SCCA ProRally - Rim of the World - Day One News &
Results
SCCA® ProRallysm Championship - Round 2 - Rim of the World
David Higgins Leads a Soggy Rally - Day One Results and News
PALMDALE, California Defending event and SCCA ProRally Drivers' Champion
David Higgins jumped ahead of both Mark Lovell and Ramana Lagemann in the
late stages of Day One of the 20th Rim of the World Rally, Round Two of the
SCCA ProRally Championship.
Unusual for Southern California cold and wet conditions existed throughout
the evening and night stages, eliminating the traditional high dust problems
typically encountered along the ridge-top roads of the Angeles National
Forest.
Key Notes & Quotes:
Arriving at the Pelona Park Service in third place following the opening
three stages, Higgins and co-driver Daniel Barritt stepped up their assault
on the leading Subaru WRX of Mark Lovell. The 2002 champions were
lightning-quick in stages four and five placing his Mitsubishi Rally Team USA
Lancer Evolution into the overall lead by 0.78-minute over early leader Mark
Lovell.
"We ran well the last two stages," said Higgins. "The weather conditions
never got any better. In the last stage, it was more slippery than Sno*Drift.
They were so disgusting that we're just looking forward to tomorrow."
Subaru Rally Team USA driver Lovell led the rally into the service break
through three stages that included rain, fog and rough terrain, but he fell
behind in his Subaru WRX in the fourth and fifth stages to Higgins. Lovell's
teammate Lagemann was second going into stage four, but became high-centered
on a berm and lost 10 minutes to leader Higgins while fellow Subaru WRX
driver Jonny Milner towed him out Lagemann's car required minor repairs to
the rear suspension and bodywork, but was able to continue on.
2002 Group 2 Manufacturers' and Drivers' Champion Lauchlin O'Sullivan,
this time running his home rally in an Open Class Evolution for Mitsubishi
Rally Team USA, finished a strong third with substitute co-driver Christian
Edstrom.
Leon Styles, driving an independently-entered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
VI, was consistently quick and was fourth after the first stage, followed by
George Plsek in a similarly-prepared Lancer Evolution VI.
Despite the excessively slippy conditions the rains brought, there
were some entrants who gained significant road position throughout the
evening. Hard Chargers of the night included Eric MaCaire and Urmas Kask,
who started the rally in 30th position, and finished Day One in 12th overall,
(leading the Production GT class) and Charlie Aoun and Paul Nelson, who
started 52nd and finished in 23rd, good enough for 2nd place overall in the
popular Group 2 Class.
The hotly contested Group N category lists Shane Mitchell's Subaru WRX
leading after five stages. Championship points leader Mark Utecht slid to
third place following a common Rim of the World malady - a car-sick
co-driver.
Group 5 had the highest attrition of the evening, (Streets, Havas and Olson
retiring) and class leader Doug Shepherd (Dodge SRT 4) nearly ended his
evening, recovering from a dramatic downhill rollover in SS 3.
The final 10 stages of the 2003 Rim of the World SCCA ProRally event will
begin Saturday at Noon . For more information, please visit www.scca.com or
www.rimoftheworldrally.com.
Rim of the World - SCCA ProRally Championship - Round 4
03-04 May, 2002
Top 25 Leg One Finish Order (unofficial) times are in hours: minutes:
hundredths of seconds
Start Finish Car# Time Class Driver Name Co-Driver Car
4 1 1 45:22 Open David Higgins Daniel Barritt 03 Mitsubishi
Lancer Evolution
1 2 4 46:00 Open Mark Lovell Steve Turvey 04 Subaru WRX
6 3 6 49:22 Open Lauchlin O'Sullivan Christian Edstrom 03
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
15 4 374 49:74 Open Leon Styles John Dillon 99 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
VI
18 5 30 50:46 Open George Plsek Jeffrey Burmeister 00 Mitsubishi
Lancer Evo VI
8 6 45 50:79 N Shane Mitchell Paul Donnelly 02 Subaru WRX
14 7 88 50:87 Open Doug Havir Scott Putnam 02 Subaru WRX
11 8 22 51:45 N Ralph Kosmides Jimmy Brandt 00 Subaru WRX STi
2 8 29 51:78 Open Tim O'Neil Alex Gelsomino 03 Ford Focus SVT
10 10 83 52:86 N Mark Utecht Jeff Secor 02 Subaru WRX
17 11 89 53:69 N Wolfang Hoeck Julie Lin 02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
VII
30 12 68 55:59 PGT Eric MaCaire Urmas Kask 02 Audi TT
5 13 5 55:69 Open Ramana Lagemann Michael Orr 04 Subaru WRX
38 14 60 55:76 PGT Bruce Davis Lee Sorenson 92 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
3 15 15 55:78 Open Jonny Milner Duncan McMath 02 Subaru WRX
21 16 376 56:20 Open Julian Masters Mustafa Samli 99 Mitsubishi
Mirage
33 17 143 56:51 G2 Christopher Whiteman Michael Paulin 03 Dodge Neon
SXT
7 18 23 57:02 Open Mark Nelson Charles Bradley 02 Subaru WRX
22 19 266 57:03 G2 Scott Fuller Jeff Call 96 VW Golf GTi
16 20 94 57:24 N Craig Peeper Ian Bevan 02 Subaru WRX
17 21 301 58:65 Open Tony Chavez Ken Cassidy Mitsubishi Galant VR4
34 22 215 1:00:45 PGT Jamie Thomas 93 Subaru Impreza
52 23 345 1:00:99 G2 Charlie Aoun Paul Nelson 95 VW Golf Gti
23 24 36 1:01:01 N Mark Cox Jim Gill 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI
36 25 96 1:02:04 G2 Brian Scott David Hackett 03 Ford Focus SVT
Day One ProRally Retirements - unofficial
Start Car# Class Driver Co-Driver Year Mfg Stage Reason
51 G5 Jay Streets Ole Holter 83 Volvo SS1 Undisclosed mechanical
62 G5 Chris Havas David Kean 02 VW SS4 Driveshaft
28 G2 Bill Malik Amity Trowbridge 93 Volvo SS4 Undisclosed
mechanical
102 Open Scott Trinder Bob Trinder 00 Subaru SS4 Driveshaft
93 G5 Robert Olson Conrad Ketelsen 89 Porsche SS5 Undisclosed
mechanical
*indicates entrants that may be allowed to restart Day 2 if entrant chooses
to make repairs and car passes Scrutineering.
Web sites:
· SCCA ProRally: http://www.scca.com
· SCCA Rim of the World Rally: www.rimoftheworldrally.com
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America, Inc. ProRally, ClubRally and RallyCross are service marks of the
SCCA.
The SCCA ProRally Championship is presented by Mitsubishi and Subaru, and is
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information available at www.peetv.com
