Results - SCCA ProRally - Intl Cherokee Trails Rally
For immediate release 17 March 2002 2002 SCCA® ProRallysm Championship - Round 2 - Cherokee Trail Independent's Day in March Chattanooga Tennessee: For the first time in eight months, an independently entered team has won an SCCA ProRally Championship event, with an additional independent entry finishing in second place overall. David Higgins, from the Isle of Mann, with co-driver Calvin Cooledge, in a 2002 Subaru WRX prepared by AV Sport of Phoenix Arizona, secured the win by a mere one second margin over 2001 Polish Rallying Champions Janusz Kulig and Jaroslaw Baran and their 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. Key Notes & Quotes: ¨ With all three Open Class works teams entering either all-new cars, or ones with significant revisions, tried and true non-works entries had their day on the twisting, hard-packed gravel roads of the Cherokee National Forest. AV Sports, which fields up to 4 entries, and TAD Motorsports, which fields as many as 6, both had top 10 finishes, and their share of hard luck as well. David Higgins' win here at Cherokee offsets AV's garage mates Craig Peeper and Jason Rivas DNF's (off road time bar and turbo failure respectively) and TAD's Mark Nelson and Tim Paterson top 10 finishes balances hard-charging Seamus Burke's frustrating DNF on the transit to the final stage (a cooling fan failed, and overheated the engine) ¨ "This is the toughest rally I've ever run," exclaimed a clearly haggard Mark Lovell at the end of this very long day (nearly 15 hours) of rallying, who debuted his all new and completely re-engineered Subaru WRX this weekend. While external appearances are nearly identical to his previous ride (now in the capable hands of teammate Ramana Lagemann) Lovell's WRX is Prodrive's first car to be specifically built to the limits of the SCCA Open Class rules. (Lovell's previous car is referred to at Prodrive as a "Group N Plus", essentially a Group N car with an upgraded motor) Like the all-new Hyundai Tiburons, the WRX had its share of teething problems, ranging from niggling electrical details to a transmission failure, which gave rally fans in the service area a chance to watch the Prodrive crew perform their "patented" 16 minute transmission replacement drill. ¨ Mark Higgins' day started as badly as could be imagined, but recovered extraordinarily well. At the start of stage 1, under pouring rain, the wipers on his brand-new Tiburon jammed under some ironically placed sun-blocking tape. First car on the road, battling fog and the driving rain, as well as a partial cast on his right foot (he broke his foot 2 weeks earlier in a log-clearing accident on his family's farm back in the UK) he was doing the best he could. Partway through the stage the car's brake bias got thrown off, causing the hobbled and weather-blind driver to do most of his turning with the emergency brake. Finally, the rally gods ganged up on him, slamming the car into three trees, wiping out an equal number of corners of the car, and badly damaging the rear suspension. In a dramatic demonstration of both personal resolve and the huge leap forward the Hyundai team has made in car construction and teamwork, Higgins and Gibson got the car back to service, and pressed on, finishing a remarkable 5th place overall, after falling behind nearly 6 minutes due to the accident. ¨ Thanks to an inspired drive by Mark Higgins, Hyundai's lead in the Overall Manufacturers Championship has been maintained by the narrowest of margins, with overall points after 2 rounds: Hyundai 28, Subaru 27, and Mitsubishi 13. In the two-wheel-drive Overall Championship, Mitsubishi is in a game of catch-up, with the 2nd place (for two-wheel drive cars) overall finish by Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Matt Chester netting the company 15 much needed points. Mazda's Eric Burmeister and Eric Adams, driving a well paced rally to finish 4th in the category, earned 10 points for the company, maintaining their lead in the championship by 18 points. ¨ The 2002 Driver's Championship