SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA -- The SCCA ProRally debut of the Nordic Motors in Motion Mitsubishi went about as well as it could. Driver Carl Jardevall (of Half Moon Bay, California) and co-driver Amity Trowbridge (of Seattle, Washington) finished in fourth place overall, the first of the truly independent rally teams. Jardevall was thrilled to finish in the top five in his first ProRally with the car, a 1997 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV entered in Open class.

Jardevall’s stage times were consistently in the top five, faster than virtually all of the independent drivers who regularly compete in the SCCA ProRally Championship. He was just behind the fastest of the highly developed factory rally cars from Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Subaru.

"We are quite pleased with our results," said Jardevall. "We finished third overall at Oregon Trail two years ago with our two-wheel drive Group 5 Volvo, but since that time the number of all-wheel drive cars and the quality of drivers has improved considerably. Many of them run the entire ProRally circuit; some are competing in rallies in Europe as well. They get far more time behind the wheel than I do, so I’m very happy to be competitive with them."

A new twist to rallying starting at Oregon Trail is the addition of Stage Notes, a more thorough method of describing the rally roads than has been used in the past. Most teams said there was a learning curve, but overall were enthusiastic about having more information to define the rally route.

"The Stage Notes were a bit difficult at first," said co-driver Trowbridge, "but once we got used to them we did pretty well. They will be used on all SCCA ProRallies from now on, so we expect it will eventually become second nature."

Jardevall and Trowbridge drove the Evo to victory at the DooWop I ClubRally held in Washington in early March, winning all five stages in the process. They went off the road on the first stage of DooWop II, but were able to return the car to the road after nearly an hour of effort. They went on to set fastest times on the remaining stages, but were classified well down in the final results.

The Nordic Motors crew made a few changes to the Evo prior its outing at Oregon Trail. The biggest was to upgrade the braking system. Jardevall felt the brakes were not as efficient as on the Volvo he rallied, so added stainless steel braided brake lines and harder compound brake pads. Since the expertise of the Nordic Motors crew is in Swedish cars, they turned to TAD Motorsports of Illinois for technical assistance. TAD Motorsports maintains several Mitsubishi Lancer Evos for independent rally teams, including the runner-up in last year’s ProRally Driver Championship, Seamus Burke.

rally.nordicmotors.com
Also new to Nordic Motors in Motion is a dedicated web site to promote the team’s rally efforts. Located at rally.nordicmotors.com, the new site features many photos of the team’s Volvo from the past several seasons, as well as results and biographical information on team members. Many of the photos go back to Jardevall’s early rally exploits in Sweden driving a series of Saab 96s. The web site was designed and is maintained by Tim Winker of the Wink Timber Media Agency, a public relations concern specializing in promotion of motorsports teams. (www.WinkTimber.com)

Nordic Motors is an independent Volvo and Saab repair facility, owned by Carl Jardevall and located in San Carlos, California. Co-driver Amity Trowbridge lives in Seattle, Washington, and is an engineer for the State of Washington Department of Transportation.