Subaru Rim of the World Rally
Lancaster, Calif.
May 7, 2005
Press Notes - Saturday Afternoon/Evening

15. Security at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds reported that more than 1,500 people crowded in the stands for the stadium stage at noon, and more people seem to be arriving every hour leading up to the 7:15 PM Super Special Stage – the first one to be timed as part of the event. The rally is running about an hour late because of the Jim Pierce/Amar Schmi Chevy S-10 pickup rollover on Messenger Flats – Stage #8. Both drivers were okay, but the stage was blocked for almost 45 minutes. The result of all of that is the final Super Special stadium stage, scheduled to begin at 9:24 PM, probably wouldn’t get started until 11:00 PM, so the organizer has cancelled that last stadium stage. So the rally will go back out to the woods for the final Del Sur stages which should start about
8:00 PM.

16. Many people who spectator at Rim visited the Fairgrounds, saw the autocross, the car show, the remote control cars, the drifting exhibition, and the trade and accessories exhibitions. People have sat in the grandstands watching the cars run side by side on the Super Special Stage. Now, people are sayingt “This looks really cool, how do I get started in rallying?”

The Rim of the World Rally includes a National Auto Sport Association (NASA) regional-level event that is the second event of the California Rally Series (CRS).
The California Rally Series, formed in 1975, has three regional level championships based on events in California, Nevada, and Arizona. The “CRS Rally Championship” consists of pure stage rally events, for fully prepared cars.

Each February, the organizers of Rim hold a rally school in Ridgecrest, California. The school includes all the basics needed to get started including information about licensing, car preparation, and obtaining marketing/sponsorship and team management.

Rim organizer, Donna Hocker, is enthusiastic about welcoming novices.

“CRS is like a big family. There is great camaraderie among our members and those most experienced don’t hesitate to mentor our newest members. The competition is always friendly.”

“For those who find the sport exciting and aspire to continue on at a national level, most competitors find that is an easy goal after their first novice year, and this is due to the benefits our club offers,” stated Hocker.

17. The evening stadium stage was the first one to be timed for the rally, and there was plenty of action for a dry, but cold crowd, with the wind at 20 mph and the temperature at 45 degrees. Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino in their Subaru WRX made up three seconds on rally leaders Patrick and Nathalie Richard to win the stage, but the Richards and their Subaru were not to be denied their second straight Rim victory, besting the Matthew Iorio/Ole Holter Subaru by more than five seconds. Block and Gelsomino were third overall, but first in the Group N class. The Stephen Verdier/Allan Walker Subaru WRX was fourth overall and first in Super Stock, while the Bill Malik/Amity Trowbridge Volvo was eight overall and the top 2WD finisher.

18. In terms of the USRC championship, with two out of four events now complete, Cherokee Trails winner Tom Lawless did not attend the event, so Matt Iorio, who finished third in Tennessee and second here at Rim takes a commanding lead in the championship with 58 points, with Lawless and Rim winner Richard second with 36 points and Peter Workum now fourth with 35 points. Workum was headed to a much higher finish until he crashed on the last stage or the rally, and was unable to finish the event, having to settle for his four USRC starting points. Craig Hollingsworth, who finished ninth at Cherokee and ten at Rim with co-driver Jason Grahn, now has 31 points in the championship, good enough for a fifth place tie with Bruce Davis, who finished tenth at Cherokee and ninth at Rim with co-driver Lee Sorenson. Fourth place Rim finisher Stephan Verdier is now seventh in points with 24 points, tied with Patrick Lilly.

19. Patrick Richard completed his Rim victory despite a very sore wrist, which needed to be iced after every stage. He had a wrist guard on it for support, but the guard ripped off several times due to his rapid steering wheel movement, so he had to fight through the pain to win the event. Also, Richard was using his brakes so hard on the Rim roads that the discs were glowing after each stage.

20. Second place finishers Matt Iorio/Ole Holter had the deck lid on his Subaru Impreza come up and break the rear window after underestimating the jump on the Power Line stage on Saturday morning, although the incident did little to deter them from their march to a podium finish.

21. Ken Block, completing only his third rally on gravel, was third with co-driver Allan Walker, and was the fastest Group N car.

22. Fifth place finishers Matthew Johnson/Wendy Nakamoto has a digital video camera in their Subaru WRX who brought streaming video (including Wendy’s co-driver call outs) to the Rim of the World web site. You can find the link – as well as full results and stage scores for the USRC, California Rally Series, and Western States Rally Championship – at www.rimoftheworldrally.com.

23. The Wyeth Gubelmann/Cindy Krolikowski Subaru WRX, which crashed and DNFed
in the rally on Friday night, came back on Saturday to enter the region event (the shorter, one-day rally-in-a-rally for local and part-time competitors), and swept to victory there, turning times which would have put them in the top five in that USRC event had they been able to continue. Gubelmann, who ran the rest of the Friday night stages after the sweep vehicle pulled him out, spent the rest of Friday night stopping along the course and help other competitors who were stuck.