Los Angeles – The California Rally Series (CRS) Rally Championship returns to the mountains north of Boise, ID for the Idaho Rally International. The rally is back on the CRS calendar after a one year hiatus, but still has the same smooth and flowing roads that makes it a driver favorite. Competition takes place on June 22 and 23, 2019, with each day counting as a triple points event (Coefficient 3) towards the championship. The rally is the first of three sanctioned by the American Rally Association (ARA) on this year’s CRS calendar (along with Rally Colorado and Prescott Rally). Idaho Rally International also marks the first event of the CRS Side by Side Championship, followed by Rally Colorado and the Gorman Ridge Rally. The festivities will kick off with a parc expose at Larry Miller Subaru in Boise, ID between 4:30pm and 6:30pm Friday evening where the fans will have an opportunity to meet the teams and check out the rally cars.

Hot off their victory at the High Desert Trails Rally last month, Jason Cochell and co-driver Robert Maselli are leading the Open Four-Wheel Drive class with their Subaru Impreza. They will face stiff competition in Idaho from last year’s class winner Flynn Baglin who teams up again with co-driver Alix Hakala, in his Subaru Impreza STI.   Ernie Manasala made the move from Open Lite to Open Four-Wheel Drive at High Desert Trails but was forced to withdraw. He is teamed up with veteran co-driver John Dillon and is hoping for better luck in Idaho.

Kurt Northrup and co-driver Will Smith come into Idaho in a familiar position leading the normally aspirated four-wheel drive Open Lite class in their Subaru Impreza. Class rivals Michael Seidman and co-driver Tommy Luhrs, also in a Subaru Impreza, were just about matching their pace at the last event, but fell short by less than a minute. With so many points at stake in Idaho they could catapult into the class lead with a strong finish.

2017 CRS-5 champion Andrew Cowan started off the season with a win in the large-displacement two-wheel drive class. He will be looking to build on that lead at Idaho with his VR6 powered VW Jetta. He will face stiff competition from Brad Morris and co-driver Doug Nagy who are always a contender in their Mitsubishi Lancer.

The small displacement CRS-2 class always has a strong turnout. Erik Christiansen and co-driver Amy Floyd come into the event in the championship lead. Their VW Golf GTI will be up against Eliza Coleman and Andres Bautista in their Scion xD, as well as Kyle Mclennan and Tom Giese in a Ford Escort ZX2.

The Performance Stock (P-Stock) class is a CRS tradition, where lightly modified cars with Blue Book values less than $4,000 ensure the competition is more a battle of driver skill than all out power. The VW Golf GTI of Jen and Terry Stonecipher has been a mainstay in this class over the last few years. They return to the twisty stages of Idaho looking to take the fight to more powerful cars.

Side by Side (SxS) utility vehicles have exploded in popularity recently, and the California Rally Series has responded with dedicated classes for turbocharged and normally aspirated SxS vehicles. The tight and twisty Idaho stages are well suited to these short wheelbase vehicles, and it would not be surprising to see them in the front end of the field, especially with an experienced driver behind the wheel such as Stephane Verdier who will be in a Polaris RZR XPT.

The Idaho Rally International takes place June 22-23, and is based in Boise, ID and stages out of Idaho City, ID. The 2019 running of the rally features over 120 miles of smooth, twisty, and flowing stage roads. For more information and a spectator guide visit http://idahorally.org/.

The California Rally Series is the premier performance rally championship in the southwestern United States. The Series incorporates events from various sanctioning bodies in order to create a meaningful regional championship for its members. The Series celebrates more than 40 continuous years of performance rally, making it the longest running rally series in the United States. To learn more about the California Rally Series visit www.californiarallyseries.com and follow @californiarallyseries on Instagram.

Los Angeles – On Saturday May 4th, the high desert outside of Ridgecrest, CA saw an array of prepped rally cars racing from the valley floor to the forest on Mount Piute as the High Desert Trails Performance Rally kicked off the 45th season of the California Rally Series.  With high speed blasts down wide hard-packed dirt to sandy washes to switchbacks climbing the side of a mountain to tarmac s-curves, this rally is known for offering the most diverse stages in the championship.  Once again the course did not disappoint and despite no lack of blind turns and harrowing exposures, not a single team had an off that ended their rally.

In the Open Four-Wheel Drive class, Jason Cochell and co-driver Robert Maselli won the class and the rally overall in their Subaru Impreza.  The team had a dominating performance, setting either the fastest or second fastest time on every stage. They had close competition from 2018 Rookie of the Year and Performance Stock champ Travis Fienhage, who moved up into Open class for this event.  He and co-driver Ryan Dunham jumped into an early lead in the rally despite Fienhage only having owned his Subaru for barely a week. Unfortunately, a broken driveshaft left them stranded on the side of the road on stage 6 and they were unable to continue.

Open Lite, a class for normally aspirated four-wheel drive cars, has been dominated over the last couple of years by Kurt Northrup and co-driver Will Smith.  The team had a rough start, with electrical gremlins in their Subaru Impreza causing them to leave Parc Expose late, resulting in a two minute penalty. Once they got that sorted out, it was smooth sailing all the way to the finish.  They extended their winning streak, which goes all the way back to the start of 2017. However, runner ups Michael Seidman and co-driver Tommy Luhrs showed impressive pace on the last few stages in their Subaru Impreza. If that continues they will be championship contenders this season.

In the large-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-5 class, Andrew Cowan scored maximum points against all odds in what turned out to be a remarkable display of the “press on regardless” spirit.  His VW Jetta VR6 experienced a broken transmission mount, a heat shield fire, and a water pump failure, but the crew could not be stopped. They removed the hood before the last two stages to let the engine “air cool.”  Despite the extreme engine temperatures, the strategy worked and they drove it across the finish line, finishing ahead of the Mustang of Jason Hamilton and Ralph Pond.

Volkswagens also performed well in the smaller-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-2 class.  Last year’s runners up Erik Christiansen and co-driver Amy Floyd edged out their rivals Eddie Fiorelli and Marie Boyd for the class win.  Both teams pushed their VW Golf GTIs to the limit with less than a minute separating them after over an hour of stage time.

The Performance Stock class has been a fixture of the California Rally Series for decades, and participation remains strong in the low-cost two-wheel drive class.  Ryan Orr and co-driver Joel Forty held on for the win in their Nissan Sentra, which was ironically previously owned by second place class finisher Chris Palermo. Palermo switched to rear-wheel drive for this season with a freshly built Toyota Tacoma.  He and co-driver Erica Sachs finished second out five participants in the class.

The High Desert Trails Rally was first run in 1973 on roads to the Southeast and West of Ridgecrest, CA.  This year’s event featured over 80 stage miles of smooth stages from the desert floor to mountain switchbacks.  Located just two and a half hours north of Los Angeles, the competitor friendly format makes this a perfect season opener for the California Rally Series.  For more information on the High Desert Trails Rally, visit http://highdeserttrails.com.

The California Rally Series is the premier performance rally championship in the southwestern United States.  The Series incorporates events from various sanctioning bodies in order to create a meaningful regional championship for its members.  The Series celebrates more than 40 continuous years of performance rally, making it the longest running rally series in the United States.  To learn more about the California Rally Series visit www.californiarallyseries.com and follow @californiarallyseries on Instagram.