1999 Sno*Drift ProRally

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Friday, February 19, 1998
Driver Registration	12 p.m. - 10 p.m.	A Win-Sans Motel
Press Registration	12 p.m. - 2 p.m. 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.	Atlanta Senior’s Center
Press Stage	2 p.m. - 4 p.m.	Hungry 5 Road
Scrutineering	2 p.m. - 10 p.m.	Suiter’s Total/Mobil (M32/M33 intersection)
Worker Registration	6 p.m. - 10 p.m.	Atlanta Senior’s Center
Seed 6 Licensing School	8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.	Atlanta Senior’s Center
Driver Meeting	9:30 p.m.	Atlanta Senior’s Center
Worker Meeting	10 p.m.	Atlanta Senior’s Center
Saturday, February 28, 1998
Parc Expose	9:30 a.m.	A Win-Sans/BP Parking Lot
FCO	10:01 a.m.	Start from the A Win-Sans Motel
Lunch Break	2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Atlanta, Michigan
Dinner Break	5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.	Atlanta, Michigan
FTC	10:30 p.m.	Elks Lodge
Worker Thank You Party	11:00 p.m.	Elks Lodge

Official Notice Board: The Official Notice board will be located at the Atlanta Senior’s Center on Friday and at the A Win-Sans Motel (Service Area) throughout the event.

NOTICE: The Montmorency Road Commission reserves the right to cancel the event with one weeks notice if the road and weather conditions are forecast to be unsuitable for a winter event. Additionally, the event schedule may be altered to accommodate changing weather conditions at any time.

ProRally Description
A ProRally, in very oversimplified terms, is a car race on forest roads closed to the public. The sport's motto is "Real Cars on Real Roads, Real Fast."

If you are unfamiliar with ProRally, it is one of the most demanding endurance autosports for racers and their cars. Rally races are held all over the world and have been conducted in Michigan since the early 70’s. In recent years the sport's popularity has grown with the help of domestic and international television coverage on ESPN II and SpeedVision.

The Course: The racecourse is a series of "special stages" or race segments on roads that are selected to challenge the team's driving abilities. A special stage can be between 2 and 20 miles long. A national level ProRally includes at least 100 miles of race road, linked by "transit" sections where the teams obey all the normal traffic laws.

The Cars: Rally cars are all street legal production vehicles modified with safety equipment including special safety harnesses (seatbelts), roll cages, and fire suppression equipment. The cars are divided into 5 classes, from bone stock to highly modified, but are recognizable as cars sold in the United States. Popular cars include Dodge Neons, Ford Escorts and Mustangs, Mitsubishi Eclipses and Mirages, Volkswagens of all types, Audis, Hyundais, Saabs, Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas and many others.

The Teams: Rally teams consist of the car, driver, co-driver (or navigator), and the service crew. Drivers are experts in car control, able to race under any conditions, rain, snow, ice, mud, fog, night, or day. The co-driver is the key to success, he or she is equipped with precise course directions marked to the hundredth of a mile and a highly accurate rally computer to keep track of the teams position on the course. The co-driver "navigates" the team briskly through the course instructing the driver when each turn, hill, intersection, and hazard will occur. The service crew will meet the drivers at pre-designated locations along the course to make any necessary repairs, and refuel the cars and drivers. Service crews often have the task of making repairs in any weather, any time of day, and within 5 to 30 minutes.

The Competition: Rally teams compete on closed forest, logging, and county roads, one at a time, to achieve the lowest overall elapsed time over the entire course. The cars are released from the start of each race section at one-minute intervals to compete against the clock and the elements. The teams are not allowed to practice the course in advance, so each competitor sees the rally road for the first time when they are racing. Despite having precise instructions, not having seen exactly what is around the next bend or over the next crest challenges the skill of the driver.

Event Preparations: To ensure the safety of the competitors, local residents and other recreational users of the roads, organizers carefully plan the event route with the County Road Commission and Sheriff’s Department. Weeks prior to the event, signs are posted along the route announcing the date and specific roads to be used. Residents who live along and near the route are contacted and specific road use times are provided; efforts are made to ensure there is little inconvenience to the residents. Additionally, residents are provided with several phone numbers they can call to ask questions. On the day of the event, roads and trails that intersect the route are bannered, warning of the rally. Just prior to the race, event marshals are positioned at intersections to prevent an unwary bystander from entering the course. Emergency response teams are located at the beginning of each race section and a network of amateur radio operators ensures communications between all the parties involved. Immediately after the event, all banners and signs are removed, leaving the woods clean for all to enjoy.

The 1999 Sno*Drift ProRally
Rally teams from all over the country will converge on Montmorency County Michigan, February 19th and 20th, to test their driving skills on twisty, gently rolling snow and ice covered roads.

