Subaru Rim of the World Rally
Friday, May 6, 2005
Lancaster, Calif.
Press Notes – Friday Night

1. Welcome to the 22nd running of the Subaru Rim of the World Rally, Round #2 of the United States Rally Championship – a new championship for 2005 born from the Sports Car Club of America’s withdrawal from ProRally at the end of last year. The first rally in the series was won by Irishman Tom Lawless in a Mitsubishi Evo VIII, but Lawless did not make the trip to Rim, so the others right behind him in the points have a chance to pass him in the standings. Canadian Peter Workum, now living in Phoenix, is second in his Subaru WRX with San Diego’s Chrissie Beavis as a co-driver. Workum, as well as New Hampshire’s Matt Iorio (Subaru), current third in points, is also part of the Rim entry. Full standings are available on www.usrallychampionship.com.

2. The rally committee has been hit with several setbacks due to the large volume of recent rain in Southern California, and was forced to eliminate or modify many of the traditional Rim stages from previous years. The most recent modifications to the rally plan came Friday afternoon as the result of heavy rains in the Antelope Valley late Thursday night. The forest ranger called from the Hungry Valley SVRA Park and reported that Stages #5 and #7 – the North Boundary stages scheduled for Saturday morning, was impassible due to deep water and erosion. This was to be one of the big spectator stages, so the organizers were disappointed, but that news was balanced by the surprisingly large crowd that turned out at the start of the rally at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. Muddy conditions and that same rain had forced the organizers to demote the stage a demonstration run, and rain in the area threatened to cancel that demo as well, but the sun broke out at the last minute, and several hundred spectators showed up to watch the rally cars run. Although no times counted, it was an official time control, and several rallyists caught a lot of air on the front-straightaway jump in the 7,500-seat stadium. The three other stages scheduled for the stadium on Saturday are scheduled to run as full, timed rally stages.

3. 67 cars were listed on the start list, but only 66 made it to the opening time control. The Leon Styles/Mark McAllister Mitsubishi Evo VII, which was expected to give Patrick Richard a run for his money as last year, instead suffered a seized throwout bearing leaving its service area on its way to the stadium. The team is getting parts in overnight from Mitsubishi, and hopes to run the CRS and WSRC events on Saturday, but he is a DNF for the USRC event. Also a DNF at the beginning of the rally is Mitsubishi Starion of Murat Okcuoglu/Burak Tuglu, which ran the transit to Del Sur just fine, but lost its fuel pump upon starting the car for the stage. They also plan to run on Saturday after installing their spare pump.

4. One of the pre-rally favorites, the Subaru WRX of Wyeth Gubelmann/Cindy Krolikowski, went off the course on the first Del Sur stage. Both driver and co-driver are okay, and the car finally got started and finished the stage, but will not be able to complete the rally stages tonight. More details as we get them.

5. The top cars have finished the two Del Sur stages (labeled stages #2 and #3 as the stadium stage was demoted to a demo and counts, but was not scored), the only stages scheduled for Friday night. The Pat Richard/Nathalie Richard Subaru Impreza WRX, defending national rally champions and defending Rim of the World champions, hold 44-second lead the Matt Iorio/Ole Holter Subaru Impreza STI, with the Subaru Impreza STI of Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino third, less than three seconds behind Iorio, but first in the Group N class. Full national, CRS, and WSRC scores on www.rimoftheworldrally.com.

6. The Saturday rally day will be the most unusual in Rim history. Three of the stages will be Super Special Stages, run in the stadium at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. The work crew will be on duty all night to make sure they can make those stages happen, moving the mud around to make it more firm. A sunny, but chilly day awaits the drivers, but the weather promises to by dry. Although there will be no spectator opportunities to see the cars run in the Angeles National Forest due to the cancellation of the Hungry Valley SVRA stages, the rally activity, including all the exhibits and programs running at the Fairgrounds, should make it an exciting day. A complete list of the Fairgrounds activity is on www.rimoftheworldrally.com.