Round #6 - 1994 SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Championship July 9, 1994
Press Notes by Andy Schupack |
MEDIA ALERT Event: Prescott Forest PRO Rally - Round #6 of the 1994 SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series. Race cars from around the world will compete at high speeds through the Prescott National Forest north and east of Prescott, Arizona. When: Saturday, July 9, 1994, 4:00 PM - midnight Pacific time Where: Rally headquarters is the Best Western Prescotonian, (602) 445-3096, Rm. 112. Duration: 61.5 stage miles, 139 total miles, 5 stages Rank: Coefficient 3 Divisional PRO Rally in which drivers and co- drivers with national competition licenses can score points towards the national championship. National points will be awarded with a multiplier of .6 (first place finishers, normally awarded 20 points, will receive 12 points). Those competing only in the Divisional competition will be skipped over in the overall computation of national points. Presented by the Arizona Region of the Sports Car Club of America. The National PRO Rally series is sponsored by Michelin Tire Corporation - with field administration by the American Rally Association - and is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. Expected Top Entries: Jeff Zwart, Woody Creek, Colo., Porsche 911 Carrera, currently in second place overall in the national standings, just won his class on July 4 at Pikes Peak; Tony Takaori, Mitsubishi Galant, Japanese driver living in Little Rock, Ark., won Group A here last year, right hand drive car; Goran Ostlund, Swedish-born, Seattle-bred driver now living in El Salvador, Saab 99, leads Group 2 class; Dave Turner, Hemet, Calif, Mitsubishi Eclipse, leads Production class; Mike Whitman, Farmington, NM, Datsun 510, top Group 2 contender; Jason Priestley, Van Nuys, Calif., star of Fox TV series "Beverly Hills 90210," Toyota All-Trac, did not finish a rally earlier this year in California due to engine problems. Visuals: Anyone requiring supplied photos or video should contact Andy Schupack at (401) 739-5677. Media Info: We will provide phone-ins on event information, driver interviews, and results. We will fax stories and agate Saturday and Sunday. We have B-roll available for TV. Contact: Andy Schupack - national series media liaison: (401) 739-5677 (24 hours) Round #6 - 1994 SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series - Prescott Forest PRO Rally Entry List - 7/9/94 - 1:00 PM (PST) Start Car Driver/ Co-Driver/ Make/Model/Class/ Pos. No. Hometown Hometown Division ----- --- ------------------ ---------------- ------------------- 1 4 Jeff Zwart Martin Headland Porsche Carrera 4/Open Aspen, CO Calgary, Alberta Nat/Div. 2 8 Tony Takaori Ken Cassidy Mitsubishi Galant VR4/Gp.A Kyoto, Japan Mesa, AZ Nat/Div. 3 74 Windy Imperial Rudolfo Cruz Eagle Talon/Open Foster City, CA Union City, CA Nat/Div 4 2 Mitch McCullough Scott Webb Mazda 323GTX/Open Laguna Niguel, CA Hermosa Beach, CA Nat/Div 5 11 Lon Peterson Jennifer Peterson Mitsubishi Eclipse Victorville, CA Victorville, CA Divisional 6 24 Goran Ostlund Steve Baker Saab 99/Group 2 San Salvador Snohomish, WA Nat/Div. 7 28 Mike Whitman Kevin Linville Datsun 510/Group 2 Farmington, NM Durango, CA Nat/Div. 8 78 Roger Hull Sein Gaueger Mitsubishi Pick-up/Group 2 Prescott, AZ Lytle Creek, CA Nat/Div. 9 46 Rui Brasil Tony Tavares Audi Quattro/Open San Jose, CA San Jose, CA Nat/Div. 10 17 Anton Musev Dave White Subaru RX Turbo/Open Corona, CA Benicia, CA Nat/Div. 11 15 Paula Gibeault Terry Stonecipher Subaru RX Ridgecrest, CA Bakersfield, CA Divisional 12 83 Chris Weleff Brian Paul Toyota Celica GT4/Group A Riverside, CA Anaheim, CA Nat/Div. 13 5 Ron Wood Kelly Walsh VW Scirocco Anaheim, CA Anaheim, CA Divisional 14 10 Bill Malik Roine Anderson Volvo 240 Burbank, CA N. Hollywood, CA Divisional 15 93 Tony Shumaker Liz Shumaker Mitsubishi Eclipse/Open Mission Viejo, CA Mission Viejo, CA Nat/Div. 16 104 Harris Done Larry Scott Mazda RX-7 Santa Monica, CA Escondido, CA Divisional 17 124 Dennis Chizma John Moore VW Rabbit Simi, CA Lytle Creek, CA Divisional 18 94 Dave Turner Ben Bradley Mitsubishi Eclipse/Prod. Hemet, CA Portland, OR Nat/Div. 19 57 Lucinda Strub Matt Sweeney Toyota Pick-up/Open Van Nuys, CA Van Nuys, CA Nat/Div. 20 43 Peter Lahm Keith Roper Datsun 510/Open Phoenix, AZ Peoria, IL