SCCA ProRally - Start Order & News - Oregon Trail
Rally
HILLSBORO, Oregon A record starting lineup of 79 performance rally cars
from North America and the world are slated to begin the Oregon Trail SCCA
ProRally at 11:00 AM Saturday morning, following a one-hour Parc Expose at
the Hillsboro Stadium, in Hillsboro, Oregon, just 20 miles due west of
downtown Portland, Oregon. While still early in the season, serious overall
drivers and manufacturers points chases have already developed; victors of
this event will hold an important strategic advantage heading into round 4 -
the notoriously brutal Rim of the World Rally (May 3-4).
Selected Entries, News
· Oregon Trail 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 are Oregonians Paul Eklund
and Scott Huhn, with their all-new, independently developed 02 Subaru WRX;
Carl Jardevall with Washington native Amity Trowbridge, 97 Mitsubishi Lancer
Evo IV; and Californian Jay Streets with Washingtonian Janice Damitio, in the
ex-Jardevall but always crowd pleasing "school bus" Volvo 740, possibly the
largest car being rallied in North America - if not the world.
· David Higgins, the first independent entry to win an SCCA ProRally
Championship event since Richard Tuthill's convincing win at Wild West last
September, has drawn the top seed starting position for this weekend's rally.
Since last month's brutal round in Tennessee, Higgins has changed co-drivers
- former co-driver Calvin Cooledge taking a plum job with a rally team in
Australia being replaced by veteran co-driver Chris Patterson. Also swapping
co-drivers for Oregon Trail is Subaru's 2001 Driver's Champion Mark Lovell,
who will contest this round with Nicholas Beech.
· "Stage Notes" make their debut at this round - an important competition
advancement in the SCCA ProRally Championship, that allows teams to use a
highly detailed set of route instructions - in place of the more basic
'tulip' graphical style of instructions that have been used in this country
for decades. Created just prior to the event in real-time by a specially
designed computer that rides along in a car with a specially trained driver
and navigator, the notes are an intermediary step between the "blind"
rallying that is commonplace in the USA, and "pace noted" rallying that is
customary around the world. Highly anticipated by the rallying community,
more than two-thirds of the field will be trying them out this weekend.
· Weather forecast: This year's running of Oregon Trail was delayed by two
weeks following advice from the Forestry Service - statistically, it doesn't
rain much on the third weekend of April in this part of Oregon, and after
last year's extraordinary concoction of rain, sleet, hail, snow and sunshine,
at least once with all of that occurring on one stage, the Organizers decided
to take the advice and change the event date. And it appears that was the
right move to make - after a full week of snow and rain, the skies have
cleared, and the forecast calls for partly cloudy to sunny weather in the mid
to upper 40's all weekend long - perfect for rallying, and for spectating.
Information regarding the start order list:
Car # = number on vehicle. 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: 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
Oregon Trail - SCCA ProRally Championship Round 3
20-21 April, 2002
Top 25 Start Order (subject to revision - complete list available at
www.oregontrailrally.com )
Start Car# Seed Class Driver Name Co-Driver Car
1 16 FIA Open David Higgins Chris Patterson 02 Subaru WRX
2 1 0 Open Mark Lovell Nicholas Beech 02 Subaru WRX
3 5 0 Open Mark Higgins Michael Gibson 03 Hyundai Tiburon
4 6 0 Open Paul Choiniere Jeff Becker 03 Hyundai Tiburon
5 34 1 Open Peter Lahm TBA 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
6 32 1 Open Paul Eklund Scott Huhn 02 Subaru WRX
7 39 1 Open Carl Jardevall Amity Trowbridge 97 Mitsubishi Lancer
Evo 4
8 107 1 Open Tim Paterson John Allen 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
9 2 1 Open Ramana Lagemann Michael Kidd 02 Subaru WRX
10 110 1 Open Mark Nelson Charles Bradley 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
11 3 1 Open Rhys Millen Garry Cowan 01 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5
12 22 1 Open Ralph Kosmides James Brandt 99 Subaru Impreza WRX-STi
13 275 2 Open Nat T-Stow John Elkin 02 Subaru WRX
14 303 2 PGT Roger Hull Sean Gallagher 92 Eagle Talon TSi
15 51 2 G5 Jay Streets Janice Damitio 83 Volvo 740 turbo
16 248 3 Open Michael Mailman Don Flagg 82 Audi Coupe quattro
17 891 3 Open Randy Zimmer David Shindle 96 Subaru Impreza
18 103 3 N Wyeth Gubelman Therin Pace 02 Subaru WRX
19 223 3 PGT Greg Lingelbach Steve Andrews 92 Eagle Talon TSi
20 245 3 G5 Cary Wright David Kean 84 Mazda RX-7
21 207 3 G5 David Hintz Rick Hintz 87 Mazda RX-7 turbo
22 530 3 G5 Al Kaumeheiwa Craig Sobczak 02 Dodge Neon SRT-4
23 210 3 G5 John Lane Ray Damitio 83 Volvo 240
24 90 2 G2 Lauchlin O'Sullivan Matt Chester 02 Mitsubishi Lancer RMR
Edition
25 201 3 G2 Todd Hartman Shawn Callahan 00 VW Golf GTi
