Tillamook, OREGON -- The excitement of the Oregon Trail ProRally came to a swift end for the Primitive Racing team as yet another transmission broke, forcing the team to retire and replace it. Despite a swift gearbox change and delays in the rally, the team was not allowed to continue on Saturday. The team did rejoin the rally for the Sunday stages which had a mixture of mud and snow (unusual for this time of year), and finished out the event.

"We obviously need to look again at other sources for transmission gears, as the second gear failures are coming more and more frequently," states a dejected Paul Eklund, team owner and driver. "We are talking with Subaru Research and Development about maximum sustainable torque in these [gear] boxes, and what may create momentary high levels of pressure on the gear teeth and specifically second gear."

Solutions for the tranny problems will likely come from outside the USA in the form of gearsets from STi (Subaru's performance arm), Hollinger, or Prodrive.

Prodrive's Mark Lovell won the rally in an open class Subaru Impreza followed by Richard Tuthill in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. The top places were a mix of WRX's and Evo's. The event saw very slippery conditions and several cars ended up sliding off the road and rolling over. One was Seamus Burke also in an Evo, but he righted the car and soldiered on to take third place overall (missing several windows).

Primitive's next scheduled event is the Rim of the World ProRally in Palmdale, California on May 4th and 5th. The team's new 2002 WRX rally car will not be quite ready for that race, but should debut in early summer. Prodrive is rumored to have its drivers in the new WRX for the Rim event.

Many thanks to the service help and volunteers who replaced Primitive's transmission on Saturday during a hail storm. "This reflects the dedication to the sport and the excitement that rally generates within the fans," says co-driver Scott Huhn, "it was really wet and cold out there."

Primitive Racing is sponsored by: Royal Moore Subaru, www.subaru.net, Drummond MotorSports struts, T-Scandia Motors of Tigard, www.get-primitive.com and Taylor Made Labels.

Visit www.get-primitive.com for historical information on the Primitive Racing team.

Please visit http://www.writerguy.com/primitive/cv/resume.htm for race history
or
http://www.writerguy.com/primitive/cv/pix1.htm for historical pictures

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