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FIAT TEAM CAPTURES FIRST SCCA PRO RALLY VICTORY AT 20 MULE TEAM STAGES
RIDGECREST, California --
Danny Goodwin of Anchorage, Ak., and Rod Sorensen of
Sacramento, Calif., drove their Alitalia Fiat Brava to an eight minute victory
in the Valvoline 20 Mule Team Stages SCCA PRO Rally after all of the series
leaders fell by the wayside. It was the Fiat team's first victory and it
moved them into 4th place in the overall standings.
The 20 Mule Team Stages had promised to be a square-off between the really
heavy hitters in PRO Rallying. John Buffum of S. Burlington, Vt., and,Doug
Shepherd, of Ann Arbor, Mich., the defending champions and series leaders in
their Triumph TR-8 were pitted against Rod Millen and Mark Howard of Newport
Beach, Calif., in their Ford Escort and Hendrik Blok and Steve Ruiz of Los
Angeles in their Plymouth Fire Arrow. Millen is a former New Zealand rally
champion, and Blok is the 1976 PRO Rally Champion.
Blok went out first with a broken steering arm on the Arrow after only four
stages. Millen rolled the Escort on the sixth stage but recovered and hung
onto second place--until the tenth stage where he slid sideways off the road
into the desert and got bogged down in the sand. Buffum held onto the lead by
winning every stage except stage 3. The Rally was in the bag until the
eleventh stage when the transmission linkage on the TR-8 let go and they
became spectators. That allowed Goodwin to take over the lead in the Fiat.
He won the last three stages and the rally.
Second place in the 190 mile event went to local driver Mike Gibeault, of
Ridgecrest, Calif. in an ancient Datsun 510 co-driven by Lynette Allison of
Corona, Calif. They finished two minutes ahead of ion Woodner of Washington,
D.C., and Erick Hauge of Pleasanton Calif., in a TR-8.
Production Class honors went to Bob Kraushaar of Tigard, Ore., and Bill
Gilley of Mulino, Ore., in a Plymouth Arrow with Ted Hocker and Barbara
Victorino of San Jose, Calif., taking second in Production in another Arrow.
Kraushaar was fifth overall and Hocker was sixth.
The victory was very satisfying for Goodwin and the Fiat team who had only
joined forces last spring. They experienced a string of bad.luck which
included a crash on their first event. All of that is forgotten now as they
look forward to the balance of the season. With the type of scoring that is
used in the PRO Rally Championship, Goodwin and Fiat still have a good shot
at making the title chase very close.
Even with their misfortunes at this event, the series leaders still remain
Buffum, Millen, and Blok in that order.
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