SCCA: Noel Lawler returns to Top Podium Finish at Wild West ProRally
18 September 2000
Olympia, Washington: The SCCA Wild West ProRally came to a triumphant finish this evening for a victory starved Noel Lawler, and podium starved Garen Shrader. The second leg of competition, after a relatively sedate Leg One last night, was full of upsets, the final result being a lot of teams completely re-thinking their final, last quarter of the season strategies. Key Notes: ¨ Noel Lawler and Charles Bradley, the 1999 Overall Driver and Co-Driver Champions have had a tough, 'character building' season, failing to finish three of the first four events, and not visiting the podium until late July, with a 2nd place finish at the Maine Forest SCCA ProRally. Even that was hard fought, Noel having a brilliant drive of desperation, running on only 3 cylinders for much of the event. A fresh motor brought good luck at Ojibwe, with another 2nd place finish, and a lucky 1st car on the road seeded draw for the start of this weekend's event turned out to be a good omen. From the start, Lawler and Bradley ran off and hid, using the clear roads to good advantage, and letting his prodigious amounts of dust slow down teammate Paul Choiniere and early challenger Karl Scheible. In the end, Lawler, posted fastest times of the event in 11 of 16 stages, and nailed down one of the largest margins of victory of the 2000 season. ¨ Garen Shrader, who's 3-event old partnership with 1998 Co-Driver Champion Michael Fennell immediately showed strong signs of validity at the Maine and Ojibwe events, was irrefutably confirmed with an impressive 3rd place finish, his first podium in the 2000 season. The finish moves Garen up the Overall Drivers Championship ladder significantly, from (unofficially) 6th to 4th position. ¨ Karl Scheible, coming to this event with the Group N championship secure, had his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V converted from FIA specification to the higher horsepower SCCA Open Class spec, with his eyes on a dual championship for the season - Overall and Group N. Those hopes may now be dashed, with Scheible high-centering his car on a berm in the first stage of Leg 2. This is the second time Karl has had troubles this season with west coast logging roads, befalling the same fate at April's Oregon Trail event. ¨ British Columbia's Patrick Richard - "the hardest working man in North American Performance Rally," - the only driver running both full US and Canadian Championship series - had an extraordinary day today, muscling his normally-aspirated Production GT class 98 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS, to two fastest overall stage times of the event. Finishing 6th place overall, and missing 5th place by a mere 13 seconds over Paul Eklund's turbocharged Impreza today's performance virtually locks Richard into the Production GT Championship here in the US. ¨ Paul Eklund, who's season has been even more traumatic than Noel Lawler's, earning a mere 6 Championship points with 3 starts and only one finish, and that one being a demoralizing dead last at Ojibwe with a blown turbo, finally got the finish he has been searching for, right in his own backyard. The Tigard, Oregon resident also tied for fastest time on a stage with Eric Eaton's new Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS, making its debut in today's ClubRally support event. ¨ Perhaps the most dramatic story of the weekend was in Group 5. Mark Utecht and Bryan Hourt have been in a constantly evolving championship story, which got seriously twisted, literally, today. Coming into this event, Mark Utecht, with 3 consecutive class podium finishes held an 8-point lead over the now withdrawn Ralph Kosmides and a 20-point lead over Hourt. With Kosmides out of the way, Hourt seized the opportunity to gain points, not fully expecting the Minnesota residing Utecht to make the trip out west. Utecht made the trip, and was effectively keeping Hourt at bay, holding a comfortable lead over the Honda driver at the conclusion of Leg One. (Local favorite Carl Jardevall was leading Group 5 overall, and was the classes ultimate winner) Discouraged by his off in SS3 yesterday, Hourt was nearly 4 minutes behind Utecht, and was doing his best to catch up. Utecht got in trouble in today's first stage, running wide in a turn and getting in the marbles, flipping his Dodge Omni GLH turbo, totaling the car. Both he and co-driver emerged unscathed, but with this DNF, the Group 5 points battle has been narrowed to just 5 points between Utecht and Hourt. By the end of the day, Utecht had already secured two offers for rental rides at Prescott and Lakes Superior, and Hourt confimed that he would be at both events as well. ¨ In the Manufacturers Championship, with a growing string of strong finishes by Hyundai, the Korean manufacturer now has a solid 22 point lead over Mitsubishi, with the unofficial overall standings now at: Hyundai 122, Mitsubishi 100, Subaru 88, and Toyota 57. In an earnest effort to assist the independent teams that have pushed Mitsubishi to second place in the overall championship, the Japanese manufacturers US arm, Mitsubishi Motor Sales America, announced at Friday's press stage a contingency program for all entrants in Mitsubishi product, from Evo 6 all the way back to first generation Eclipses and trucks. The program went into effect with this event, and is similar to a support program that Subaru of America has had in place for the past two seasons. ¨ The penultimate round of the 2000 SCCA ProRally Championship will be in just two weeks, in Prescott Arizona, on September 28 - 29. The final round of the Championship, the Lake Superior SCCA ProRally, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, will be held in mid-October.