Press/Media

2006 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally,
June 3, 2006, Wellsboro, Penn.,
Press Notes – Saturday Early Evening

21. Susquehannonck Trail, Wellsboro, PA, 2006-06-03, Overall
    Event Results – top ten - after three stages:

    Pos O/a, Pos I/C, Class, Car, Driver/Hometown,
    Codriver/Hometown, Car Desc, Time

    1, 1, O, 199, Travis Pastrana/Davidsonville, MD, Christian
    Edstrom/New York City, NY, 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX Sti,
    26:48.2

    2, 2, O, 18, Matthew Iorio/Westmoreland, NH, Ole Holter/Long
    Beach, CA, 2001 Subaru Impreza, 26:53.6

    3, 3, O, 90, Lauchlin O'Sullivan/San Francisco, CA, Scott
    Putnam/Richfield, MN, 2004 Subaru WRX Sti, 27:01.7

    4, 4, O, 25, Seamus Burke/Powder Springs, GA, Christine
    Beavis/San Diego, CA, 2005 Mitsubishi Evo 8, 27:11.1

    5, 5, O, 606, Andrew Pinker/Perth, Nsw, Robbie
    Durant/Oxforshire, Eng, 2004 Subaru Impreza Sti, 27:14.9

    6, 6, O, 19, Antoine L'Estage/St Jean, Quebec, Canada, Mark
    Williams/N Potomac, MD, 2003 Hyundai Tiburon, 27:16.3

    7, 7, O, 43, Ken Block/Encinitas, CA, Alessandro
    Gelsomino/Santa Clarita, CA, 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX Sti,
    27:18.1

    8, 8, O, 20, Andrew Comrie-Picard/Edmonton, Alberta, Marc
    Goldfarb/Atkinson, NH, 2000 Mitsubishi Evo, 27:34.6

    9, 9, O, 116, Tom Lawless/Yonkers, NY, Brian Sharkey/, 2003
    Mitsubishi Evo Viii, 27:37.8

    10, 10, O, 77, Alfredo Dedominicis/Teramo, Italy, Massimo
    Daddoveri/Lucca, Italy, 2000 Mitsubishi Evo Vii, 27:47.7
    

2006 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally,
June 3, 2006, Wellsboro, Penn.
Press Notes – Saturday Early Afternoon

15. The Mark McElduff/David Dooley Subaru WRX has hit a tree 3.5 miles into stage #1. The drivers are out of the car and okay, but the car cannot continue. There was also a small car fire, but the in-car extinguisher doused the flames almost immediately. Restless spectators, anxious from the delay caused by the accident, wandered on the course before the rally could re-start, causing a further delay in the stage. There were a number of cars that were backed up behind the incident that had already started the stage, so Rally America and the stewards gave everyone behind the accident an average time of 9:22.9 – a good average time that is fair to all.

16. The Ed Mendham/Lise Mendham Subaru WRX lost its engine on the way to the start of stage #1, and has retired from the rally.

17. The Andrew Havas/John Dillon 1990 Mazda RX-7, the unmistakable orange rotary rally car dubbed “the fan’s favorite car” (by Havas), is back after several dormant years. Havas, who dabbled in the Star Mazda formula car series as well, would like to resurrect his rally career if he could secure funding.

18. Another rally “relic” is the Datsun 280Z of veterans Greg Healey/John McLeod. It looks like an old rally car, but it actually a new vehicle which Healey bought recently as a street car and built into rally trim.

19. The cars have finished the first three stages of the rally, and serviced at the airport, so it’s back into town for the dinner break before the 5:00 PM departure for the final six stage of the event. The Travis Pastrana/Christian Edstrom Subaru WRX leads the rally by five seconds over the Subaru of Matt Iorio/Ole Holter, with the Lauchlin O’Sullivan/Scott Putnum Subaru third. In all, the top ten cars are less than a minute apart. Full standings and a re-seed/start list appears on www.rally-america.com.

20. Here are some of the leading driver comments after three stages:

    —Sprongl/Sprongl (first on the road at the start – now 11th) – Spun on the first stage, then lost time on the third stage as they started to run out of gas. They actually did run out on the transit after the stage finish. Not happy about more than a minute behind, but think they can make it up in the dark.

    —Pastrana/Edstrom (first overall) – might be fastest, but they realize that Block/Gelsomino, who won the last two stages, would have been ahead if they hadn’t hit the hay bales in stage #1. The car is running fine, but Travis realizes that the real rally still lies ahead.

    —Burke/Beavis (fourth overall) – car needs brake work, which started at the airport service and is continuing at the Green.

    —Block/Gelsomino (seventh overall) – went too hot into a corner on stage #1 and high-centered on the hay bales – had to be pushed off by spectators. Lost 50 seconds, or would have been leading the rally as won the next two stages.
    

