7 February 2002 For immediate release
For more information, contact: John Dillon
Creativity in Action
P. O. Box 1231
Thousand Oaks, CA 91358-0231
web site: www.WidgetRacing.com
e-mail: John@WidgetRacing.com

Tradition insists that sports stories begin with results, immediately recognizing the victorious and relegating the vanquished to later paragraphs. Accepting these onerous responsibilities we're here to report that Patrick Rodi and Jonathan Schiller took home Stock class honors at the 2001 running of the Ramada Express Hotel Casino International Rally presented by Mitsubishi. Jim Pierce and Shane Sims claimed the Production class win while Robert Olson and Conrad Ketelson won a dual Group 5 and Vintage trophy. Tony Chavez and Doug Robinson finished first in Group 2, Brian Scott and Dave Watts won in Group N, and Lauchlin O'Sullivan and John Dillon reprised their 2000 PGT victory, reprising as well their third place overall result. Fastest overall across the three day rally was David Higgins in a Subaru WRX, ably assisted by co-driver Ole Holter.

This rally, sometimes called "Laughlin" for short, is named for the host hotel Ramada Express, the primary sponsor for the fourth straight year. Situated across the river from Bullhead City, Arizona, this little burg features a homey, comfortable alternative to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas to the north.

Plenty of story lines were in the making this mid-December weekend. Weather, always variable at higher elevations this time of year, proved to be a deciding factor for several results. Further, the three days of racing all counted towards the California Rally Series championship, with several titles decided on the very last short stage on Sunday. Some racers used the Laughlin rally to prepare for the 2002 U.S. season. Lastly, rally dignitaries from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. were all on hand to observe the event, and at the awards banquet, the new Championship of North American Rally (CNAR) organization was announced. The CNAR series is a seven race series in 2002 and is working to become an FIA zone championship in the following year.

Higgins, fresh from his Group N victory at Rally Great Britain 2001, promised to be a serious contender right out of the box despite never having run a U.S.-style "blind" rally before. His WRX was developed by AV Sport out of Tempe, Arizona. A month earlier AV Sport brought in Seamus Burke to test drive the car at the Treeline Club Rally in southern California.

Like Higgins, Italian Alex DeDominicis made the Ramada Express Rally his U.S. debut. Like Higgins, "DeDo" had never raced blind. And, like Higgins, DeDo trusted an exerienced U.S. rallyist to navigate, in this case, Alex Gelsomino.

Though a lot of attention was focused on the imported talent of Higgins and DeDominicis, there were plenty of local drivers expected to shine in Laughlin. Rhys Millen, Mike Whitman and Lauchlin O'Sullivan finished 1-2-3 last year. Millen wanted to defend his title while Whitman and O'Sullivan each hoped to move up a rung or two on the podium. Drivers like Lon Peterson, Roger Hull, and Keith Roper held plenty of experience, forcing their competition to race in "maximum attack" mode throughout the weekend.

The Ramada rally always presents unique challenges along with its impressive roads for the many competitors. Racing on Hualapai Indian Nation land affords the rallyists an opportunity to explore parts of Arizona not seen by casual tourists. Because of the December date, weather is a major factor. Friday's stages featured snow--plenty of it--while Saturday's stages started off dry near the Colorado river, but climbed into snowy mountains the closer the teams got to the service area. Sunday's SuperStages were run adjacent within view of the Ramada Express in bright, clear, cold conditions.

On the first stage, Mike Whitman and Paula Gibeault served notice that they planned to contend for the overall win, their Ford Sierra Cosworth finishing three seconds ahead of Higgins and Holter. Third on the totem was DeDominicis and Gelsomino, five seconds ahead of Lon Peterson with new co-driver Bill Westrick. Peterson's regular co-driver Bill Gutzman was riding ballast with Knight Racing team owner Tom Ryther, who drove a smart, conservative race in his rookie event.

The eight miles of Stage 2 featured more of the same, but narrower, with 18 inches of powder. Holter reported that "only a few cars, just those of the workers, had been on this stage since it snowed. David said he'd never raced in such deep snow and that this stage had been the hardest he had ever worked to go that slow." Higgins set the fastest time on this stage, the first of many, but it was Keith Roper and Chrissy Beavis who came up second, just four seconds behind Higgins and two seconds ahead of Mark Cox and Jim Gill. Cox and Gill had just taken delivery of a new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, prepared by TAD Motorsports, and this was their first opportunity to drive the car. Leon Styles and Larry Scott were another three seconds back, their time sufficient to move them into third place overall though gravel tires hindered their performance. Dave Turner and Mike McComas hustled their Jeep through the narrow, stump-filled path to claim fifth fastest on the stage.

