Subaru Rim of the World Rally Challenge
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Lancaster, Calif.
Press Notes – Saturday Night

14. The rallying is over for Saturday at the 26th Subaru Rim of World Rally Challenge, and for the first time in the history of the event, a woman is leading the event overall. Lisa Klassen and co-driver Guido Hamacher in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5 put another two seconds on the second-place Ford Ranger truck of Bill Holmes (Malibu, Calif.)/Kevin Carter (Simi Valley, Calif.). Under the lights of Antelope Valley Fairgrounds for stage four, which started at 8:00 PM PDT, Klassen turned her best stage time – 4:09.8 versus Holmes’ 4:12.2 – to gain the advantage.

15. Marvin Ronquillo from Colton, Calif., and his co-driver John Burke from Riverside, Calif. recovered from his mechanical problems on stage three to score the second-fastest time of stage four, 4:11.0, which moved Marvin back to seventh place, 43 seconds from the lead. He had lead the rally after two stages.

16. After more problems with his car, including the failure of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo’s electronic control unit (ECU), George Plsek is headed home to San Diego and will not run on Sunday.

17. The Mosers continued their strong run, with Tim Moser the fourth fastest time on stage four in their GTI, and keeping their overall standing. Thus, two of the top three cars are 2WD.

18. The Blake Yoon/Andy Goubarev Subaru WRX recovered from its early problems on stage one to sit fourth overall – 22 seconds off the lead car, while the Bill Malik/Christofer Edstrom Volvo – yet another 2WD car is fifth. Rounding out the top six is fourth 2WD car on that list – the Dodge Neon of Bruce Davis and Jimmy Brandt.

19. The Gary Long/Pam Long Ford Festiva, which broke during morning practice on Saturday, joined the rally on stage three after Gary drove from Lancaster to Los Angeles for parts, and then returned to fix the rally car. Amazingly, the smallest engined car in the field proceeded to run two strong stages at the end of the day, finishing ahead of a third of the field on the last stage.