Nat/Div. 21 23 Tony Chavez John Elkin Datsun 510 Santa Fe Springs, CA Lytle Creek, CA Divisional 22 166 Robert Tallini Mark Scott Toyota Corolla Downey, CA Palmdale, CA Divisional 23 156 Steve Scott Bob Scott Toyota Corolla Montrose, CA Sun Valley, CA Divisional 24 133 Tony DelaCuesta Tino Alcances Toyota Corolla Simi Valley, CA Northridge, CA Divisional 25 35 Jason Priestley Kevin Caffrey Toyota All-Trac/Prod. GT Van Nuys, CA N. Hollywood, CA Nat/Div. 26 77 Cable Rhodes Scott Gerigan Mazda RX-7 Prescott, AZ Prescott Valley, AZ Divisional 27 70 David Jacobus Bill Gutzmann Dodge Colt Santee, CA Ontario, CA Divisional 28 183 William Nation Donna Casias Mazda RX-7 Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, CA Divisional 29 71 Garnet Baril Pamela Baril Volkswagen Rabbit Provo, UT Provo, UT Divisional Press Notes #1 Prescott Forest Rally Prescott, Arizona Round #6 - SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series July 9, 1994 - 2:00 PM (Pacific) 1. Welcome to Prescott, Arizona, and the seventh running of the Prescott Forest Rally, Round #6 of the SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally series. This is the third year that national PRO Rally drivers will be able to score points at the Prescott Forest Rally, with veteran and recent Pikes Peak winner Rod Millen winning the event in 1992 in a Mazda 323GTX, and defending champions Paul Choiniere/Jeff Becker taking the win last year in their Audi Quattro S-2. 2. The weather in Prescott is hot - as you might assume from watching the national weather map - but not as hot as you might think. Being several thousand feet above sea level, it is in the high 80's this afternoon, when it is well over 100 degrees in Phoenix. Organizer Jeff Hendricks is hoping for a late-afternoon thundershower to cool off the temperatures and wet down the roads. Dust and rough conditions have played a role in this rally before. 3. This year's Prescott Forest Rally is a "60 percenter," that is, a divisional PRO Rally where national competitors can score championship points equal to 60 percent of their normal value. Drivers running for national points will receive 60 percent of a full national event (first place - 12 points instead of the normal 20; second place - 9 points instead of 15; third place - 7.2 points instead of 12, etc.). The final overall national standings will by-pass the divisional- only competitors. The rally was a 60 percenter back in '92, went to a full national last year, and is back to a 60 percenter this year. The Prescott organizers found that last year's full national required more roads than they could comfortably provide, and that their committee was much better suited to running a divisional. 4. A first for 1994 is the Michelin Tire Corporation sponsorship for that national series - a three year agreement between the tire company and the Sports Car Club of America. Most of the top competitors are using the specially-constructed Michelin XGT Rally tires, which come in several compounds and tread designs to help the cars run fast in the wide variety of conditions encountered in the series. This year's schedule presents the mud and rain of Washington State, the deserts of Southern California and Arizona, the snow and ice of New England, and all of those conditions combined at the famous Press on Regardless event (renamed the Lake Superior PRO Rally) in the upper peninsula of Michigan. 5. Yet another first for this year is the debut of the new national class - Group 2. These cars, small displacement, two-wheel drive, normally aspirated open class cars, give a place for both competitors and manufacturers to enter a broader range of vehicles which previously had to run in the big car class. For this event, four Group 2 cars are entered, including class leaders Goran Ostlund/Steve Baker in a Saab 99. Ostlund/Baker will have stiff competition from defending national divisional PRO Rally champs Mike Whitman/Kevin Linville in a Datsun 510 and Prescott resident Roger Hull and co-driver Sein Gaueger in a Mitsubishi Pick-up. 6. As registration closes this afternoon, there are 29 entries for this year's Prescott Forest Rally, with 15 cars running for national points. Although all national cars are listed as divisional class entries as well - and will be listed in the divisional standings - some of the top drivers who have too much national experience or too many high national finishes are not eligible for divisional points. 