Munising, Michigan -- Team YO! Rallysport completed a successful weekend of racing on the back roads of northern Minnesota this past weekend. After suffering disappointing finishes in their last three events, Team YO! was looking to get back to their consistent ways of last season. "We came in with two goals, to get 2nd in Group 5 and to finish," said team driver, Jerry Brownell. "We accomplished both. We wanted to be conservative enough to run a clean rally, yet fast enough to beat 4 of the other 5 G5 cars. I'm happy with the results."

The team came away with a 2nd place finish in Group 5, an open class for mid-displacement 2WD cars, and 13th overall. They are now positioned in 2nd place in Group 5 in the Central Division after 3 events, 18 points behind their close friends and local West Michigan competitors and mentors, Colin McCleery and Jeff Secor of Sierra Rallysport. The team also finished 4th and 3rd in Group 5 in the Sno and Drift ClubRallys in January. "We're lucky to be in this position at this point in the season," said Brownell. "It would be an honor to be able to finish the season here."

The event was not without drama. The team had electrical problems on the 5th stage of the rally-the start of the night stages-losing power to the cooling fan that keeps three auxiliary coolers and the radiator cool. At the same time, the team was struggling with choking dust, and the start of a light rainfall. "I don't think I've ever been that busy on-stage before," says co-driver Jim Windsor. "The controls for the lights and wipers, as well as the engine gauges are all on the my side. I was switching lights off and on in an attempt to help Jerry see through the dust, plus I was starting and stopping the wipers in the light rain. I also had to keep calling out the temperature to let Jerry know when he had to put the car in top gear and just cruise. Of course, I still had to call out instructions from the route book as well."

"The biggest issue was the temperature," Windsor continued. "It was shooting up to 250 degrees at some points, and we pulled into controls with coolant steaming out from under the hood. We were running the heater in the car full blast trying to keep the engine cool." All of the frantic work paid off though - the team nursed the car through the final stages of the night while maintaining a pace fast enough to stay ahead of the closest Group 5 competitors, Ron Nelson and Drew Goldsmith of Colorado.

Team YO! Rallysport takes the next two months off in preparation for the Maine Forest ProRally, based out of Rumford, Maine, July 27th and 28th. It will be the first trip to Maine for the team and one of 5 national events in which Team YO! plans to compete this year. The team currently stands in 7th place in Group 5 nationally.

The SCCA ClubRally is the divisional equivalent of the SCCA ProRally series -- a "stage" or "performance" rally series that stretches across the nation. Both are sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. 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 typically made up of forest and logging roads closed to public use. The team is given a route book prior to the start, and the co-driver (or navigator) gives the driver critical instructions at speed. There is no practice and the pair has not even seen the road prior to competition.

To find out more about SCCA ProRally, visit the SCCA website at www.sccaprorally.org.
To find out more about the Headwaters ClubRally, visit
www.scca-lol.org/rally/headwaters.
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