Since FIA timing rules were in place, the competitors waited at a regrouping control before entering the service area. While the top cars were in service many of the two wheeled drive car were struggling through the snow. Tony Chavez and Doug Robinson, having just clinched the SCCA Production championship and Roy Donison Cup, explained that "being the first 2WD car on the road was fun, slippery, and at times outright scary, but we managed to finish and didn't get stuck anywhere." Driving in the snow requires a different style from gravel rallying. A couple of times Robinson admonished Chavez, smacking him with the route book and saying "Don't do that!" including one time when Tony pitched the car sideways going into a narrow, snowy corner.

After the service break, competitors faced the 13 mile Prospect Ridge stage. A combination of tight, technical stuff blended with wide-open sections to give the drivers a real workout. Higgins was fastest again, thirteen seconds ahead of DeDominicis, with Brian Scott (Group N Evo IV, not Brian Scott PGT Eclipse) thirty seconds in arrears. Arizonan Roger Hull was the fastest of the PGT cars, fourth overall on the stage, just five seconds ahead of O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan's crew had just fitted snow tires to the Widget Team's Eclipse and he took part of the stage to get used to the feel of the Blizzaks.

Ole Holter, codriving for Higgins, wrote "the stage was exactly as I remembered it: fast flat out second, third, and fourth gear sweeping, over small crests, very tight, trees very close to the road, but with David's driving and the suspension of the WRX, it felt kinda like riding a jet ski... smooth."

It was this stage that claimed last year's winner Rhys Millen. As he and Josh Jacquot came around a tight right hander, they got caught out and broke their suspension, blocking the stage. The next car on the scene, Peterson/Westrick's Knight Racing Subaru, was forced to stop. After a moment's consultation, Westrick and Jacquot began moving rocks off to one side, leaving a narrow space for other competitors to get through and complete the stage.

Further back in two wheel drive, Dennis Chizma (with Paul Timmerman working the odometer) wrestled with Chavez and Robinson for the Group 2 lead. Chavez, who lost the first stage to Chizma by six seconds, took the third stage by just 14 seconds to claim the class lead. Rather than worry about snow tires, Chavez reported "We put 2 new rally tires in the front and two used gravel tires in the rear on Friday. Those were the tires we ran all weekend--we didn't even take them off the car the entire event."

In Group 5, Robert Olson and Conrad Ketelsen held the advantage of "engine above the drive wheels" with a rear-engined Porsche 911, but their only competition, the Mazda RX7 of Jim Gillaspie and Don Shreyer, survived only one stage before retiring due to engine overheating when the fan blades exploded into shrapnel.

Stock class competitors Patrick Rodi and Jonathan Schiller in another RX7 were never really challenged, with Bob Wager and Randy Sleep's VW Bug finishing the first stage over eight minutes in arrears. The Bug logged only one more stage finish, a common time allotted to 18 competitors that were stuck on Elk Loop One.

With the snow making conditions treacherous and racing alone in the Production class, Jim Pierce and Shane Sims had everything to lose and nothing to gain by pushing hard through Friday's stages. Instead they played it smart in their Ford Ranger, running at a conservative pace about 30% slower than Higgins and Whitman, thus securing the class win at the day's final tally.

The fourth stage of the day, Laguna Valley, offered 14.2 miles of slippery excitement. Because of delays, event organizers decided this would be the last of the day's runs, scratching the repeat runs of Frazer Wells and Elk Loop from the schedule. "The two wheel drive cars were struggling with the ice and snow," noted clerk of the course Ray Hocker, "and we were concerned that further delays would leave our workers out far too late into the night. We decided it would be safer for competitors and stage crews to cancel the last two stages."

