News / Press Notes

The 24th consecutive SCCA Susquehannock Trail ProRally came to an exciting conclusion in the early and very chilly (35 degrees F, 1 Celsius) hours of Sunday morning, with the top 10 filled with both familiar and unfamiliar names. Paul Choiniere, the 7-time SCCA Overall Champion, maintaining a commanding lead throughout much of the event fell by the wayside as darkness fell, and Doug Shepard, absent from the Championship for several years, made a strong comeback with a remarkable second place finish. Karl Scheible and Jon Kemp swapped top places for the balance of the night, with Scheible's FIA Group N Lancer Evo V coming out on top and Kemp taking third.

Key Notes:

• The second leg re-seeding brought several surprises, with the most notable being from two New York City based Irish teams. Thomas Lawless started leg 2 in 6th position, after starting the rally earlier in the day in 24th. Besting that was Celsius Donnelly, who restarted in 8th, with an morning start in 36th.

• The #589 entry of Peter Cunningham, the current points leader in the GT category of the Speedvision Cup road racing championship, and PTG/BMW driver in the ALMS series, had the hood up, valve cover off, with TAD Motorsports technicians pulling bits of valve spring out of the head during the afternoon Parc Expose. Regardless, Cunningham was happy to be back in the rally hot seat "I'm having more fun than a barrel full of monkeys" said Peter as he watched the crew re-assemble his engine. While he was down to just three cylinders for the balance of the event, his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI - the first of its generation to be rallied in North America, still made enough power to keep Cunningham in the top 5, finishing 4th overall.

• Eric Comas continued his learning curve with trees, this time giving an oak a nudge with the left side of the car. (the right side was the recipient in SS4) even though the tap was not hard, Comas' Evo wound up high on a berm, putting all four tires in the air. Mechanically, the car was fine, but having to wait for a tug off the berm at the end of the stage caused the team to be time-barred from finishing.

• Paul Choinere and Jeff Becker were enjoying a nearly three-minute lead over Doug Shepard through SS8, began experiencing gear selector problems in SS9 and retired the car at the start of SS10 when he was unable to find any gear at all. This left the last remaining Hyundai, a third Tiburon on its maiden rally voyage, to carry the companies banner for Championship points. A production class Tiburon, the car was driven by Andy Bornhop, a motorsports editor for Road & Track magazine.

• Thomas Lawless' brilliant run lasted through SS10, when, running 5th overall, he drifted his Mitsubishi Eclipse over a tree stump and nearly removed the rear axle from the car, ending his evening.

• Peter Lahm, driving the #10 RallySport magazine 95 Lancer Evo IV, and maintaining a solid top 10 pace all day, rolled the car in SS9, coming to rest on its roof. Fans nearby got the car righted again, and the car could have continued on. Unfortunately, both tires on the side that rolled blew out, and Lahm carried only one spare, bringing to an end what could have been an excellent finish.

• Henry Krolikowski's first ProRally event with his Subaru WRX-Sti was an eye opener, both for him and fans alike, who saw the ex-ProDrive car for the first time in this country. Finishing a respectable 12th overall, and 2nd in Group N, the team chose to pace themselves from the beginning, learning the car's prodigious capabilities and, as any experienced finisher at STPR knows, keeping his speeds lower than some to ensure a finish.

• The strong finish by Mitsubishi, Hyundai's lucky entry of three cars instead of the usual two, and the growing field of Subarus brings the Manufacturer's Championship into a virtual 3-way tie heading to the season mid-point event at Maine Forest in July.

• Scheible's win now places him in a substantial overall lead in the Driver's Championship, with a 22 point advantage over Paul Choinere, and 29 points over Noel Lawler, the 1999 Series Champion.

Quote:
Karl Scheible: "Can you believe it! The Lancer ran perfectly all day, never missing a beat. We really didn't go into this event looking for an overall. With an 8-car Group N field, my focus was on being first there, but a shot at the overall really came into view by SS9. We drove like crazy, and the car kept delivering the goods."

For immediate release 03 June 2000

[ Start List After Reseed ]

SCCA ProRally Championship - Round #4 - Susquehannock Trail Leg One Preliminary Results and Key Notes

At 11:15 AM Eastern Time this morning 80 rally cars began the 24th consecutive annual running of the SCCA Susquehannock Trail ProRally. Due to heavy rains, the event started 45 minutes later than originally scheduled, following the cancellation of SS1 due to high water.

Key Notes:

• The rally began at the town center green in historic downtown Wellsboro PA, an early 19th century village located in the heavily wooded and predominantly rural north central part of the state. The weather was clear and cool, a stark change from the heavy overcast, hot and wet conditions of the past week, providing a perfect setting for the morning's extended Parc Expose.

• Car # 946, a ClubRally entry driven by Paul Tingaud failed to make the start, and was replaced by #132, a ProRally late entry that was 'on the bubble.' The car, a Production Class 1986 VW Jetta; is driven by William Tremmel and co-driven by Peter Coleman.

• The first retirements of the day are significant: 1999 Overall Champions Noel Lawler and Charles Bradley are out with a blown head gasket, and Bruno Kreibich, who was 3rd car on the road, is out with oil pressure problems which developed on the transit to SS2. A complete listing is shown below.

• Eric Comas, the internationally known Nissan works driver and reigning Japanese GT champion, who began his rallying career at the Oregon Trail event in April, is here to continue on his learning curve. In SS4 Comas learned all about trees in curves, clipping one with the right front corner in a turn that he said "looked like a 4th gear turn". During a pre-event interview, Comas confirmed that he will be entering the Wild West SCCA ProRally Championship event this September, and will also be entering two events in Europe this summer: One in Paris, and another in the UK.

• The conditions are near ideal for STPR, which has been dry hot and dusty for the last several years. Described as 'wicked fast' by Matt Chester, co-driver for the #10 Mitsubishi Lancer of Peter Lahm, a sentiment that was echoed by Brian Maxwell who found the conditions 'typical' of STPR, but without the blinding dust.

For Immediate Release:

SPECIAL STAGE ONE CANCELLED DUE TO HIGH WATER IN STONEY CREEK

Wellsboro, Penn. (June 2, 2000) - Due to high rainfall amounts in the last 24 hours, Special Stage One, (SS1) which includes the famous "water crossing" at Stoney Creek, has been canceled. At 10:00 PM EST, 03 June, the water level at the crossing was observed to be 5 inches (12.5 cm) over the maximum allowable creek depth, with that depth expected to rise further.

The cancellation of the stage also canceled the Stoney Fork service which immediately followed SS1.

The rally will now officially start at 11:15 AM from the Wellsboro Parc Expose, 45 minutes later than originally scheduled. SS2 will begin as scheduled, with a new transit from Wellsboro to SS2.

For further information, please contact the SCCA ProRally Press Room at:
570.724.8489 during the following hours:

• Saturday, 03 June, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST
• Saturday, 03 June - 12:00 NOON EST through rally finish (apx 4:00 AM EST) 04 June

Kurt Spitzner
SCCA Rally/Solo Marketing and Media Manager

www.scca.org
werace4u@aol.com