Cheraw, SC -- Charles Sherrill and codriver Brian O'Neal have a long history with the Sandblast Rally but until this weekend that has never included winning the event. The former organizer of the event has spent plenty of time on these roads, but never at the speeds generated this time around.

Sherrill quickly made his mark on the first stage, putting eightteen seconds on second place Martin Donnelly and Steven Duffy. Third place Otis Dimiters and Dominic Jozwiak were a little off the pace getting started, but upped their game after the second stage.

The middle of the day saw Dimiters reel in Donnelly and eventually take second place on the leader board. Misfortune struck on the very last stage when Dimiters rolled his car on a square right turn. Several minutes were lost, and with Donnelly's clean run, Dimiters dropped back to third in the final standings.

Ivor Wigham and Jeff Hagan placed fourth overall, a result notable in that while he has been involved in rally continuously for a very long time, it has been six years since he has competed. Another fantastic drive was Luke Sorensen and John Iden in a Saab 99. The "Swedish Mafia" pushed their way into the top ten in their two wheel drive vehicle, which is no small feat considering the sandy conditions at the event. That honor was shared by Burak Tuglu and Mustafa Samli who clearly showed that driving skill can make up for horsepower as they brought their Ford Focus to nineth overall.

"We had a great rally this year," reported event organizer Anders Green. "We're actually straining under the popularity. When you're talking about moving over eighty teams, each on a different schedule, to the precision of seconds, over 600 square miles of closed racing roads, that gets to be a handful. But everyone had a fantastic time and if you're measuring by smiles, this rally is huge!"

The cars are still holding off the motorcycles, with the top car beating the top bike by about a minute and a half. The fastest bike would have taken second overall if the standings were combined, so the speeds are amazingly close.

"We've had an amazing response to the event," continued Green. "We already over 2000 photos on SandblastRally.com. We had volunteers come out from the local community, and also from far, far away to help us put on the event. There's no way we could make this happen without the support from the towns of Cheraw, Patrick, and Chesterfield."

Note to Editors:

• Sandblast Rally is the first event of the Atlantic Rally Cup (cars) and Atlantic RallyMoto™ Cup (motorcycles)
• The ARC has events in SC, TN, WV, and NY
• The event is sanctioned by NASA Rally Sport
• More information is available at SandblastRally.com