SCCA ProRally - Oregon Trail Start List & News
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For immediate release 5 April 2001
Start Order & Late Breaking News:
SCCA® ProRallysm Championship Round 3 - Oregon Trail
Tillamook, OR: A record starting lineup of 61 performance rally cars from North America and Europe are slated to begin the Oregon Trail SCCA ProRally at 11:30 AM Saturday morning, at the historic WWII Blimp Hanger and Air Museum (the worlds' largest free standing wooden structure) just south of town. While still early in the season, fierce overall drivers and manufacturers points chases have already developed; victors of this event will hold an exceedingly important strategic advantage heading to round 4 - the notoriously brutal Rim of the World rally in early May.
Selected late entries, news · Paul Choiniere is back in the lead Hyundai drivers seat, fully recovered from a persistent inner ear-infection that left him with balance difficulties - and parked on the sidelines at Cherokee Trails last month. That absence dropped the 2000 season overall and co-driver champions to 2nd place in the overall drivers championship points race, tied with UK upstart Richard Tuthill.
· Noel Lawler and Charles Bradley are also back in their extensively mended Hyundai Tiburon, after recovering from a nasty downhill roll at Cherokee Trail. The 1999 Championship duo now languish in 16th place (tied with a whopping 20 other drivers!) in the championship, but were in excellent, class-leading form at Cherokee until their big shunt. Expect a first-class show from these fighting Irishmen.
· After a disastrous Round 2, Prodrive comes to Oregon with two fully rebuilt Subaru Impreza WRX for Mark Lovell and Karl Scheible. In 4th and 7th places overall respectively, their points situation isn't as dire as Lawler/Bradley's, but a resurgent Hyundai team and the strong showings from Mitsubishi point men Tuthill and Burke has caused a few sleepless nights at the team HQ in Vermont.
· This event is the first West Coast stop on the 10-event SCCA ProRally circuit this season, with several teams headquartered west of the Rockies making their season debuts: among the notables at Oregon Trail are the three-car independent Subaru team of Gingras/Westrick, Peterson/Gutzman and Ryther/Damitio, plus the Group N debut of 1999 Group 5 MFG champion Ralph Kosmides in his newly aquired Subaru Impreza WRX-STi. 2000 Production GT Champion Patrick Richard of Vancouver BC is crossing the border for the first time this year, and two-wheel drive crowd pleasers Carl Jardevall (Volvo) and Jay Streets (Toyota) will no doubt be spraying more gravel between them than the top 10 all-wheel drive cars put together.
· Championship leaders Seamus Burke and Frank Cunningham are 7th on the road, in their third vehicle change in as many events - this time Burke will be at the helm of a new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. Their starting position, which for rallyists isn't usually advantageous, could prove to be perfect for the hard-charging Irish duo: the lead cars may sweep the logging trails free of loose gravel, providing the team with a solid surface to run on, and also give the team the opportunity to check the raw times of the drivers ahead of them - letting Burke set a pace that could prove hard to match.
· East Coast drivers are in rare abundance in Oregon this year, with Thomas and Brendan Lawless, John Drislane and Declan Hegarty (both in Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IVs), Nial Donnelly and Eoin McGeough (Mistsubishi Eclipse) and Patrick Lilly and Mark McAllister (Mazda RX3) all of New York making the trip - a huge investment for these teams, as they are all independents with no major sponsor backing. Lawless and Drislane both made impressive showings at Cherokee Trails, Drislane finishing 8th overall, and Lawless in-line for a top-ten finish until a suspension failure dropped him out on the penultimate stage of that brutal three-day event.
· Weather forecast: Classic early spring Northwest coastal weather is on the way: cool and a little wet. Oregon Trail has one of the largest elevation changes in the SCCA ProRally Championship, starting at sea level, with some stages nearly 2000 feet high. Snow has been falling on and off in the high country, with rain showers expected throughout Saturday. Highs will be around 50 degrees in Tillamook, cooler in the mountains, with evening lows just above freezing, with similar temps Sunday.
