Park Rapids, Minnesota -- Team Yo! Rallysport took on the soft, fast roads of northern Minnesota this past weekend at the SCCA Headwaters ClubRally based in Park Rapids, MN. The race consisted of 66 competition stage miles over varied road conditions including soft sand, mud, hard pack, and intermittent rocky sections. Forty-six cars began the race at 3 p.m. on Saturday and those 36 that remained after the 9 competition stages, filtered in around midnight. Temperatures hovering around 40 degrees with wind chills in the teens, coupled with intermittent rain, sleet, and snow, made for interesting driving conditions.

Driver Jerry Brownell of Grand Rapids, MI, and co-driver Jim Windsor, of Ft. Wayne, IN, brought their specially prepared 1983 Chevy Citation home in 6th place in Group 5 and 31st place overall. "Our car is built more for low-end acceleration rather than top-end speed," says Brownell. "We knew this rally had a lot of long, straight sections where we would be less competitive than the faster cars, so we just played it conservative and made sure we were around at the end. We planned to move up through attrition, and it worked out for us." Also to the team's advantage is the durability of their Guy Light-built car. "We weren't afraid of the few rocks and washboard roads," says Windsor. "We knew we could take the pounding and keep on going."

Headwaters was Team YO! Rallysport's first experience at night rallying. "We didn't have a chance to try out our lighting before the rally," says Windsor. "We discovered the lights weren't aimed very well, and had to take some corners conservatively," Brownell agrees. "After we got the lights all pointed in the right direction at service, we got the hang of it quickly. We did progressively better with each night stage we ran."

Overall, the team is quite happy with their finish. "We ran a clean race with no penalties, and only had one flat tire, which we were able to change between stages. Much better than our last race where we had three flats and an off-road experience," says Brownell.

Performance rallying is currently the second largest spectator sport in Europe and is gaining popularity in North America. It is a flat-out race over closed sections of rural roads by modified production cars. Competitors race one car at a time against the clock, usually at one-minute intervals. Flat-out racing is done primarily on dirt roads and two-tracks blocked off from civilian traffic, rather than on prepared tracks. Each car has a driver and a co-driver (or navigator).

Additional races planned for this season include two more Minnesota ClubRallys, one in Munising, Michigan, and two in Houghton, Michigan.

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

Information:
Team Yo! Rallysport
1567 Coit N.E.
Grand Rapids, MI 49505
Phone 616-361-2516
E-mail: brownell@benteler.com
Visit our web page at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/teamyo