SCCA: Sno*Drift ProRally final results
30 January 2000
SCCA ProRally Championship -- Round #1 -- Sno*Drift Event Summary & Final Statistics: Of the 15 manufacturers of the 52 cars and trucks entered in this year's Sno*Drift SCCA ProRally Championship event, Hyundai proved for its 5th consecutive year to be top dog in US Performance Rally. Fighting an increasingly close battle with an FIA Group N entry driven by the current 1999 Production class Drivers' Champion, the Paul Choiniere/Jeff Becker Tiburon once again took on all comers, and emerged with a very satisfying victory. Crisp temperatures and cloudless skies, combined with extreme patience behind the wheel allowed the John Buffum-managed team from Colchester, Vermont, to master this demanding event. Key Notes: - Retirements started quickly at Sno*Drift, and didn't discriminate between the experienced and more junior entrants. The extreme cold, with early morning temps hovering just above zero degrees F (-15 C), was hard on equipment and participants, with two entries retiring before the completion of the first stage. The temperature never rose much above freezing during the day, and plummeted after darkness fell on the frigid northern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. - 1999 Driver/Co-Driver champions Noel Lawler and Charles Bradley, in an Open-class Hyundai Elantra, had a meeting with a tree at the conclusion of Stage 2. Lawler, already suffering from a day-old stomach virus, and not a friend of snow rallying, was not in top form at the start, but pressed on as best he could until things came to this abrupt end. - Jon Kemp and Lance Hendricksen, SCCA ProRally favorites for years in their stalwart Audi 4000 quattro, found themselves in the overall leading position at the start of Stage 4, but that ended quickly with a near-head on collision with a tree at that stage's popular spectator area. - Seven-time Driver/Co-Driver champions Paul Choiniere and Jeff Becker were having their own set of challenges as well, with the return of a presumed-solved mysterious engine problem that had hampered them on occasion last year. With several of the Open-class entrants having problems of their own, team owner John Buffum wisely had the turbo boost dialed back on the Hyundai Tiburon, feeling confident of a good finish based on smooth driving and reliability. - Garen and Doc Shrader were having a brilliant run in their Lancer Evo IV, easily posting fastest time in Stage 4, and taking the overall lead briefly held by Kemp. While transiting back to mid-day service however, that blistering run cost them dearly as their rear differential disintegrated, leaving them with one-wheel drive. They retired shortly thereafter. - Also on the retirement list was Seamus Burke's FIA Group N Subaru Impreza, making its US performance-rally competition debut, with a rear half-shaft failure. This was a shakedown event for this brand new car, and Burke was expecting some minor problems as they sort out this state-of-the-art FIA car. A full-on assault for the new SCCA ProRally Group N season title is planned. Subaru was well represented, with a total of three Imprezas entered, the remaining two finishing well. - Karl Scheible, piloting the Vermont Sports Car-prepared FIA Group N Lancer Evo V had a great day, with nary a problem, enjoying a 30-second lead over Choiniere for much of the day. On the penultimate stage, however, that all changed with a slide into an iced-over snow bank that took a healthy bite out of the driver's side front bumper cover. While the damage was mostly cosmetic, that 30-second margin over the Hyundai evaporated instantly, putting Scheible three seconds behind, setting up a classic last-stage battle for all the marbles. Top 10 Margins of Victories: (in hundredths of a minute) - Choiniere over Scheible: 26 - Scheible over Lahm: 384 - Lahm over Morton: 274 - Morton over Czyzio: 43 - Czyzio over Gingras: 96 - Gingras over Utecht: 238 - Utecht over Hurst: 4 - Hurst over Hourt: 84 - Hourt over Stepniewski: 180 Information regarding this list: Start = order in which cars will leave at the start of the event Class = open, FIA N - fastest; P (Production) - slowest; near to showroom-stock configuration. G5 - two-wheel drive high-HP cars; G2 - two-wheel drive lower-HP cars; PGT - high-HP production (stock) cars. Sno*Drift SCCA ProRally Championship Round #1 - Finishing Order - January 29, 2000 2 1 2 Paul Choiniere Jeff Becker Open 99 Hyundai Tiburon 7 2 61 Karl Scheible Russ Hughes FIA N 98 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V 6 3 10 Pete Lahm Matt Chester Open 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 17 4 105 Bill Morton Rob Walden Open 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 5 21 Chris Czyzio Eric Carlson PGT 90 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX 5 6 12 Steve Gingras Bill Westrick PGT 90 Eagle Talon 13 7 83 Mark Utecht Brenda Corneliusen G5 86 Dodge Omni 12 8 82 Mike Hurst Rob Bohn G5 98 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo GT 10 9 71 Bryan Hourt Peter Cardiman G5 97 Honda Civic 16 10 64 Sylvester Stepniewski Adam Pelc Open 87 Audi 4000 quattro 11 11 111 Jim Anderson Martin Dapot G5 93 Honda Prelude Vtec 22 12 22 Mark Cox Jim Hall PGT 88 Mazda 323GTX 14 13 63 Tad Ohtake Cynthia Krolikowski G5 98 Ford ZX2 Escort 41 14 55 Brian Vinson Luke Stuart P 88 VW Golf GTI 34 15 540 Scott Carlborn Dale Dewald Open 92 Jeep Comanche 18 16 27 Greg Healey John MacLeod PGT 97 Subaru Impreza 30 17 56 Douglas Davenport Lea Hoffa G2 85 VW Golf 20 18 36 Evan Moen Kurt Winkelmann G5 97 Chrysler Neon ACR 21 19 170 Reny Villemure Mike Villemure G5 72 VW Beetle 35 20 185 Jon Bogert Daphne Bogert Open 88 Toyota Celica 29 21 556 Colin McCleery Jeff Secor G5 91 VW GTI 33 22 43 Carlos Arrieta Sr Dick Casey Open 84 Audi 4000 quattro 27 23 144 Charles Langan Hughie Langan G2 93 Ford Escort 19 24 33 James Warren Charles Binder Open 83 Audi Quattro Coupe 37 25 913 Janusz Jastrzebski Marcin Korneluk PGT 96 Subaru Impreza 23 26 101 Mark Brown Ole Holter G2 88 Toyota Corolla FX-16 39 27 84 J B Niday Al Kintigh G2 86 VW Golf GTI 40 28 15 Brad Hawkins Adrian Wintle G2 96 VW GTI 28 59 John Rek Mariusz Malik Open 95 Audi Retired, stage 1, mechanical 31 173 Patrick Lilly Lawrence Grieve G2 91 VW Retired, stage 1, mechanical 32 137 Phillip Smith Dallas Smith G2 68 MG Retired, stage 1, engine 24 98 Robert Nielsen Brett Corneliusen G2 87 VW Retired, stage 1, engine 25 73 Nicholas Robinson Carl Lindquist G2 97 Honda Retired, stage 2, accident 1 1 Noel Lawler Charles Bradley Open 96 Hyundai Retired, Stage 2, accident 3 3 Jon Kemp Rod Hendrickson Open 84 Audi Retired, stage 4, accident 38 41 Art Burmeister Randy Moore G2 87 VW Retired, stage 4, accident 4 4 Garen Shrader F.R. Doc Shrader Open 98 Mitsubishi Retired, drivetrain, transit from stage 4 15 115 Seamus Burke Frank Cunningham FIA N 98 Subaru Retired, stage 5, drivetrain 26 42 Eric Burmeister Mark Buskirk G2 86 VW Retired, stage 8, undercarriage