Chapel Hill, North Carolina -- After a big push to finish work on the Orange Auto Electric RX-7 including completion of an in-house Havspeed built peripheral port engine, Andrew Havas and Frank deKat pulled an all nighter last Saturday and towed up to Tennessee for the FIA santioned event.

As the duo worked feverishly to get the car running before Eric "T" had to catch his Sunday morning flight, Eric was suffering from his own fever of sorts. A 103f temperature and a horrible stomach virus attacked suddenly, resulting in a hospital visit for observation. Unable to fly out, Andrew and Eric were faced with a dilemma. In the end, it was decided to make the trip to Chatanooga and hope Eric might make a miraculous recovery.

As of Wednesday, Eric is feeling better, but will stay at home in Quebec and recover fully. At the last minute, a replacement was found in rally veteran Rod Hendricksen. Rod flew in today from New Jersey and brings with him a vast degree of experience, including pace noting. Rod is a regular co-driver of ace Audi pilot Bruno Kreibech from New York, and super quick but always underrated John Kemp.

"While Frank and I are very sad Eric has taken ill, it is most important that he stays home and gets well. We were lucky to find Rod to fill in. Monday we were ready to go home, but things are coming together. We skipped the recce today to work on dialing in the new experimental engine, and put some break in miles on in preparation for the long rally. It was a bit of a gamble coming up here with the engine untested, but even though I am keeping low revs for the break in, all indications are positive. The car seems like it will be very, very powerful. This is bad news for the competition, but great news for us!!" said Andrew. "I am sorry Eric won't be with us, we were all looking so forward to this rally. The area here is so beautiful and the roads we have seen Monday were just amazing. I know Eric and I will be here again next year!"

The bright orange Mazda was featured on the 10 O'clock Fox news channel 11 earlier this evening, and the Team is poised for a great weekend. Check back soon for updated news!