Los Angeles – The California Rally Series heads to Northern California with the Mendocino Rally on August 4th, 2012. Fourteen teams are set to compete on fifty miles of twisty hard packed dirt roads outside of Ukiah, CA. New for 2012, teams will be provided with stage notes to help them navigate the extremely technical course. With over ten lines of instructions per miles, co-drivers will definitely have their work cut out for them!
The top seeded team is Alex Rademacher and Jeana Yi, who won the event last year in their Subaru Impreza. The team will be looking to redeem themselves after a mistake at the last event in North Nevada caused them to get stuck off the road and cost them an overall victory. They will face stiff competition in the production-based four-wheel drive CRS-GT class from Aaron Ekinaka and Marra Estep, also competing in a Subaru Impreza. Ekinaka hasn’t competed since the Gorman Rally last Summer, but he took the class win over Rademacher at that event, so expect a tight battle between the two Impreza drivers at Mendocino. Also fighting for class points are Ray Piloto in his Subaru and Michael Carnes and Reza Yazdani in their Audi 4000CS.
Michel Hoche-Mong is the current points leader in the small-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-2 class, and is a favorite to extend his lead. Look for him to be pushing his VW Golf to its limits in a fight for the overall podium. Meanwhile, the team of Erik Christiansen/Amy Floyd, also in a VW Golf, will also be pushing to score championship class points in order to move up the leaderboard.
In the production-based two-wheel drive P-Stock class, the two teams who have been battling all season will be at it again in Mendocino. Sarkis Mazmanian currently has a narrow lead in the year end points total. He is teaming up with veteran co-driver John Dillon in hopes of taking the class win in their Acura Integra. Hoping to usurp the lead is John Black, who pairs up once again with Lori Stone in their Ford Ranger. The two drivers have been trading stage times all season long, so the class competition should be extremely close.
The 2012 Mendocino Rally is based in Ukiah, CA. The rally features nearly 50 miles of hard-packed twisty stages contained within the South Cow Mountain off-road vehicle park. For more information on the Mendocino Rally visit http://www.mendocinorally.com.
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