TUMWATER, Wash. -- Audi, Mazda, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi all debuted new cars at the Nor'wester PRO Rally, the third round of the Sports Car Club of America's PRO Rally Championship, but it didn't change things a bit as the Audi Quattro of John Buffum and Doug Shepherd still won by three minutes. In second was the new four-wheel-drive Mazda RX-7 of New Zealander Rod Millen. Millen and co-driver R. Dale Kraushaar provided plenty of competition, however, and it won't be long before the car shows up in the winner's circle. In third, about a week behind the two 4x4's, was the Peugeot 504 Coupe of Jon Woodner and Ginny Reese. The margin between the two-wheel- drive Peugeot and the 4wd cars can be attributed in no small part to the fact that several of the rally's 11 stages were covered with more than six inches of snow.
That snow also helped Production Class winners Gene Henderson and Jim Kloosterman since, "It was perfect conditions for our 4wd (AMC) Eagle. We love that slop". Second in Production went to Canadian Champion Walter Boyce in the Ford Escort who ran a tight battle with Henderson all night -- it was at this event last year that the Escort had its first class win. Several challengers to Henderson's lead fell by the wayside in the early going: John Crawford was less than half a minute behind in his Dodge Shelby but tire trouble and three, count 'em, three broken throttle cables dropped him to seventh in the class. Guy Light's Olds Omega was also running strong but it also had tire trouble and then "wrong slotted" (a rally euphemism for getting lost) on one of the late stages. Gary Eaton dropped out when he damaged the brake caliper on his Peugeot 505 after driving several miles on a wheel with no tire.
Bill Brooks introduced his new Volkswagen GTI but slipped off the road while avoiding another competitor. Before he and co-driver Kim Bottles could get going, another rally car came along and plowed into the Rabbit, putting them out of the rally. Marek Baranski had more bad luck with his Renault Fuego Turbo when an oil leak was traced to a blown headgasket and the car's turbo developed a broken exhaust. Mitsubishi's press car (a production Cordia built for selected journalists to drive) was driven by Michael Jordon of Car and Driver and continues C&D's good record in PRO Rallying by finishing eighth in the class. It was reported that Mitsubishi people were all over the course pushing Jordon out of a variety of ditches he managed to get stuck in!
Millen's new Mazda attracted a great deal of interest and in the first few stages of the rally led the Quattro (which was newly arrived from Germany). The snow got so deep in the later stages of the rally that the Quattro's higher ground clearance gave the Audi a decided advantage and the rally.
PRO Rallying's next event, Olympus International, will also be held in this same location this coming weekend, April 16-17, and will begin with special stages in down- town Olympia (the state capital) and on the campus of St. Martin's College on Saturday arternoon.
SEED WINNERS ------------ FIA/SEED 1 - Buffum/Shepherd SEED 3- Gordham/Bain SEED 5- Gooch/Gooch SEED 2 - Henderson/Kloosterman SEED 4- Nielsen/Brandes SEED 6- Carver/Williamson
EVENT: Nor'wester EVENT CONDUCTED BY: Northwest Region, SCCA
LOCATION: Tumwater, Washington Rainier Auto Sports Club
DATE: April 9-10, 1983 LENGTH: 311 miles, 11 stages
ENTRANTS: 45 FINISHERS: 25 WEATHER: Cold, rain, snow
TERRAIN: Mountains, forests
FIN. CHAMP. MFG.
POS. DRIVER/CO-DRIVER/HOMETOWN CAR SCORE POINTS POINTS
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1. John Buffum, S. Burlington, Vt. Audi Quattro 156.28 20 20
Doug Shepherd, Livonia, Mich. 20
2. Rod Millen, Costa Mesa, Calif. Mazda RX-7 159.43 15 15
R.Dale Kraushaar, Tigard, Oreg. 15
3. Jon Woodner, Washington, D.C. Peugeot 504 179.43 12 12
Ginny Reese, Chelsea, Mich. Coupe 12
4.(1P) Gene Henderson, Pinckney, Mich. AMC Eagle 182.26 10 10
Jim Kloosterman, Ypsilanti, Mich. SX/4 10
5.(2P) Walter Boyce, Munster, Ontario Ford Escort 184.98 8 8
Joe Andreini, St. Clair Shores, Mich. 8
6. Steve Parker, Redmond, Wash. Mazda RX-3 190.00 6
George Ramey, Seattle, Wash. 6
7.(3P) Ken Nielsen, San Jose, Calif. Toyota 194.62 4
Bob Brandes, San Francisco, Calif. Corolla 4
8. David Lapham, Bronxville, N.Y. Toyota 195.74 3
Susan Ferretti, Bronxville, N.Y. Celica 3
9. Steve Roberts, Bellevue, Wash. Mazda RX-2 197.15 2
Don Gibson, Tacoma, Wash. 2
10. Martin Kaspers, Calgary, Alberta Datsun 198.12 1
Jeff Vanderwall , Vancouver, B.C. 1
PRODUCTI0N CLASS WINNERS
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1. Gene Henderson, Piockney, Mich. AMC Eagle 182.26 20 20
Jim Kloosterman, Ypsilanti, Mich. SX/4 20
2. Walter Boyce, Monster, Ontario Ford Escort 184.98 15 15
Joe Andreini, St. Clair Shores, Mich. 15
3. Ken Nielsen, San Jose, Calif. Toyota 194.62 12 12
Bob Brandes, San Francisco, Calif. Corolla 12
UNITED STATES RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER THREE EVENTS
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DRIVER (Current Car) PRODUCTION DRIVER (Current Car)
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1. John Buffum, Audi 60 1. Gene Henderson, AMC 43
2. Rod Millen, Mazda 30 2. Steve Nowicki, Plymouth 32
3. Mark Hardymon, Mazda 25 3. Calvin Landau, Plymouth 22
CO-DRIVER PRODUCTION CO-DRIVER
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1. Doug Shepherd 60 1. Jim Kloosterman 43
2. Tom Drake 25 2. Karen Landau 22
3. Ginny Reese 24 3. Brian Berg 20
Bruce Davis 20
MANUFACTURER PRODUCTION MANUFACTURER
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1. Audi 60 1. AMC 43
2. Mazda 45 2. Plymouth 40
3. Peugeot 24 3. Datsun 20
Dodge 20