7. The favorite for this year's Prescott Forest Rally has to be the Porsche 911 Carrera 4 of Jeff Zwart and Martin Headland. Zwart, who was second here last year, spent last Monday (July 4) with his car at the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Colorado, where he won the Pikes Peak Open class. Although his victory at Pikes Peak was in this same car, he used a completely different engine and suspension setup there, so the crew was busy midweek converting the car back to a rally racer for the Prescott Forest Rally. Press Notes #2 Prescott Forest Rally Prescott, Arizona Round #6 - SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series July 9, 1994 - 4:00 PM (Pacific) 8. Last year's Group A winner and third place finisher overall was Tony Takaori, a Japanese rallyist from Kyoto who is spending three years in the U.S. living in Little Rock, AK. Takaori, whose Mitsubishi Galant is right-hand drive, is using Mesa, AZ's Ken Cassidy as a co-driver. Cassidy, who co-drove for Tony on several occaisions last year, including two top-five finishes, says that he is one of the fastest rally drivers in the circuit, and could challenge Zwart this weekend. 9. If you are wondering why more of the top national drivers aren't here this weekend (the series-leading Choiniere/Becker Audi, the Merrill/Wickens Ford Escort Cosworth, the Joy/Maxwell Open class Mitsubishi Eclipse, etc.), there are two reasons. --With only six of the 11 events on the schedule counting for the championship (your six best scores count - other results are dropped), and this rally only yielding a potential of 12 points, it is one that some competitors can afford to skip. --SCCA purposely added an East Coast 60 percenter in Rumford, Maine on July 23 when Prescott became final on the schedule and mandated that you could only earn points by running one or the other - not both. The theory was that to not make people go cross-country for a 60 percent rally, so most of the East Coasters will go to Maine later this month. 10. The Jason Priestley/Kevin Caffrey Toyota Celica All-Trac, the only entry in the usually-popular Production GT class, debuted at Rim of the World in May in Palmdale, Calif., with less than spectacular results. Priestley, the star of Beverly Hills 90210, has been running divisional rallies and California Rally Series events for the past 18 months in a Honda CRX, but stepped up to the 240 hp All-Trac in May. The car, which was barely completed in time for the event, suffered turbo and engine performance ills before Priestley withdrew half- way through the event. The crew has worked on the car since then, and Jason hopes for a better run this weekend. At last year's Prescott event, Priestley DNFed the first night in the Honda, but came back to run well on Saturday to finish the divisional event. 11. Here are the top ten drivers overall in the standings after 5 events, and what their status is this weekend: --Paul Choiniere, Audi Quattro S-2, the series defending champion, leads '94 series with 58 points and three wins, and has skipped Prescott to attend the Maine event - much closer to his Vermont home. --Jeff Zwart, Porsche 911 Carrera 4, in second place with 51 points, is here to try to move into first place past Choiniere. --Henry Joy, Mitsubishi Eclipse, in third place with 41 points, will skip both 60 percenters and rejoin the series in August in Minnesota. --Carl Merrill, Ford Escort Cosworth, in fourth place with 39 points, will go to his home rally in Maine. --Goran Ostlund, Saab 99, in fifth place overall with 28.8 points, and leading the Group 2 class by 15 points, is here to try to extend both positions. --Selcuk Karamanoglu, Mitsubishi Eclipse, a former Turkish Rally champion, is in 6th place with 26.2 points and leads Production GT by 40 points. Like Merrill, he is a resident of Maine and will run there. --Bruno Kreibich, Audi Quattro, PRO Rally's oldest active driver at 68 years old, in 7th place with 17 points, is not here as he is semi-retired (might run Maine in July and the full national event in Maine in December). --Vinnie Frontinan, Toyota Celica GT4, who also ran Pikes Peak last week as well, is building a new Toyota All Trac which will probably debut in Minnesota in August, so he is not here. He is in 8th place with 16.8 points. --Greg Lund, Mazda 323GTX, a top rally driver from Seattle, did not make the trip to Prescott. He has 16 points and is in 9th place. --Mike Whitman, Datsun 510, is here to try to do some catching up in Group 2, where he is 22 points behind Ostlund. Whitman is 10th overall with 14 points. 