Race Place: From Modest Origins to Ski Racing Gear Giant

Featured Image and Press Release provided by Race Place

Race Place is more than just a leading retailer of alpine race gear; it’s a vital source of ski tuning innovation. Founded by Scott Holmer in 1995, Race Place has grown from a humble mail-order catalog to one of North America’s largest retailers of race equipment, known for its deep in-stock inventory and expert staff. Race Place also provides world-class BEAST tuning tools, ensuring racers of all levels can access the precise equipment they need to excel on the slopes. With a history rooted in family and driven by a commitment to accuracy, Race Place continues to be a trusted name for racers across the continent.

Race Place’s founder, Scott Holmer, has deep roots in the ski industry as a manufacturer’s representative, owner of The Lift Ski Shop, and raised three ski racers, Cami, Eric, and Kelsey, who excelled at ski racing with honors at local and national levels.

Traveling to many race venues brought Scott into contact with parents, coaches, and race techs using various ski tuning tools and techniques, which seemed rather primitive. With his inventive mind, Scott began thinking about how to design more accurate tools during his long drives home from ski races. 

In August 1994, Scott found himself at Mt. Hood, watching the US Ski Team Techs fine-tune their athletes’ skis and setting base edge bevels by wrapping tape around a file. Ever the curious type, Scott couldn’t help but ask what degree of base bevel they were setting. The techs told him it was 0.5°. Intrigued, Scott asked how many wraps of tape it took to achieve a 0.5° base bevel, and they replied, “Just one.” 

Scott’s next question was how far they held the tape from the ski edge. The techs, however, weren’t too eager to share that detail. Sensing a gap in their precision, Scott pointed out that accuracy could be an issue unless the tape wrap was always held at the same distance from the edge. 

With a knowing smile, the tech replied that proper tuning was an art form one had to master. 

Scott, never one to miss a beat, quipped, “Even good artists have bad days,” and then headed back to his shop in Bend. 

Months later, while driving his kids home from a ski race, the idea of the Base Beast came to mind. The next day he cut and glued pieces of wood, shaped metal parts, and screwed them onto the wooden frame. This basic design held the metal elevation strip, which sets the angle at a constant distance from the ski edge to solve the accuracy issue, and the original Base BEAST was born!

The name BEAST is an acronym for Best Edge Accuracy Ski Tool.

Undoubtedly, the Base BEAST is the world’s best-selling base-edge bevel guide, with over 50,000 sales since 1995. 

Since then, BEAST has developed other products, including:

• Side of BEAST
• Pocket BEAST
• Plane BEAST
• True BEAST
• Jaws of the BEAST
• Bench of the BEAST
• BEAST Wax.

In the fall of 1995, Race Place began as a mail-order catalog before having an online presence in 1997. Each fall, Race Place mails the catalog to over 35,000 ski racers. 

The catalog recently introduced the cover athlete contest. The front cover winner receives $3,000 in Race Place merchandise, while the back cover winner is awarded $1,500.

Race Place has become North America’s largest supplier of alpine race gear. They offer an extensive in-stock product line, a very knowledgeable staff, and a philosophy of shipping orders the day they are received!

Race Place’s commitment to quality and innovation remains steadfast as it looks to the future. From humble beginnings in Scott Holmer’s workshop to developing industry-leading tools like the Base BEAST, Race Place continues to empower racers with the equipment they need to achieve greatness. Whether it’s their vast product selection, fast shipping, or the exciting cover athlete contest, Race Place remains a crucial player in the ski racing community.