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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 4, 2003 |
For more information, Contact: Jamie Edwards Tel: +44 (0) 7813 138 276 E-mail: jamie@jemsport.co.uk Website: www.jonnymilner.com |
Yorkshire, UK -- Leading privateer driver Jonny Milner heads to Wellsboro in Pennsylvania next weekend, as he and co-driver Duncan McMath contest the Susquehannock Trail Pro Rally in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship.
Yorkshireman Milner, the reigning British Rally Champion, currently lies 4th overall in the competitive American series. As usual, he has backing from Team Dynamics alloy wheels, who have played a major role in his recent successes, both in the UK and the USA.
After a solid start to his US campaign, finishing in 3rd place on January's Sno*drift rally in Michigan ,Milner and co-driver McMath endured a mixed Rim of the World Rally recently. Their Subaru Impreza fell foul of an early gearbox problem, which scuppered their chances of a high finish.
However, Milner's trademark determination and speed came to the fore on the second day, as Jonny set fastest time on one stage and third fastest on another, having also notched up couple of 5th fastest, despite competing against the factory teams of Subaru and Mitsubishi . As a result, Milner was able to secure 10th overall, just 40 seconds from 6th place, despite losing over nine minutes with the day one problems.
For this weekend's event Jonny will finally make his planned switch to the showroom class, having used a slightly more powerful open class car on the first 2 rounds.
"I'm very much looking forward to driving the Subaru in full showroom trim for the first time" commented Jonny. "It was never our intention to come to the USA to compete with the works Mitsubishi and Subaru teams as that is a very difficult thing to achieve for a small privateer team like we are.
Although I'm giving away a few horsepower , this car gives us the best of both worlds, as I am confident we can set the pace in our own class whilst hopefully being able to set some competitive times against the works drivers. I feel I have now acclimatised to the US conditions, and a good result in a showroom class car is always a testament to the driver's pace."
"The Prodrive team, from whom the Subaru Impreza WRX is rented, have done an outstanding job developing this car. The chassis is beautifully matched to the Pirelli tyres, with good turn in and strong brakes. It certainly gives you a great deal of confidence to attack the stages. The Subaru Impreza really is the class of the showroom category field right now."
"The plan for this rally is obviously to try and win the showroom category if possible, but we have to learn the stages as we go. I've no doubts that Shane Mitchell and Mark Utecht will be very tough competitors to battle with, but we had a lot of fun with our rivals during the last rally. I'm really looking forward to competing in America once again- it is well worth the long journey and hard work our team has to put in."
The 2003 STPR comprises around 125 forest stage miles split into 10 different tests. The Pennsylvania Forest roads have a reputation for being smooth yet twisty, which should make for ideal conditions for Jonny and Duncan to show just how well they've acclimatised to rallying in the USA .
Support once again comes from leading alloy wheel manufacturer Team Dynamics Inc, Pirelli Tyres, NGK Spark Plugs and Ferodo Competition Brake Pads, whose products helped Jonny to outstanding success in the British Rally Championship in 2002. Thanks also go to the staff at Prodrive, whose competitive rental rates and enthusiastic customer support help make Jonny's desire to be competitive in the SCCA ProRally series a reality.
For more information on Jonny Milner, or for images and profiles, visit www.jonnymilner.com
Media contact: Jamie Edwards at JemSport PR on +44 (0) 7813 138 276, or email jamie@jemsport.co.uk