Munising, Michigan -- Team YO! Rallysport fell victim to the extraordinary attrition this past weekend at the Cherokee Trails International Rally in Southeastern, TN. The grueling, technically challenging rally, based out of Chattanooga, victimized over 60% of the field over the 3 day, 180 stage mile event.

"Inertia got the best of us," said team driver, Jerry Brownell. "We were on one of the few straight stretches of the entire rally, a ¼ mile straight with a little kink to the right into another ¼ mile straight. The road was chewed up at the kink. I thought it was just because of the slight turn there, but it was, in fact, sloppy mud. Our 3000 lbs. of inertia carried us straight toward the trees. Fortunately, the damage was not severe. We hit a log first, which started us upward before taking the full force of a large stump, which damaged our engine cradle and twisted the frame a bit. The tough part was the next two hours we spent extracting ourselves from the mud. We were able to drive the car back to Chattanooga with no problem."

The Cherokee Trails International Rally was the first SCCA rally in over a decade to be run under international FIA rules. Under FIA rules, teams are allowed to pre-drive the course, making notes as they go. Under North American rules, pre-running of the course is strictly forbidden. Teams are given a route book with only the absolute essential instructions, and teams race over the competition stages flat out without having ever seen the course.

"Running with pace-notes was a lot more challenging for both of us," says co-driver Jim Windsor. "Our two days of reconnaissance produced over 100 pages of notes on the course , and I found myself reading them out pretty much non-stop. On the first stage I found myself having difficulty keeping the notes in sync with the road. Jerry also had to adjust to processing that much information while at speed, but after the second stage, it all sort of 'clicked' into place, and we were running well the rest of the rally."

The SCCA ProRally series is a "stage" or "performance" rally series that stretches across the nation. It is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America and televised on SPEEDVISION. The Cherokee Trails Rally will be televised April 9th at 8pm and again at midnight. This form of motorsport is experiencing incredible growth in the United States and is the 2nd most popular spectator sport in Europe. Competitors race flat out against the clock on a course of back roads closed to public use.

To find out more about SCCA ProRally, visit the SCCA website at www.sccaprorally.org.
To find out more about the Cherokee Trails International Rally, visit www.cherokeetrailsrally.com.

Visit the Team YO! Rallysport website at http:/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/teamyo.

Information:
Team YO! Rallysport, 1567 Coit N.E. Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Phone 616-361-2516
E-Mail: brownell@benteler.com