Information regarding the start order list: Car # = number on vehicle. Most Cars with numbers under 200 are Pro entries. Car numbered over 200 are generally ClubRally (regional) entrants, with first digit denoting their home division (2,3 = West coast, 5 = Central US, 8,9 East coast).
Group = Vehicle category: "O" Open, Gr N - fastest; are cars with considerable modifications; P (Production) - slowest; are cars very near showroom stock configuration. G5 - two wheel drive high HP cars; G2 - two wheel drive lower horsepower cars; GT - high horsepower production (stock) cars.
Entry = event entered. Nat= SCCA ProRally, Club=SCCA ClubRally
Seed= experience level "0" highest, "6"
Oregon Trail - SCCA ProRally Championship Round 3 07-08 April, 2001 Start Order (subject to revision) Start Car # Group Entry Seed Driver/Co-Driver Country Car 1 3 Open Nat 0 Noel Lawler/Charles Bradley USA/USA Hyundai Tiburon '00 2 14 Open Nat 0 Mark Lovell/Steve Turvey England/England Subaru WRX STI '00 3 1 Open Nat 0 Paul Choiniere/Jeff Becker USA/USA Hyundai Tiburon '00 4 13 Open Nat 0 Richard Tuthill/John Bennie England/England Mitsubishi EVO IV '97 5 2 GN Nat 0 Karl Scheible/Brian Maxwell USA/Canada Subaru WRX STI '00 6 33 Open Nat 1 Rhys Millen/Chrissy Beavis New Zealand/USA Mitsubishi Lancer '00 7 115 Open Nat 1 Seamus Burke/Frank Cunningham Ireland/Ireland Mitsubishi EVO VI '00 8 50 Open Nat 1 Steve Gingras/Bill Westrick USA/USA Subaru Impreza 2.5RS '00 9 32 Open Nat 1 Paul Eklund/Scott Huhn USA/USA Subaru Impreza USX '95 10 6 Open Nat 1 Peter Lahm/Matt Chester USA/USA Mitsubishi EVO IV '97 11 23 Open Nat 1 Michael Whitman/Paula Gibault USA/USA Ford Sierra Cosworth '93 12 116 Open Nat/Club 1 Thomas Lawless/Brian Sharkey Ireland/Ireland Mitsubishi EVO VI '00 13 22 GN Nat 1 Ralph Kosmides/Joe Noyes USA/USA Subaru Impreza WRX-STi '99 14 39 G5 Nat 1 Carl Jardevall/Amity Trowbridge USA/USA Volvo 740 turbo '83 15 8 PGT Nat Patrick Richard/TBA Canada/ Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS '98 16 235 G2 Nat 1 David White/Jimmy Brandt USA/USA VW Golf Gti, '88 17 201 G2 Nat/Club 3 Todd Hartmann/Shawn Callahan USA/USA VW Golf Gti 16V '92 18 245 Open Nat/Club 3 Carey Wright/Alan Wright USA/USA Mazda 323GTX '88 19 160 Open Nat/Club 2 Eric Eaton/Kenny Almquist USA/USA Subaru Impreza 2.5RS '99 20 107 Open Nat/Club 3 Tim Paterson/Scott Ferguson USA/USA Mitsubishi EVO IV '97 21 48 Open Nat 2 Lon Peterson/Bill Gutzman USA/USA Subaru Impreza 2.5RS '00 22 7 Open Nat/Club 2 George Plsek/ Alex Gelsomino USA/Italy Audi Quattro '90 23 83 PGT Nat/Club 2 Mark Utecht/Brenda Lewis USA/USA Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX '9 24 90 PGT Nat/Club 2 Lauchlin O'Sullivan/John Dillon USA/USA Mitsubishi Eclipse '94 25 63 G5 Nat 2 Tad Ohtake/Rob Bohn USA/USA Ford Escort ZX2 '97 26 51 G2 Nat/Club 2 Jay Streets/Bill Feyling USA/USA Toyota Corolla '83 27 904 GN Nat/Club 5 John Drislane/Paul Goodman