The horsepower of the open and PGT cars came through on Laguna Valley. Once again Higgins set the fastest time, not quite a minute clear of Whitman. One second further back was O'Sullivan, leading the quad squad of PGT cars, first Hull, then Roper, then Larry Roessler. Yes, this is the same Roessler whose fame comes from the off-road racing world--at the Ramada Express he had a chance to drive on-road rally style and demonstrated his natural ability for car control. His co-driver on Friday and Saturday, Dave Weiman, reported "This guy is good. I've raced with a lot of people over the years and he's one of the best. He's got tremendous talent behind the wheel." Including Roessler, seven drivers finished the stage on the same minute, all ahead of DeDominicis who experienced brake problems.

Higgins topped out on the icy main line at about 140 MPH according to his codriver. Meanwhile, even the smaller 2WD cars built up a good head of steam on the three-mile-long middle section of the road. Doug Robinson noticed that Tony crossed himself just before shifting the VW into fifth gear on the long straight. "Is there something I should know about?" asked the co-driver as the two climbed towards the 100 MPH mark on the speedo. Said Chavez, "We topped out at 98 MPH, on the ice, in a 2WD car. It moved from side to side for about 3 miles but we didn't lift until the end of the straightaway. It was fun!"

Greg and Bill Montgomery didn't have a chance to see the same speeds as they struggled with overheating problems all day. Nonetheless they managed to finish the day about five minutes ahead of John West with his new codriver Paul Nelson. The father/daughter team of Scott and Tamara Clark were the last to finish the Friday's stages, relieved to be clear of treacherous conditions late in the afternoon.

"This rally was all about tire choice," noted Lauchlin O'Sullivan. "Snow was prevalent but we had to run the first two stages on rally tires, costing us almost three minutes to the competition. When we fitted snow tires on the Eclipse for the next two stages we were able to regain half of that time, putting us in a better position for the Saturday sequence."

Saturday's stages are, by many accounts, the fastest, finest rally stages anywhere in the country. The day begins in glorious fashion as teams launch from the Diamond Creek stage at the bottom of the Grand Canyon near the Colorado River, then race to the top. The 25 miles start off tight and twisty, open up to plenty of high-speed top gear curves, then finishes with a tricky double caution left hander named "Pete's Corner" in honor of Pete Morris who threw his Toyota down the cliff a couple of years ago.

Devoid of snow and ice, Diamond Creek gave the big boys another chance to shine. It was Higgins at the top again (averaging almost 80 MPH), followed by DeDominicis just six seconds back. Whitman, O'Sullivan, and Lon Peterson had about a minute between them as they finished the stage third through fifth. In 2WD, Dave Coleman and Ryan Cavalier outdrove George Plsek and Jeff Burmeister's Audi Quattro, who in turn held off Chavez and Robinson by 23 seconds.

Dave Turner and Mike McComas, racing a Jeep at Laughlin, were overtaken near the end of the stage by Peterson and Westrick. As the Subaru went past, Dave turned to Mike and said "Look how much speed they carry through the corners." Trying to keep up, he realized too late that he entered Pete's Corner too quickly and the Jeep tumbled down the mountain before landing on its wheels. They looked at each other a moment, then Dave jammed it into gear and clambered back to the top. Despite the roll they still offered a mid-pack stage time to the scoring crew!

Because of a funeral for a tribal elder, the Hualapai Nation stage could not be secured in its entirety. Rather than throw the stage completely, the organizers were able to salvage the latter part of the section and thus give racers several more competition miles to run. This time DeDominicis and Gelsomino defined the fast mark, seventeen seconds ahead of Higgins and Holter. Third and fourth quickest were once again Whitman/Gibeault and O'Sullivan/Dillon.

At this juncture tire choice once again entered the picture. The closing section of the Haulapai Nation stage reached higher elevations and snow and ice became more prevalent, with the following two stages progressively more slippery/slushy/snowy. Roessler and Weiman, whose Eclipse wore three snow tires and a rally tire, proved fastest on the next two stages as conditions grew steadily worse. With everyone else on gravel tires, they even outran Higgins and Holter by eight seconds on the nine mile Black Canyon stage and by almost a minute on the equidistant Grand Canyon stage. More amazingly, Roger Hull and Sean Gallagher took second overall on the Grand Canyon stage despite using rally tires on his PGT Eagle Talon.

The eighth stage took the competitors into the service area at the west rim of the Grand Canyon, an amazing vista for any rally. Those who had snow tires, including the Widget Rally Team, returned them to the car. Those who didn't, including Hull/Gallagher and Roper/Beavis, knew they had a struggle ahead of them.