The course is scheduled to include 106 rally race miles divided into 16 separate tests combined with 147 slow transit miles connecting the race stages. Beginning at 10:00 a.m. from the A-Win-Sans Motel in Atlanta, Michigan, teams will transit slowly south for the first 5 tests, starting with a 2.71 mile sprint and working their way through challenging terrain including one lane roads, narrow hairpins, and icy hills. As the event progresses, longer stages are added, including two 15-mile runs.

Specific details of the actual course are a kept a secret from the competitors until the day of the event, however the spectator areas where fans can watch the race are made public ahead of time.

Rally fans will be able to watch the event from several locations. Those who are interested are encouraged to visit the Atlanta Senior’s Center at 11780 M-33 North on Friday, February 19th in the evening, to pick up directions to each viewing location.

The first "spectator" area is at intersection of Hunt Creek Road/Eberly Road (also called Blue Lake Road) and East Fish Lake Road. If you would like to watch, you should plan to arrive early (before 10:30) and the cars are expected to pass beginning at about 10:50 and again at 12:20.

The afternoon section of the rally can be viewed from the north side of the intersection of DeCheau Lake Road and Meaford Road with the cars scheduled to race through at 3:30 and 5:10. The evening section of the event can be spectated from the east side of Meaford and Mills Road at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Additionally, the route will return the teams to Atlanta for service several times throughout the day, with a longer breaks at about 2 p.m. and again at 5:30 p.m.

The 1999 Sno*Drift ProRally concludes with the awards ceremony and worker thank-you party around 10:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge on M-32 just west of Atlanta.

Volunteer positions are still being filled. Opportunities are available for First Responders and Medical Personnel, Amateur Radio Operators, Control Workers and Marshals. If you would like to help in the morning, afternoon, evening, or for the entire event, call Barb Steencken at (248) 685 2773 or e-mail Mike Bodnar at Michael.Bodnar@JWT.com.

Competitor Review
Thirty-eight teams have pre-registered for the 1999 Sno*Drift ProRally. Teams are divided into 5 classes to allow different types of vehicles to compete on an even basis.

The Open Class is made up of the most powerful cars and includes several potential event winners and a few who will be challenging for the Michelin SCCA National ProRally Points Championship. Open class cars are based on production cars sold in the United States but modified to include all-wheel-drive and between 350 and 400 horsepower. Garen Schrader has shown promise in several events last year in his Ford Sierra Cosworth, the European version of the Merkur XR4ti sold in the United States. For 1999 Garen has moved into a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV, a car which has won many World Rally events, and is based on the Mitsubishi Mirage sold in the United States. Also in a Mitsubishi Evo IV is Peter Lahm who has extensive experience competing for the Group 2 National Series Championship. Peter is driving the car that carried last year's overall National Champion, David Summerbell, to victory. Expect Peter to be a top contender after he gets aquatinted with a car that has all-wheel-drive and a lot of horsepower. Among the other Open class entrants, Jon Kemp has proved to be a solid competitor in his turbo-charged Audi Quattro.

Production GT cars are very close to stock production cars with limited modifications allowed. The class is based on engine size and usually includes turbo charged all-wheel-drive cars. The most popular cars are Mitsubishi Eclipses, Eagle Talons, and Mazda 323s. The competitors in this class can often beat the more powerful Open Class cars. At Sno*Drift this will be particularly evident due to the limited benefit of the Open class car’s extra horsepower in slippery conditions.

Almost all of the drivers in Production GT have the potential to win the event and certainly the class. With last year's class champion Steve Gingras sitting this event out, Cal Landau, Gail Truess, Chris Czyzio, Tom Ottey, and Brian Pepp will battle it out for victory. Gail’s recent class win and 4th place overall at the 1998 season ender, Lake Superior ProRally, may just give her the confidence to win.

Group 5 includes big engine two-wheel-drive open class cars, and if Mark Utecht can avoid mechanical trouble, he should have no problem with a class win at Sno*Drift. >Also racing for the class win are Jeremy Butts, John Zoener and Mike Moyer.

Group 2 includes cars with engines smaller than 2.2 liters. This class is always very competitive and fun to watch. Wayne and Annette Prochaska get the nod for the class favorite, but don’t count out Eric Schroeder, Eric Burmeister, Doug Davenport, or Scott Harvey. Group 2 has a large field and any number of the competitors could challenge the leaders on a good day.

Although we talk about the Production Class last, the drivers of these cars are often able to place their cars among the top ten finishers overall. Production cars are almost straight from the factory, you can just about drive the car out of the showroom, weld a roll cage in, and be ready to rally. Evan Moen in his Dodge Neon has had some very successful runs and Karl Scheible, after a couple of years off, should be the class leaders. Karl will be in a Volkswagen GTI for this event and will debut his new 1999 VW Bug in the near future.