12. A final note on scoring - there are no entry points awarded at 60 percent rallies. Press Notes #3 Prescott Forest Rally Prescott, Arizona Round #6 - SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series July 9, 1994 - 11:00 PM (Pacific) 13. 29 cars indeed started the Prescott Forest Rally, but the rain everyone had hoped for to cool things down and settle the dust never came. To make matters even more difficult, the first stage is a mini-hill climb, so car temperatures rose to begin the rally. Fortunately, stage #2 is mostly downhill, so most of the competitors had cool-running engines by the end of #2. 14. The rally had a major disruption on stage #2 as the Subaru RX Turbo of driver Anton Musev and co-driver Dave White went off the road and rolled down a steep cliff. Competitors behind the pair who saw what happened stopped to help, and Musev and White were taken to the hospital, where both were treated for various injuries - none of them reported to be life-threatening. We will pass more details along as we have them, but both Musev and White are reported to be in good condition. The rally schedule, however, was not in good condition, as the incident caused extensive delays and the organizer was forced to eliminate stage #2 times completely from the competition as more than 1/2 the field did not get a time. With a thrown stage #2, there were no intermediary times in which to re-seed the re- start after the service following stage #4, so we still don't have any stage times. We will pass them along when we get them. 15. Because of the hard work of organizing committee member and scoring staff person Cindy Hendricks, we have the following conditions to report: --Zwart/Headland Porsche - really misses the extra 250 horsepower Zwart had earlier this week at Pikes Peak. Lost their power steering, but just needed more fluid. --Takaori/Cassidy Mitsubishi - put rear end in a ditch, no have bad vibration; trying to fix in service. Also, like many competitors, lost brakes on early uphill stage and had no odometer early in the event. --Gibeault/Stonecipher Subaru had a flat tire after stage #1, and reports an engine miss. --The Group 2 battle rages on, with Ostlund/Baker Saab 99 reporting loss of brakes on stage #1, while the Whitman/Linville Datsun 510 blew a right front strut and had an exhaust leak, and the Hull/Gaueger Mitsubishi Pick-up bent its skid plate. --Peterson/Peterson Plymouth Arrow is having rear axle problems. --Brasil/Tavares Audi Quattro had a flat tire on stage #1. Despite all these ills, the Musev Subaru is the only official DNF so far, and this will be an interesting battle to the finish. When we get stages times, you'll get them. 16. The rally only has one stage left, but it is a doosie - 20 miles long. Press Notes #4 Prescott Forest Rally Prescott, Arizona Round #6 - SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series July 10, 1994 - 2:00 AM (Pacific) 17. The seventh running of the Prescott Forest Rally is now history, and the Valvoline Porsche 911 Carrera 4 team of driver Jeff Zwart of Woody Creek, Colo., and co-driver Martin Headland, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has won its third SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally of the season, and regained the overall points lead in the series. Zwart's time on the shortened Prescott National Forest course - shortened because of the elimination of stage #2 - was almost two minutes faster than that of second-place finishers Tony Takaori and Ken Cassidy in the right-hand driver Group A Mitsubishi Galant. A combination of very warm temperatures - even into the early morning hours - and very dusty conditions made Zwart's position of first on the road a great advantage, even when the rally went to three minute intervals late in the event. Although the power steering fluid problem mentioned earlier did not affect the Porsche's performance, Zwart said the car seemed down on power, and they will go through it thoroughly before the next event. Zwart now leads the series with 63 points, while defending champion Paul Choiniere has 58. Zwart has also won events so far this year at the Wild West PRO Rally and the Doo Wop Rally, both in Olympia, Wash. Choiniere has won the Sand Hills event in South Carolina, the Rim of the World event in California, and the STPR rally in Pennsylvania. 