2006 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally
June 3, 2006, Wellsboro, Penn.
Press Notes – Saturday noon

12. Driver Frank Sprongl and his co-driver brother Dan Sprongl have brought their Mitsubishi Evo VI down from Toronto to challenge the strong Open class field for the overall STPR crown. The Sprongls, who won this event in 1998, were leading two years ago when they went off the course. Last week, while running their factory Suzuki in a rally in Canada, they crashed, and Frank was feeling a little sore as his car approached the starting line – first on the road in Wellsboro. He said he was excited by the strong field at this year’s event, and would relish an invitation to the X Games if he won.

13. Seamus Burke, who has won his share of performance rallies in the past, would love to steer his Mitsubishi Evo VIII into the winners circle as well, but co-driver Chrissie Beavis wants to make sure she can gauge the condition of the roads early to make sure she pushes Seamus to drive hard, but not so hard that he slides off the course.

14. Not all the interesting stories are at the front of the pack. Kathy Jarvis, from Park City, Utah, is running a 1995 VW Golf – her first event. She has been a Professional Stunt Woman for the past 13 years working in the Feature Film and Television Industry. She is one of the top women in the business and considered one of the very best drivers. She has performed many high-risk stunts: from turning over a completely flame engulfed Chevy Suburban, to jumping a Omni minivan 8 feet high and 82 feet long for a Taco Bell commercial; from crashing through buildings and into a glass atrium, to performing in chases for the Italian Job; From hitting people with my vehicle, to sliding sideways into, over and along the side of cameras. She has doubled for many leading ladies including Kate Hudson, Meg Ryan, Hillary Swank, Anne Heche, Jessica Lange, Julie Bowen, Brittany Murphy as well as many others.

    She recently attended Team O’Neil Rally School and was asked back for instructor training. She has since completed the training and is now instructing at Team O’Neil’s, as well as preparing for her first rally. She will be running at STPR in her new vehicle as “femmefatale motorsports”. Nathalie Richard has come on with “femmefatale motorsports” making us one of the very few all female teams. She is also training women for the positions of team manager, mechanics and crew. “femmefatale motorsports” mission is to bring more interest to rallying and to get more women involved in the sport. Fifty-two percent of the population is women, and she would like to encourage more interest from this demographic and sponsors for this demographic. Nathalie Richard will not be able to run with her at STPR due to her being the host for Rally America TV programming. However, as well as having Tim O’Neil training her, she will be running STPR with Martin Headland, who has also signed on as a coach.

    2006 will also be the year that she attempts to be the first woman to finish the Baja 1000 “Iron man” (i.e. 1000 miles no driver change) Nathalie has expressed her excitement to take on this challenge as her co-driver.
    

2006 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally,
June 3, 2006, Wellsboro, Penn.
Press Notes – Saturday Morning

7. 72 cars took the green start flag in front of the Tioga Country Courthouse in downtown Wellsboro at 10:31 AM EDT this morning to start the 30th running of the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, round #4 of the Rally American National Championship Series.
   There has not been this much excitement at STPR in many years and some of the top finishers in the past events have come out of the woodwork to compete for those coveted spots in the upcoming ESPN X Games.

8. The rain, which held off most of yesterday, was back with a vengeance last night an early this morning, causing some major changes in the daylight portion of the rally operation. The first weather-related item came up early last evening when local residents reported the road to Wilson Point (stage #2) spectator stage was impassable due to four miles of “ten inches of mud” from a combination of road construction and the heavy rain.
   The stage is open, but the organizer has recommended that spectators pick another site.

9. The more serious impact of the rain was that the Stoney Fork creek crossing, known now as the Subaru Splash stage (stage #4), has to be cancelled due to the rising water levels in the creek. With the acceptable water level being no higher that eight inches, rally officials measured a depth of 22 inches. This would cause the cars to injest too much water into the engine, causing DNFs right in the creek. Others would just get stuck, causing huge delays in the stage. Rally officials cancelled the stage shortly before 9:00 AM this morning. Now, the cars will complete stage #3, and head for the Wellsboro Johnston Airport for service before lining up around the Green again for the lunch break and the late-afternoon restart. Scoring will re-seed the starting order of the cars at the Green based on the results from the first two stages.

10. Finally, the good news about the weather is that it stopped raining about a half-hour before the start of the rally, and several thousand people gathered in downtown Wellsboro to watch the start of the event. The most people seem to congregate around extreme motocross champion Travis Pastrana, the 22 year-old Subaru driver who recently won his first professional rally at the Rim of the World in Lancaster, Calif. Pastrana, who has already been chosen to participate in the X Games, was signing autographs and meeting with team manager Lance Smith about strategy for the event. Pastrana told us that the strategy for his car and the matching Subaru WRX of teammate Ken Block was to go as fast as they can, but to make sure they finish. Their priority is points for the season championship, not an all-out run for an event win.

11. The Mitsubishi Eclipse VR4 of Larry Parker/Bill Westrick broke an axle during the practice stage yesterday, and, with the part not arriving until this afternoon, will run the club rally only starting with stage #5.
    

