Harrisville, NY -- The Vermont team of Jon Pizzagalli and Lance Smith lead a strong field of forty-four teams to win both the Open class as well as the overall victory at the second running of the Black River Stages ClubRally. Driving the Vermont SportsCar Mitsubishi EVO V, the team won 7 of the 9 scored stages, finishing more than 3 minutes ahead of Sylvester Stepniewski and Adam Pelc in their Open class Audi Quattro.

Finishing third overall and first in Group 5 were the 1998 overall winners, Mike and Reny Villemure, in their "Killer VW Beetle". Fourth overall and third in Open went to Alex Erisoty and Ben Greisler in their Audi Quattro, adding to the growning string of strong finishes for Erisoty in his rookie year, proving him to be a driver to watch in the future. Rounding out the top five and second in Group 5, saw the return of Rick Davis driving his BMW with John MacLeod in the right seat.

Taking the hotly contested Group 2 honors were Walt Kammer and Jackie Adams in their "Classic" Datsun 510. The PGT class victory went to Bruce Perry and Andrew Miller in an Eagle Talon in his, and the car's, very first rally. First in Production class, in only their third event, was the father and son team of Donald and Charles Paulsen driving a Volvo 242.

Headquartered in Harrisville, NY, the 1999 Black River Stages ClubRally saw the largest entry field for a stand-alone ClubRally in recent memory, with 44 teams taking the start flag on Saturday morning from the Harrisville Rod & Gun Club.

In a ClubRally, each team consists of a driver and a co-driver (or navigator), and the exact course is kept secret until just before the event - different from World Rally, where practice is allowed. The cars start at one-minute intervals and race against the clock over stages (competition sections) which range in length from one to 20 miles. The team achieving the fastest combined times wins.

The event was presented by the Blue Mountain Region SCCA and is part of the 1999 Northeast Division SCCA ClubRally Championship.
For more information on the NEDiv ClubRally Series go to: www.rallyracingnews.com/nepro/.
For information on the SCCA go to:www.scca.org.

For complete event results go to the Black River Stages Website at: www.rallyracingnews.com/brspr/