SHILLINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA -- The Susquehannock Trail ProRally (STPR) came to an early and disappointing end Saturday for 3 Stooges Racing when their Steve Moyer Subaru, KAM Specialties sponsored 1996 Subaru Impreza slid off the road about two miles from the end of Special Stage 9.

From the beginning, the team was putting in a competitive charge that saw them move up 30 places after the first two Special Stages. However, that charge was tempered a number of times by several flat tires and a few "oopses" that had the team replacing a tie rod and reattaching a few body panels at one of the service stops.

Coming through the tight right hand approach to the bridge before Asaph, the major spectator area, the car slid wide and down a small bank. "I had the car in reverse before it had even stopped sliding" said driver Don Kennedy. "Till we backed out onto the road and got going again we only lost about 10 seconds. We certainly gave the spectators quite a show, with flying mud and vegetation at no extra charge!"

After two flat tires and contact with banks on both sides of the car the service crew found themselves doing more than the scheduled work at the first service stop in Germania. "We wound up having to shuffle tires (due to the flats), change the right side steering arm, reattach half of the rear bumper, as well do all the normal maintenance and refueling in a little more than a hour" said crew chief Keith Kennedy.

By the time the night stages began the team had fallen out of contention and decided to take it easy to preserve a finish, but that didn't even work. "I had just finished calling one corner and was preparing to call the next one when I felt the car starting to slide off the road. When I looked up I saw a tree branch flash across the windshield, and when that cleared I saw that we were about to crash into Andrew Havas' bright orange Mazda RX-7" recalled navigator Matt Kennedy. "Apparently he also had slid off at that section of road because it was very slippery and sloped steeply to the side. By the time we came through about a half an hour later the triangle they had put up wasn't visible, it had fallen over or was run over, so we had no warning and fell victim to the road too."

Fortunately, the damage appears to be limited to the body panels and headlight assembly on the right side of the car, as the team was able to drive the car back to Wellsboro (approximately 50 miles) after it had been pulled out of the ditch. The team hopes to have the car ready for action again in time for the Maine Forest Rally in late July.

You can find out more at the event's official web site: www.STPR.org. Also, be sure to check the 3 Stooges Racing's web site: www.3StoogesRacing.com for more information about the team, as well as rallying in general.