| 7 | Bindilatti / Jeronimo | BRA | 11 | 5.33 | 5.26 | 57.63 | 57.84 | 1:55.47 |
| 8 | Norton / Joyce | CAN | 8 | 5.31 | 5.32 | 57.76 | 58.15 | 1:55.91 |
| 9 | Stephens / Watson | JAM | 9 | 5.38 | 5.38 | 57.92 | 58.13 | 1:56.05 |
| 10 | Brown / John | TTO | 4 | 5.42 | 5.38 | 57.79 | 58.30 | 1:56.09 |
| 11 | Edelman / Chen | ISR | 3 | 5.52 | 5.48 | 57.86 | 58.36 | 1:56.22 |
| 12 | Silic / Starek | CRO | 13 | 5.47 | 5.47 | 58.23 | 58.25 | 1:56.48 |
| 13 | Kranz / Bektas | LIE | 16 | 5.51 | 5.51 | 58.70 | 58.48 | 1:57.18 |
| 14 | Bagge / Glenner-Frandsen | DEN | 15 | 5.46 | 5.46 | 58.70 | 59.09 | 1:57.79 |
| 15 | Ohanlon / Sorensen | AUS | 14 | 5.45 | 5.48 | 58.98 | 59.44 | 1:58.42 |
| 16 | Klausz / Tu | VIE | 2 | 5.59 | 5.64 | 59.26 | 59.88 | 1:59.14 |
| DNF | Dos Santos Ferreira / Da Silva | BRA | 17 | 5.49 | DNF |