2006 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally
June 1, 2006, Wellsboro, Penn.
Press Notes – Thursday night

1. Welcome to the 30th running of the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, round #4 of the Rally America National Championship. The rally, which will kick off from the Wellsboro town green this Saturday shortly after 10:00 AM, is now the longest continually-running motorsports event in the state of Pennsylvania, a state which has Pocono Raceway and many famous local tracks as well.

2. A quick look at the weather for next few days shows on-and-off rain, with clearing expected during the middle of the day on Saturday. The good news is that rain helps keep the dust down on a course that has required two minute and three minute windows in the past, so rain before the event is good. The bad news is that rain a few days before the event could raise the creek at the Subaru Splash water crossing, scheduled to start Saturday afternoon at 2:00 PM (be there by noon if you are planning to attend) to a level which makes it unsafe for the cars to cross without causing engine damage. That level is approximately eight inches at the center of the creek, although there might be some wiggle room. The organizer will probably not make a decision until early Saturday morning—look for a notice on www.stpr.org, or, for those in the Wellsboro area, tune into KC-101 FM or WNBT-AM 1490 for the latest word.

3. Here are the Rally America point standings coming into the event:
   
   Rally America Top 10 2006 Overall Driver National Points (three events)

   Pos., Driver, Hometown, Sno*Drift, 100 Acre , Oregon, Total
   1, Ken Block, Encinitas, CA, , 12 , 22 , 14 , 48
   2, Andrew Pinker, Perth, Nsw, , 4, 14 , 22, 40
   3, Travis Pastrana, Davidsonville, MD , 17 , 1 , 17 , 35
   4, Alfredo Dedominicis, Teramo , 1 , 17 , 12 , 30
   5, Tanner Foust, Steamboat Springs CO, 14 , 10 , 0 , 24
   6, Andrew Comrie-Picard, Edmonton, Ab Can 22 , 0 , 0 , 22
   7, Matthew Johnson, Apex, NC , 0 , 5 , 10 , 15
   8, Eric Langbein, Annapolis, MD , 5 , 3 , 6 , 14
   9, Chris Gilligan, Cornelius, NC , 6 , 8 , 0 , 14
   10, Otis Dimiters, Great Neck, NY , 1 , 12 , 0 , 13

   Open Class Leader - Ken Block, Encinitas, CA, 50; Group N Leader - Andrew Pinker, Perth, Nsw, 44
   Production GT Leader - Eric Langbein, Annapolis, MD, 45; 2WD Leader - Bruce Davis, Granite Bay, CA, 34; Group 5 Leader - Bruce Davis, Granite Bay, CA, 39; Group 2 Leader - Eric Duncan, Soda Springs, ID, 40; Production Leader - Kenny Bartram, Stillwater, OK, 44.

4. The buzz for the weekend is that rallyists will be chosen from the results of this event for the ESPN X Games to be held in Los Angeles in August 3 - 6. Rally will join the ranks of current X Games sports: BMX, Moto X, Skateboard, Surfing and Wakeboard. X Games 12 will air live on ESPN and ABC Sports. Drivers for the X Games will be chosen by the following committee:

   1. Ken Block. Founder of DC Shoes, hires high profile athletes, 2005 Rally America Rookie of the Year driver.
   2. Ben Bradley. Organizer, Owner of Special Stage, long time competitor.
   3. John Buffum. Hall of Fame driver, long time team owner
   4. Dave Coleman. Sport Compact Car writer, rally driver
   5. J.B. Niday. Rally America Managing Director
   6. Nathalie Richard. 2005 Rally America Overall and Group N champion co-driver, host of Rally America 2006 TV program
   7. Bill Wood. Media writer has followed U.S. rally for over 25 years

   For those who are not chosen initially by the committee, they can earn spots in Wellsboro this weekend by finishing in the following spots:

   1. The highest finisher, not already invited, among Open Class, PGT and Group N at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally will receive an invitation to the X Games Rally.
   2. The second highest finisher, not already invited, among Open Class, PGT and Group N at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally will receive an invitation to be the second alternate entry to the X Games Rally.
   3. The highest finisher, not already invited, among Open Class, PGT and Group N at Maine Forest Rally (next month) will receive an invitation to the X Games Rally.
   4. The second highest finisher, not already invited, among Open Class, PGT and Group N at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally will receive an invitation to be the third alternate entry to the X Games Rally.

5. As the rally is 30 years old, let’s take a look at the past overall champions of this event. Last year’s winner, Paul Choiniere, has won the event six times, including four years in a row from 1992 – 1996. His step-father, John Buffum, has also won the event six times, including his first win in 1978 in a Triumph TR-7 with co-driver Doug Shepherd, who is driving this weekend. Rod Millen has won the rally four times, including his first win in a Datsun 510 in 1978. Two-time winners have included John Woolf, Chad DiMarco, David Higgins.

6. There is a new button on the Rally America website that allows media and the public to download real time results, the latest point standings, entry lists, and re-seed and start lists in several different formats including plain text and sports agate. Go to www.rally-america.com, click on RA Championship, and click on Media (or click here). Thanks to Al Kintigh, Rally America’s technologist, for this important service to the media and rally fans around the globe.

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