Once again the organizers were forced to shorten the day's last stage, this one being the famous "Canyon Challenge." Instead of 48 miles of competition, it was shortened to just 18 miles for safety, which still summed to more than 60 competition miles for the day.

This time it was O'Sullivan and Dillon who proved to be untouchable. The pair finished well over 30 seconds ahead of DeDominicis and Gelsomino, while Higgins and Holter claimed third on the stage despite losing their brakes. Said Holter, "About two miles in, coming up to an ice covered K-right over crest, going flat-in-third, David exclaimed 'Ole we have no brakes!' My heart raced for about a mile till I realized that David was again under complete control."

Coleman and Cavalier were unable to complete the last stage, leaving Chavez and Robinson to lead the 2WD charge. Meanwhile in Group 2/5, Jim Gillaspy and Don Shreyer held off the hard driving Richard Byford and Fran Olson by just one second by the end of the day. Third for the day was Flynn Baglin and Peter Kreder, who had earlier set the fastest class time on the Grand Canyon stage.

In Group N it was Brian Scott and David Watts who took over the class lead from Mark Cox and Jim Gill on the last stage, leapfrogging three positions overall in the process. Dennis Chizma and Paul Timmerman went the other way in their Group 2/5 Toyota Celica, losing four positions overall in the snow.

The final day of rallying covered only about four miles, broken up into one mile chunks. This, the SuperStage, gave teams a chance to race side by side, though scoring was still time-based. By the way, the new start and finish clocks provided by Tag Heuer impressed practically everyone. Their large displays, countdown timers (for the start) and printing timers (for the finish) simplified the work for the stage crews.

The overall CRS championship hung in the balance of Sunday's SuperStage for more than one competitor. At the top, Lauchlin O'Sullivan battled with George Plsek, Dave Turner and Leon Styles for the overall CRS championship, while in Group 2/5 it was Paul Timmerman and Fran Olson vying for the co-driver's title. While every class would end up with a winner and a loser, there were only winners for the Boys and Girls Club. As in years past, charity rides in rally cars raised several thousand dollars for this worthwhile cause.

Fierce battles raged throughout the day in the side-by-side action. The organizers did their best to pair similar cars against one another. Higgins and DeDominicis were naturally placed on track together, as were the PGT teams of O'Sullivan/Dillon against Hull/Gallagher, and Roper/Beavis against Roessler/Chizma.

In the last two runs, however, because the CRS championship was on the line, O'Sullivan/Dillon raced against Plsek/Burmeister. Whoever won the last mile-long SuperStage would claim the championship. When it came down to the wire, they posted identical scores--an absolute tie--forcing the tie-breaking rules to go into effect and naming O'Sullivan the 2001 CRS champion.

As for Olson's bid for the co-driver title, her driver Byford held his own against Chizma on the first two runs, but overcooked it on the third run and spun out, thus dashing her hopes for the title. Dave Turner fell the furthest on Sunday's stages, losing a position after almost every run. He and Mike McComas eventually dropped from sixth overall to ninth, just one second behind Keith Roper and Chrissy Beavis. Despite transmission problems, Larry Roessler and new co-driver Dennis Chizma soldiered on, enabling Roessler to finish his maiden rally third in PGT, thirty seconds adrift of Roger Hull and Sean Gallagher.

Nor was the front of the pack immune from drama. The Subaru of Higgins and Holter proved reluctant to start. The crew frantically swapped out the PCM and other electronic components, drained all the race gas and replaced it with pump gas, but still the car didn't want to run. Though it finally ignited, they decided they couldn't risk another failure. As long as it ran it seemed okay, so between stages they slowly drove the car all around the back lot behind the venue.

If you read the first paragraph you already know the end of the story. What you may not know is that people came from far and wide, not only to compete, but to support the rally. The Tabor Rally Team, associate with the Oregon Rally Group, Scott Clukey, Scott and Toni Dicks, Kengo Takahashi, Bill Jones, math professor Barbara Shabell, and many, many other workers all pulled together to make this event another success. Competitors came from Connecticut, Colorado, England, Arizona, Italy, New Mexico and all around California for a chance to race on the most spectacular scenery a rally has to offer. And, in the end, the American Rally Sport Group handed out 25,000 dollars in cash to the winners. It was a great way to conclude the 2001 rally season.

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