Subaru Rim of the World Rally
Friday, April 28, 2006
Lancaster, Calif.
Press Notes – Friday afternoon

1. Welcome to the 23nd consecutive running of the Subaru Rim of the World Rally (30th anniversary of the first Rim), Round #2 of the United States Rally Championship. The first rally of the season – Rally New York - in the series was won by Irishman Tom Lawless in a Mitsubishi Evo VIII, but Lawless did not make the trip to Rim, so it’s a pair of Subaru WRX racers – led by Travis Pastrana/Jakke Honkanen and Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino that are favored to win this weekend. But the other three top-five starts are all Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, led by Leon Styles/Mark McAllister, Wolfgang Hoeck/Piers O’Hanlon, and George Plsek/Jeff Burmeister.

2. Unlike last year, when heavy rains, gale-force winds, cold weather, and muddy condition caused delays, stage cancellations, and other problems, the weather this morning came up sunny and warm. 70 degrees F and a slight breeze greeted the media at the demonstration stage at Mill Creek Summit, where the top runners gave the attending reps rides and photo opportunites. The Tony Chavez/Doug Robinson VW Golf lost its clutch on the media stage, but who would have guessed that Robinson also owned a Golf, and, without missing a beat, the team changed cars and started the rally.

3. Rim PR team member Kara Davis tracked down the details on an announcement made earlier in the day concerning a new rally team. Veteran race mechanic and rallyist Dennis Chizma and motorsports caterer Vanessa Weikart’s decades of motorsports experience have been amalgamated to form Team Deva, where factory-built Porsche rally cars will be run in North America’s two premier rally series, starting in November. The self-funded Team Deva (pronounced like diva) is still in the process of selecting drivers for either single event or complete season campaigns. Although they have prospective drivers in mind, none are yet confirmed.

The team will run specially prepared 996 rally cars direct from the factory in Weissach, Germany that will be two-wheel-drive at first, but they hope to eventually have a four-wheel-drive program as well. This is exciting news as Porsche has not been known to build a loose-surface car for competition since the much-vaunted 959s were constructed to conquer the grueling Paris-Dakar rally in the mid-80s.

Chizma has been involved in many different forms of motorsport from off-road racing to world championship level endurance racing including Le Mans and ALMS, but when asked what he thought was the most challenging, he stated, “Rally is definitely the most challenging from the driver aspect. Rally is a whole different thing.” Both Chizma and Weikart have taken part in so many motorsports venues, but for Weikart, this is her first venture into rally. Team Deva is looking forward to their first major event at the Laughlin International Rally in Laughlin, Nev., on November 10, 2006.

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