Los Angeles – The second event of the 2012 California Rally Series (CRS) Championship took place on June 9 and 10 at the Idaho Rally, based in Boise, ID. The rally featured ten competitive hard packed dirt and gravel stages in the nearby mountains and forests over two days. Unseasonably cold weather saw snowflakes falling at the higher elevations, a rare occurrenceduring California Rally Series events. The frigid conditions left many teams scrambling for proper tires, as nearly everyone brought hard compounds, expecting a typical summer rally. Consequently many teams started the event with less than ideal equipment.

The hottest competition of the weekend was in the production-based two-wheel drive “Performance Stock” class, which has become a CRS mainstay over the past decades. Taking the victory on the Saturday event were Sarkis Mazmanian and Arin Hovsepain in their Acura Integra. After over an hour of competitive driving, they edged out John Black and Lori Stone in their Ford Ranger by only three minutes. The tables were turned on Sunday though, when Black/Stone fought back to best Mazmanian/Hovsepain by just 40 seconds and claim the class win. The Saturday victory means Mazmanian and Hovsepain hold the P-Stock championship lead going into the next event.

The small-displacement two-wheel drive CRS-2 class is typically one of the more popular classes to watch, and once again represented the largest field in the event. The class started off with an extremely tight battle between Michel Hoche-Mong and the team of Sean Lane and Christian Coulter who nearly matched Hoche-Mong’s pace on the first stage. Lane/Coulter pushed even harder on stage two, but perhaps a little too hard as they went off the road and rolled their Dodge Neon, ending their weekend. Bad luck also befell the next nearest class competitors Chuck Wilson and Brent Ellzey, who also went off the road in their Ford Escort, forcing them to withdraw on Saturday after stage 2. Despite the withdrawal of his class competitors, Hoche-Mong did not cruise to the finish, but continued to push his VW Golf GTI to the limit. He set the fastest two-wheel drive times on every single stage, both Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, Wilson/Ellzey were able to rejoin for Sunday’s event, where they took second place in class to Hoche-Mong.

In the production based four-wheel drive CRS-GT class, Alex Rademacher and Jeanne Yi continued their winning streak from the previous event, claiming the class win in their Subaru Impreza on both Saturday and Sunday. Their rally was not without challenges, as an impact with a rock caused a flat tire and severe alignment issues on stage two. The team made repairs in service and were able to continue, making up time over the subsequent stages.

The California Rally Series championship continues July 6-7 with the North Nevada Rally, based in Fernley, NV. The upcoming event features 120 miles of smooth gravel stage with challenging switchbacks. The Friday stages southwest of Lovelock, NV start before sundown, and then competitors run them in reverse direction after dark. Saturday the competitors return to the well-known stages near Gerlach, featuring sandy washes, big jumps and tight, tricky turns. For more information on the North Nevada Rally, visit http://www.northnevadarally.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 35 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.

California Rally Series
Press Liaison: Erik Christiansen
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www.californiarallyseries.com

Banner photo credit: Seana Christine

Los Angeles – The 2012 California Rally Series (CRS) started off with a packed field of twenty-four teams competing at the High Desert Trails Rally. Based in Ridgecrest, CA, the rally featured high-speed hard packed dirt stages with sections of tarmac.

Keith Jackson and Marra Estep returned to the CRS in their Subaru WRX STI after taking a hiatus from the stages last year. The team showed no sign of being rusty, as they dominated the event right from the start. They won all eight stages outright, to cement not only their win in the Open four-wheel drive class but also a cash prize of $100 for fastest four-wheel drive on the new for 2012 Dirftish Power Stage. Finishing second in class were Cem Akdeniz and Mustafa Samli in another Subaru Impreza. 2011 class champion Jon Burke and co-driver Zachery Dickinson were running in a solid second place for the first half of the event before breaking down on stage five.

Last year’s event winners Bill Holmes and Sean Gallagher were once again blisteringly fast in their Ford F-150. The team took the CRS-5 (large displacement, two-wheel drive) class win, as well as the $100 cash prize for fastest two-wheel drive on the Dirftish Power Stage, and finished an impressive second overall.

The small-displacement, two-wheel drive class (CRS-2) was dominated by the team of Eddie Fiorelli and Tom Smith in their Volkswagen Golf GTI. They finished a full three and a half minutes ahead of second place finishers Sean Lane and Christian Coulter in their Dodge Neon, who narrowly edged out the Mitsubishi Galant of Javier Olivarez by less than a minute.

The production-based, four-wheel drive CRS-GT saw the closest battle of the event, with 2011 champions Alex Rademacher and Jeana Yi taking the win in their Subaru Impreza by less than a minute over fellow Subaru drivers Leelyn Pritchard and Logan Mineer. The two teams traded stage times all day long, pushing each other to finish third and fourth overall.

For the second year in a row, the production-based two-wheel drive class win went to CRS veteran Tony Chavez and his navigator Raquel Salas. Chavez & Salas were so fast they managed to beat even the CRS-2 teams on the last few stages, including setting a shockingly fast time on the Dirftish Power Stage. The team pedaled their VW Golf to an over seven minute lead ahead of the second place team Sarkis Mazmanian and Arin Hovsepian in their Acura Integra.

The CRS championship moves from the deserts of southern California to the mountains of Idaho for the next event on the calendar, the Idaho Rally International, June 9 & 10. The two day event features over 100 miles of twisty, hard packed stages that attracts teams from all over the Western United States.

The High Desert Trails Rally was first run in 1973 on roads to the southeast and west of Ridgecrest, CA. After running for the past two years at a motorsports facility on the edge of town, the rally moved to some never before run roads for 2011. For more information on the High Desert Trails Rally, visit http://highdeserttrails.com and follow @crspress on twitter.

Download the press release here.