18. Takaori was unable to shake the rear-end vibration - probably something to do with the driveshaft - for the remainder of the rally and couldn't close the gap between himself and Zwart. For the first couple of stages, the times between the top two cars were close. 19. Third overall (unofficially pending the status of some road points) was the Eagle Talon of Windy Imperial/Rudy Cruz. This is the first time the car has run since the '93 Press-on-Regardless event, and Windy was quite pleased with its performance. Except for the loss of his rear windshield on stage, the team had a perfect rally. 20. Fourth overall, and probably clinching the Southern Pacific divisional PRO Rally season series, was the Open class Mazda 323GTX of Mitch McCullough/Scott Webb. McCullough/Webb, who ralled their car off the road at this event last year, had few problems at this year's rally other than an overheating situation which forced them to keep their heater on during the event. A competition gear box recently installed in the car has made it much more competitive, according to McCullough. 21. In the tough Group 2 competition, the Mike Whitman/Kevin Linville Datsun 510 team accomplished its goal for the event - to win Group 2 and make up some points on leaders Goran Ostlund and Sam Bryan. Whitman passed Bryan and moved into second place in Group 2, as well as finishing fifth overall here at Prescott. 22. We are happy to report that Anton Musev is out of the hospital and resting comfortably at the headquarters hotel after suffering a mild concussion from his earlier tumble. 23. We will have final results with stage times later this morning, but we must report that TV Star Jason Priestley with co-driver Kevin McCaffery did not finish the rally due to mechanical problems. More later. Press Notes #5 Prescott Forest Rally Prescott, Arizona Round #6 - SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series July 11, 1994 - 9:00 AM (Eastern) 24. In the divisional PRO Rally event - and since this was a divisional event overall and everyone who entered was technically a divisional competitor - Zwart and Takaori are not eligible for divisional points because of their national seed (FIA and 1 respectively), so Windy Imperial wins the divisional, with Mitch McCullough/Scott Webb in a Mazda 323GTX second and Mike Whitman/Kevin Linville in a Datsun 510 third. McCullough clinches the Southern Pacific divisional PRO Rally championship with the win. 25. A notable performance in the divisional event is the top ten finish (9th to be precise) of Rim of the World organizer Paula Gibeault, who beat many PRO Rally veterans including Ron Wood, Tony Shumaker and Dave Turner in her Subaru RX. In fact, places 8 - 12 in the divisional standings were decided by less than 35 seconds. 26. Top five national finishers quotes: --Zwart/Headland - "The seals blew on the power steering pump and we lost all our fluid - we were lucky it didn't start a fire. Although Tony Takaori was very close to us on stage one, being first on the road was important to our win. Even though we went fast, the engine didn't really sound right all night, and we're in for a complete overhaul before the next event." --Takaori/Cassidy - "We landed badly after a big jump on stage #2, and we had a bad vibration after that - probably something in the driveshaft. If we had known the stage was going to be thrown out, we wouldn't have tried so hard... We will be going after the Group A championship for the second half of the year." --Imperial/Cruz - "This is the first time we have run the Eagle Talon since its POR debut last year, and I was very comfortable in the car. Except for the shattered rear windshield we incurred on stage #1, it was a smooth ride." --McCullough/Webb - "The close ratio competition gear box we added to the Mazda 323GTX really makes a difference in a rally like this where there are so many elevation changes. We had to keep the heater on to keep the car from overheating." --Whitman/Linville - "We accomplished what we came here for - to make up points on the Group 2 class and move into second place, although Ostlund was second, so we only gained three points on him. As the organizer was able to select the best roads from last year, this year's event was a lot smoother." 