Thousand Oaks, California Wolfgang Hoeck, webmaster for the new Western States Rally Championship (WSRC), announced today that the WSRC web site is now officially operational. "Our charter states that we'll use internet technologies to distribute information. First and foremost we needed to get our web site up and running and tell people about what's coming up."

The URL "www.wsrally.org" was selected for a couple of reasons. "wsrally" is short enough to make it easy to remember, while clearly displaying "rally" in the URL, while the ".org" extension reminds visitors that the series is not commercial in any way and is run entirely by volunteers. Besides, "wsrc.org" and "wsrc.com" were already taken! Bill Barfoot, WSRC's event liason for the Prescott Forest Rally, performed the preliminary domain name research.

"We're doing everything we can to minimize administration costs," commented John Dillon, chairman of the WSRC. "Thanks to inhouseIT based in Newport Beach, CA, we were able to secure web hosting and e-mail addresses for our web site and officers. Mike and Paula Gibeault, organizers for the Rim of the World Rally, suggested we contact Steve Bender for our site since his company hosts the Rim site and scores of others."

Bender, himself a club rallyist, is a co-owner of inhouseIT. "We think the new championship series will be a great opportunity for racers west of the Rockies. When John approached me about hosting the site, we were happy to help."

"Wolfgang has developed an elegant, pleasing site that's easy to navigate," added Dillon. "We want wsrally.org to be a comfortable place to visit where you can find the information you need without hunting around." Hoeck has also taken pains to insure that even people with older browsers and smaller screens can still access the site easily.

"We're still developing the rules and calendar for 2003," said Ben Bradley of the Oregon Trail Rally. "As such, the site is missing these components. However, once the details get worked out the information will be posted on-line. Our goal is to increase the efficiency and speed of communication."

Meanwhile, the site offers other information to the rally enthusiast including upcoming schedules, photographs, and the organizations charter and contact information.

The series plans to announce the rules and calendar no later than the end of October 2002. Visit http://www.wsrally.org for more information.