Laughlin, Nevada -- The United States Rally Championship completed its third season on a high note with the final round at the well-attended Laughlin International Rally, a FIA-listed event, and Motorsport Festival that took place in Laughlin, Nevada on November 8 - 11, 2007. Laughlin is located eighty miles south of Las Vegas.

At the awards ceremony at the Aquarius Hotel on Sunday night, Michael Taylor, the USRC President announced the new National Champions. They are Seamus Burke, Driver and Eddie Fries, Co-Driver in the All-Wheel Drive USRC Championship, and Bill Holmes, Driver and Kevin Carter, Co-Driver in the USRC Two-Wheel Drive Championship. Josh Wimpey, Driver and Jeremy Wimpey, Co-Driver, and Kevin Carter, Co-Driver are the USRC Rookie Champions.

Michael Taylor said: "It has been a privilege to be President of the USRC. We have taken bold steps to make National Championship competition more affordable and accessible to a larger number of rally teams. The new Championship structure minimizes or, for many teams, eliminates the need for cross-country travel. In addition, six top-scoring teams from the Eastern part of the country became eligible for a cash subsidy to travel to the Laughlin International Rally and received $2,000 each tonight. Finally, in order to give teams competing in two-wheel drive cars more visibility, we have introduced separate All-Wheel Drive Championship and Two-Wheel Drive Championship so we were able to announce USRC Two-Wheel Drive Champions tonight."

As a result, unprecedented 22 teams competed in four or more USRC events and 37 teams competed in three or more USRC events. The total of 312 competitors participated in the 2007 United States Rally Championship. Under the new Championship structure, Eastern teams had an advantage of being able to drop several events because of more USRC events in the Atlantic Division. On the other hand, they were obligated to replace their lowest score of the season with the score from Laughlin. Western teams simply added their score from Laughlin to the rest of their Pacific Division scores.

Most Eastern teams suffered from bad luck at Laughlin as they were hard pressed by the Western teams of Moberly/Moberly who won the event, Gubelmann/Richard, Hoeck/O’Hanlon, Holmes/Carter, Williams/Moody Jardewall/Trowbridge, Malik/Edstrom, Doganis/Smith and Loeffers/Deere. The Eastern teams of Burke/Fries and Donnelly/Gallagher did not finish at Laughlin but were still able to place first and third in the USRC All-Wheel Drive Championship. O’Leary/O’Leary were delighted with their six place in the event. None of the Eastern two-wheel drive teams finished the event. However, they ended up high in the Championship standings. Wimpey/Wimpey placed second in the USRC Two-Wheel Drive Championship and won the USRC Rookie Championship. Listopad/Dorman took fourth place and Bridwell/Kattinger placed fifth in the USRC Two-Wheel Drive Championship.

The United States Rally Championship is owned an operated by United States Rally Championship, Inc. The Championship offers a combination of gravel and tarmac events. Most events allow full reconnaissance and pace notes and are run under USRC Super Rally Regulations.

The Championship will announce its 2008 Calendar shortly with the final round of the Championship anticipated in the Atlantic Division, allowing Pacific Division competitors the chance to travel east at seasons end.

The full 2007 Championship results are as follows:

The USRC AWD Driver Championship

1. Seamus Burke - National Champion
2. Roger Loeffers
3. Celsus Donnelly
4. Lisa Klassen
5. Enda McCormack
6. Leon Styles

The USRC AWD Co-Driver Championship

1. Eddie Fries - National Champion
2. Colin Deere
3. Noel Gallagher
4. John Dillon
5. Bernard Farrell
6. Guido Hamacher

The USRC 2WD Driver Championship

1. Bill Holmes - National Champion
2. Josh Wimpey
3. Bill Malik
4. Rafal Listopad
5. Hampton Bridwell
6. Tony Chavez

The USRC 2WD Co-Driver Championship

1. Kevin Carter - National Champion
2. Jeremy Wimpey
3. Christopher Edstrom
4. Thomas Smith
5. Josh Kattinger
6. Dave Stockdill

The USRC Rookie Driver and Co-Driver Champions
Josh Wimpey, Driver and Jeremy Wimpey, Co-Driver
Kevin Carter, Co-Driver

The USRC Class Winners

Open AWD Driver - Seamus Burke
Open AWD Co-Driver - Eddie Fries

Production AWD Driver - Eduardo Bancalari
Production AWD Co-Driver - Matthew Tremmel

Open 2WD Driver - Bill Holmes
Open 2WD Co-Driver - Kevin Carter

Production 2WD Driver - Kristopher Marciniak
Production 2WD Co-Driver - Christine Marciniak