Los Angeles – The California Rally Series (CRS) kicked off its 44^th season with the High Desert Trails Rally on May 4^th and 5^th. The rally switched to a two-day format for 2018, with a double-points (coefficient 2) event going into the night on Friday followed by a triple-points (coefficient 3) event on Saturday. The rally ran on the same roads as previous years, with stages ranging from ultra-fast blasts across a desert valley to twisty mountain roads that had teams dodging through Sequoia trees.

Last year’s Open class champion Flynn Baglin teamed up with co-driver Alix Hakala for the season opener. They were plagued by strut issues al weekend, but managed to hold on and finish the weekend at the top of the class. Baglin will start 2018 with the points lead in the driver’s championship, although Hakala is second behind Sean McElwain, who co-drove for a non-points eligible driver. Deke Williams also had a new voice calling notes, veteran co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino, but were the victims of bad luck when they had just managed to take the lead from Baglin/Hakala when their Subaru’s engine blew up on the second to last stage Friday night. A similar fate befell Santiago Caballero and co-driver Chris Fine when they found themselves leading the rally on Saturday only to have a busted tie rod end their day with only a few stages to go.

2017 Open Lite (the normally-aspirated four-wheel drive class) champions Kurt Northrup and co-driver Will Smith kept their streak alive and walked away with maximum points for the weekend in their Subaru Impreza. Second place went to Brent Blakely in his very first rally as a driver, with Robert Maselli sitting in the passenger seat. They had a clean run on Friday, but strut issues forced them to withdraw from Saturday’s rally.

In the large-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-5 class, top points went to Fred Hatch and co-driver Charles Grabow in their Ford Fiesta. Their speed improved all weekend, culminating in them throwing down the best two-wheel drive on the last stage of the rally. Second place class points went to Corbin Beu in his Mazda RX-7, who teamed up with co-driver Riley Trout for this event.

The small-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-2 class might have some of the least powerful cars in the championship, but you wouldn’t know it from the stage times. Eddie Fiorelli and co-driver Brock Heinz were at maximum attack in their VW Golf GTI, winning the class on both Friday and Saturday’s rallies, while besting many of the more powerful four-wheel drive cars along the way. Just seconds behind in a similarly prepped VW Golf GTI were last year’s CRS-2 champions Erik Christiansen and co-driver Amy Floyd.

The production based two-wheel drive Performance Stock class has been a CRS staple since 1994, and continues to have a respectable turnout in 2018. Rookie driver Travis Fienhage walked away with the top points on both Friday and Saturday in his first rally event ever. He was paired up with one of the most experienced CRS co-drivers around - John Dillon in a Dodge Neon. Taking second place was Jen Stonecipher in a VW Golf GTI, with her co-driver husband Terry Stonecipher (who happens to have won this class as a driver over twenty years ago!). Marie Boyd emerges from the weekend leading the co-driver championship after sitting with a driver not participating in the CRS drivers' championship.

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 forty-four 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 @crspress on twitter.

Los Angeles – The 2018 California Rally Series (CRS) Rally Championship kicks off this weekend, May 4th and 5th, with the High Desert Trails Rally.  The rally takes place on smooth dirt roads outside of Ridgecrest, CA where teams race from the floor of a wide desert valley up a forested mountain, and back down again.  New for this year is a two day format, which offers a double-points (coefficient 2) event on Friday night and a triple points (coefficient 3) event on Saturday.

Twenty-six teams are scheduled to take the start Friday, with last year’s Open Class driver champion Flynn Baglin seeded at the top of the list in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI.  Baglin finished second here last year, so expect him to be pushing for the overall win. He is joined by veteran co-driver Alix Hakala. They will see tough competition from Deke Williams, also in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, who has teamed up with the very experienced co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino for this event.  Williams finished third in both last year’s rally and the Open Class championship, and will seek to improve on that in 2018.

In the normally-aspirated four-wheel drive Open Lite class, the current favorites are 2017 champions Kurt Northrup and co-driver Will Smith in their Subaru Impreza.  Northrup/Smith managed to take the top spot in Open Lite in every CRS event last year, so they will be determined to keep that streak alive. Ernie Manansala and co-driver Chong Pak are back after their rookie season in 2017.  Manansala got faster with each event last year; perhaps High Desert Trails will be his breakthrough event.

The large-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-5 class is experiencing something of a revival in the CRS with healthy participation last season extending into this rally.  Last year’s CRS-5 champion Andrew Cowan will be back in his VR6 VW Jetta, with a new co-driver for this event Nathan Lumley. The husband and wife team of Markus and Alicia Saarinen have been very fast in their supercharged Mini Cooper, but were plagued by mechanical issues last season.  Either one of these teams are fast enough to be battling for the overall podium.

In the small-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-2 class we have 2018 class champions Erik Christiansen and Amy Floyd returning to defend their crown.  They will be battling against last year’s runner-ups Eliza Coleman and co-driver Alex Gelsomino (of WRC-fame). 2017 was Coleman’s first season behind the wheel of a rally car and has shown increasing speed with each event.

Chris Palermo and co-driver Andres Bautista are the current favorites in the production-based two-wheel drive Performance Stock (P-Stock) class.  Palermo had a strong finish here last year, wining the class and taking fifth overall. However, he will see some tough competition from two-time P-Stock champion Sarkis Mazmanian, who returns after a brief hiatus.  His son, Michael Mazmanian, will be sitting in the co-driver seat of their Acura Integra. With seven entries, P-Stock is the largest class this weekend, so we should expect to see some respectable grassroots competition.

The High Desert Trails Rally was first run in 1973 on roads to the Southeast and West of Ridgecrest, CA.  This year’s event features over 100 stage miles over two days of competition. Located just two and a half hours north of Los Angeles, the competitor and spectator 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 @crspress on twitter.