Ireland/Ireland Mitsubishi EVO IV '97 28 43 Open Nat 3 Kurosh Jahromi/Tony Lumino USA/USA Ford Cosworth '89 29 35 Open Nat 3 Lee Shadbolt/Bob Sherman USA/USA Subaru Impreza 30 74 GN Nat 3 Ramana Lagemann/Russ Hughes USA/USA Subaru Impreza '99 31 422 PGT Nat 3 Mark Cox/Jim Gill USA/USA Mazda 323 GTX '88 32 207 G5 Nat/Club 3 David Hintz/Rick Hintz USA/USA Mazda RX-7 turbo '85 33 95 P Nat/Club 3 Tony Chavez/Doug Robinson USA/USA VW Golf Gti '87 34 165 P Nat 3 Dennis Chizma/Ole Holter USA/USA Porsche 911 '73 35 49 Open Nat 3 Jonathan Ryther/Janice Damitio USA/USA Subaru Impreza 2.5RS '00 36 147 G2 Nat/Club 4 Scott Fuller/John Elkin USA/USA VW Golf Gti '85 37 283 G2 Nat/Club 4 Nate Tennis/Nate Pettit USA/USA SAAB 99 '73 38 940 G5 Nat/Club 5 Niall Donnelly/Eoin McGeough Ireland/Ireland Mitsubishi Eclipse '91 39 132 Open Nat/Club 5 Robert Burtis/James Burtis USA/USA Audi coupe quattro '85 40 250 G2 Nat/Club 5 Jeff Call/Rick Meade USA/USA VW Golf '00 41 173 G5 Nat/Club 5 Patrick Lilly/Mark McAllister Ireland/Ireland Mazda RX-3 '73 42 94 P Nat 6 Craig Peeper/Ian Bevan USA/UK Ford Focus '00 43 232 P Nat/Club 6 Mark Tabor/Kevin Poirier USA/USA Nissan Sentra SE-R '91 44 367 G2 Nat 6 Richard Byford/Francs Olson USA/USA BMW 2002 '70 45 967 P Nat 6 David Coleman/Josh Jacquot USA/USA Hyundai Tiburon '00
Start Car # Group Entry Seed ClubRally Driver/Co-Driver Country Car 46 223 PGT Club Greg Linglebach/Jamie Thomas USA/USA Eagle Talon tsi '90 47 205 Open Club Todd Lengacher/Tina Lengacher USA/USA Audi 4000 quattro '85 48 248 Open Club Michael Mailman/DJ Flagg USA/USA Audi coupe quattro '85 49 259 G2 Club Scott Trinder/Bob Trinder Canada/Canada Toyota Corolla '86 50 288 GT Club Gary Cavett/Mika Lepisto USA/USA Subaru Impreza '93 51 255 Open Club Andy Sharples/Julie Sharples USA/USA Subaru RX '89 52 264 Open Club John Teeter/Tony Schouten USA/USA Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 '91 53 242 G5 Club R Scott Koch/Sean Case USA/USA Datsun 210 '79 54 297 G5 Club Tommy Townsend/Eric Williams USA/USA VW Rabbit '76 55 208 G5 Club Martyn Ford/David Hackett USA/USA Alfa Romeo GTV6 '83 56 263 G2 Club Daniel Garber/Troy Crabtree USA/USA Toyota Corolla GTS '86 57 285 Open Club Craig Bishop/Richard Thomson USA/USA Mazda 323 GTX '88 58 268 G5 Club John McKean/Richard Kasten USA/USA Mitsubishi Starion '84 59 287 P Club Andy Jacobs/Scott Morgan USA/USA Honda Civic '88 60 279 Open Club Eugene Wong/Felix Wong USA/USA Mazda 323GTX '88 61 281 G2 Club Joe Burge'/Shawn Burge' USA/USA VW Jetta '88
For further information, please visit these Web sites: · SCCA ProRally: http://www.sccaprorally.org/ · Oregon Trail Rally: http://www.oregontrailrally.com
Contact: SCCA ProRally Championship: Kurt Spitzner - Director Mobile: 303.204.0375 Email: kspitzner@scca.org or werace4u@aol.com Press room phone: 503.842.7971 (hotel operator will transfer call)
Time zone at-event: Pacific Daylight Savings Time (GMT - 8 hours)