Palmdale, California, USA -- The team of Scheible and Hughes has managed to accomplish in just three rallies what no Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) ProRally team has ever managed to do before in the history of the US-based SCCA ProRally Series, claim an over-all victory in an FIA Group N rally car.

Driving a Vermont SportsCar owned and prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, the pair stood atop the victory podium at the end of Round 3 of the SCCA ProRally Series Saturday night - both excited and relieved. In an interview conducted shortly after the event concluded, driver Karl Scheible stated, "There was always someone there to keep us honest. Eaton, Lahm and Plsek really pushed us the entire night. It was a very satisfying rally, and a great comeback for us from the Oregon Trail ProRally where we rolled. Our Mitsubishi was solid the entire weekend... Lance Smith and the guys at Vermont SportsCar did a great job with the preparation!"

A total of fifty-one teams (including 22 SCCA ClubRally teams) from all over North America, participating in seven different rally classes, started the grueling 2-day event which took place in Palmdale, California. Taking place in an area located just a short distance outside of Los Angeles, the rally consisted of twelve special stages covering 163 miles in the Angeles National Forest. Teams competed in five special stages on Friday night and another eight special stages Saturday, with the event coming to a close shortly before midnight. Attrition played a major role in this year's rally which claimed nearly three quarters of the talented field of teams before all was said and done.

The roads used in the annual "Rim of the World" SCCA ProRally are notorious for their tight, twisty, undulating nature as well as the fact that they run along cliffy ridge-top roads. In addition, waterbars (or dips and rises built into the roads) are used to divert water across the surface into culverts. These alone are a serious test to a rally car's suspension system, let alone the dusty conditions the teams, as well as the machines, must compete in.

Current SCCA ProRally National Champion Noel Lawler with co-driver Charles Bradley exited the rally early in their 2000 Hyundai Tiburon with mechanical problems. Fellow Hyundai team-mates Paul Choiniere and co-driver Jeff Becker, also driving a Libra Racing-prepared Hyundai Tiburon, experienced mechanical difficulties as well which dropped them back in the pack giving them an eleventh place finish overall.

Finishing right on the heels of Scheible and Hughes at the end of the rally however, was the Open Class team of Peter Lahm and Matt Chester driving a beautifully prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV. "What a run back and forth between us!" stated Lahm after the rally. "We had some road points to deal with, so we really had to run hard at the end to be sure. To finish "Rim" two years in a row, both times on the podium, is twice the honor."

Vermont SportsCar is based in Colchester, Vermont and receives corporate support from the following international corporations: Lazer Digital Services, Flower City Printing, Ohlins Suspension Systems from Sweden, Hella Lighting Systems, New England Racing Fuels / Sunoco Race Fuels, Compomotive Motorsport Wheels, Stack Instruments, Goodridge Components, Aearo Peltor and MOMO Automotive Accessories.

The next scheduled rally in the nine-event SCCA ProRally Series for the team of Scheible and Hughes will take place in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania - the annual Susquehannock Trail ProRally, June 2-3, 2000.

For more info regarding the SCCA ProRally Series, the team of Scheible & Hughes or Vermont SportsCar, please contact Paul Giblin, Director of Marketing & Public Relations for Vermont SportsCar at 603-383-4088 or via e-mail at: paulgiblin@usa.net. Please visit the team's web site at: WWW.VTCAR.COM

Vermont SportsCar
23 Hercules Drive
Colchester, VT 05446
Tel 802-655-3533
Fax 802-655-6693
E-mail info@vtcar.com
Web www.vtcar.com