27. As Whitman eluded to above, the fact that the organizer didn't have to come up with 100 miles of stage roads (minimum needed for a full national event), the rally was a lot smoother than '93, where rough roads put out the majority of the field. 28. The Rui Brasil/Tony Tavares Audi Quattro was headed for a top 10 finish before rolling on the last stage. Although the car ended up on its wheels, the team lost almost 30 minutes to the field, and became the last finishing entry. 29. The series now moves to its "East Coast Summer 60 percent" in Maine - The Maine Forest Summer Rally - on July 23, and then to the full national event in Bemidji, Minn. August 26 - 28. For Immediate Release Contact: Andy Schupack (401) 739-5677 ZWART WINS TWO NATIONAL TITLES IN SIX DAYS AS PORSCHE SWEEPS SCCA/MICHELIN PRO RALLY IN HOT ARIZONA DESERT PRESCOTT, AZ -- July 10 -- Taking his second national motorsports title in less than a week, Jeff Zwart, of Woody Creek, Colorado, with co-driver Martin Headland, has won the Prescott Forest Rally, round #6 of the SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally series, in his Valvoline Porsche 911 Carrera 4. Zwart, who won his class at the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the same car on July 4, overcame power steering problems to score a 1:53 victory over the Group A Mitsubishi Galant of Tony Takaori and Ken Cassidy. It was his third 1994 PRO Rally win. "At Pikes Peak, we had a turbo engine from Porsche Motorsports with almost twice the horsepower of our rally motor, so getting used to 300 horsepower instead of 500 was an adjustment," said Zwart, who picked up enough points to glide back into first place in the standings ahead of defending champion Paul Choiniere, who did not enter this event. Other class winners included Mike Whitman/Kevin Linville in a Datsun 510 (Group 2), and Dave Turner/Ben Bradley in a Mitsubishi Eclipse (Production). The only major incident of the event involved the Subaru RX Turbo of Anton Musev and Dave White, which rolled on stage #2 and bounced down a rather steep cliff. Musev suffered a slight concussion and was taken to the hospital for observation, but was later released. This forced the organizers to cancel stage #2, so the rally was scored on only four stages, but two of the stages (three and four) were 11 miles and 20 miles long respectively, hard work in the dusty, 90 degree desert heat. In all, 20 of the 29 starters (12 of the 16 national competitors) completed the high-speed, 61-mile course through the Prescott National Forest. "Beverly Hills 90210" TV star Jason Preistley, with co-driver Kevin McCaffrey, ran competitively on the first stage, finishing 14 among the 29 competitors, but engine problems put their Toyota All-Trac out of the event after two stages. In a PRO Rally, each team consists of a driver and a co-driver (or navigator), and the exact course is kept secret until just before the event - unlike World Rally where practice is allowed. The cars then start at one-minute intervals and race at top speed against the clock over competition stages - in this case the closed forest roads in the Prescott National Forest. Speeds of more than 120 miles-per-hour can be reached on long straight-aways, with the team achieving the fastest combined times over the competition stages winning the event. Drivers stay on the existing roads, and never blaze their own trails. SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally events run around the country, in conditions from the blazing Arizona desert in August to the frozen tundra of Maine in December, and pit Audis, Mitsubishis, Porsches, Fords, Toyotas, Subarus and other marques against each other. The 1994 SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally Series consists of eleven events, and is sponsored by Michelin Tire Corporation, with field administration by the American Rally Association, and series sanction by the Sports Car Club of America. The next event on the SCCA/Michelin PRO Rally circuit will be the Maine Forest Summer Rally, to be held in Rumford, Maine, on July 23. |