continues to build an International flavor, with new to SCCA ProRally Polish natives Kulig and Baran, earning 17 points each. David Higgins and Calvin Cooledge, after their DNF at Sno*Drift have come back strong, with 22 points a piece, and fellow UK residents Mark Lovell and Steve Turvey earning 14 points each. Unofficial standings for the top 5 teams are: Mark Lovell/Steve Turvey: 31, Mark Higgins/Michael Gibson: 24, David Higgins/Calvin Cooledge: 23, Frank Sprongl/Dan Sprongl 22/23, and Ramana Lagemann/Michael Kidd: 20. ¨ The Championship starts its "West Coast Swing" in April, traveling to Portland Oregon for the Oregon Trail rally on the 20th and 21st, then heads to Southern California for the legendary "Rim of the World" rally in Angeles National Forest. Both events will feature both SCCA ProRally and SCCA ClubRally action, and will be televised on SpeedChannel. www.speedtv.com International Cherokee Trails Rally - SCCA ProRally Championship Round #2 16 March, 2002 Top 25 Finish Order (unofficial) times are in hours:minutes:seconds Start Finish Car# Time Seed Class Driver Name Co-Driver Car 2 1 16 2:01:57 FIA Open David Higgins Calvin Cooledge 02 Subaru WRX 5 2 18 2:01:58 FIA Gr N Janusz Kulig Jaroslaw Baran 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 4 3 1 2:02:36 0 Open Mark Lovell Steve Turvey 02 Subaru WRX 11 4 2 2:05:33 1 Open Ramana Lagemann Michael Kidd 02 Subaru WRX 1 5 5 2:06:23 0 Open Mark Higgins Michael Gibson 03 Hyundai Tiburon 3 6 17 2:06:47 FIA Open Tom McGeer Mark Williams 02 Subaru WRX 8 7 3 2:07:28 1 Open Rhys Millen Garry Cowan 01 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5 9 8 110 2:09:45 1 Open Mark Nelson Charles Bradley 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 10 9 107 2:12:52 1 Open Tim Paterson John Allen 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4 16 10 162 2:14:43 1 N Patrick Richard Anne Lewandowski 02 Subaru WRX 24 11 29 2:14:52 2 N Tim O'Neil Martin Headland 02 Subaru WRX 18 12 22 2:17:20 1 Open Ralph Kosmides Jimy Brandt 99 Subaru Impreza WRX-STi 36 13 760 2:17:40 3 N Jeff Denmeade Satch Carlson 98 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 66 14 755 2:17:59 5 PGT Eoin McGeough Jason Gillespie 90 Eagle Talon TSi 34 15 971 2:18:11 3 N Brendan Cunningham Paul McClean 97 Subaru WRX STi 30 16 78 2:18:38 3 Open Paul Dunn Ray Summers 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4 32 17 891 2:19:02 3 Open Randy Zimmer David Shindle 96 Subaru Impreza 49 18 103 2:19:29 4 N Wyeth Gubelmann Therin Pace 02 Subaru WRX 37 19 857 2:20:10 3 N Peter Thompson Peter Pollard 02 Subaru WRX 53 20 834 2:20:34 4 G2 Randy Bailey Will Perry 88 Isuzu Impulse 48 21 124 2:20:45 3 N Peter Workum Allesandro Gelsomino 02 Subaru WRX 17 22 44 2:20:56 1 N Henry Krolikowski Cindy Krolikowski 00 Subaru Impreza WRX-STi 26 23 90 2:22:29 2 G2 Lauchlin O'Sullivan Matt Chester 02 Mitsubishi Lancer RMR 42 24 79 2:24:19 3 P Jeff Field David Weiman 02 Toyota Celica GTS 35 25 36 2:24:23 3 N Mark Cox Jim Gill 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 *complete results will be posted on the Cherokee Trails website: http://www.cherokeetrailsrally.org Select Retirements (unofficial) Start Car# Seed Class Driver Co-Driver Year Mfg Stage Reason 62 94 5 N Craig Peeper Ian Bevan 02 Subaru SS2 Off road -stuck - time barred 13 34 1 Open Peter Lahm Adrian Crane 97 Mitsubishi SS3 Off-road, timebarred 25 28 2 G2 Bill Malik Christian Edstrom 93 Volvo SS3 Driveline 19 71 1 Gr 5 Bryan Hourt Drew Ritchie 95 Acura SS3 Off-road - stuck - time barred 12 116 1 Open Thomas Lawless Brian Sharkey 97 Mitsubishi SS3 Rear differential 20 41 2 Open John Drislane Paul Goodman 00 Mitsubishi SS3 Rear differential 7 6 0 Open Paul Choiniere Jeff Becker 03 Hyundai SS5 Rear differential 14 52 1 Open Doug Sheperd Peter Gladysz 94 Mitsubishi SS5 Mechanical from earlier accident 6 25 0 Open Seamus Burke Rory Kennedy 00 Mitsubishi Transit > 7 Cooling fan failure, head gasket The SCCA name and logo is a registered trademark of the Sports Car Club of America, Inc. 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