Rally competitors, husband and wife team of Kristopher & Christine Marciniak, will be once again running a regional rally on the CRS calendar for 2010. The High Desert Trails Rally will be a fun, affordable event. The rally will be held in Ridgecrest, California on Saturday, April 17th, 2010.
We’ll have a single pass caravan reconnaissance you can do in your rally vehicle, along with organizer supplied stage notes! An open service is planned after each stage to give you plenty of time to get your machine back on the course. Planning on attending the CRS Rally School? This event will be a great place to practice your driving, note calling, and newly acquired rally skills. Plus, we’ll be giving those drivers, co-drivers, and riders a discount for completing this year’s school!
Held just outside of town at the Ridgecrest motorsports park, the course is a 6 mile stage that has it all: fast and flowing sections, tight and technical, smooth and sandy. All freshly graded and ready to run. The day will be a coefficient 2 event. It will be open to all vehicles meeting NASA RallySport requirements, including RallyMoto bikes!
Are you ready for a fun, low pressure event? Are you ready to work on reading or driving with stage notes? Are you ready to practice what you learned at the rally school? Want to shake down your rally car or bike for the 2010 season? The High Desert Trails Rally in Ridgecrest California is the place! Stay tuned to our website at highdeserttrails.com for event info and registration. We can be contacted through email at: rally@highdeserttrails.com
Early entry will open (tomorrow) Monday, February 8th, 2010 - Click here for event pricing and details.
Posted in: Press Release.
Plans are in the works for the High Desert Trails 2010 event! We’ll have a date announcement and more information coming soon. In the mean time we want wish everyone a great holiday season and a happy and healthy new year! - Kris & Christine
Posted in: Competitor, Press Release, Rally, Spectator, Volunteer.
We’re back from a fantastic weekend in Ridgecrest! We would like to thank all the competitors for coming out. Congratulations go out to Bill Holmes & Sean Gallagher for the overall win. Consistent all day, the team did run into some fuel pump issues and needed every minute of service to get it going for the second event. The experienced team got it together and they took the win, as well as collected some Group 5 points for the CRS Championship.
Second place overall in their Open Class Subaru WRX, Keith Jackson & Marra Estep were quite fast even while Marra was gaining experience reading notes. Bill Holmes even commented that he had to “stay fast” in order to keep ahead of the AWD Subaru. They take home points for the CRS Open Class in both events.
First in CRS-GT in both events was Kevin Welker & Nolan Sambrano driving a non-turbo Subaru Impreza. You would think they had a boost from a turbo with their stage times that were right up in the top five all day. Their experience showed as the team had a solid running here, and they have collected a lot of CRS-GT points already this season!
First in the hotly contested Group 2 Class was Aurimas (Odi) Bakchis & Amy Bakchis. The team pushed their non-turbo Mitsubishi Eclipse hard and suffered no major mechanical issues at this event. Look for the team to continue to do well this season! Second place went to a new team driving their Nissan Sentra - Chris Palermo & Jeremy Fry. Doing well with their second rally and first time on notes.
The CRS P-Stock class had an event tie with John Black & Kacie Webb winning the first event with their Ford Ranger, and Chuck Wilson & Aaron Laeng taking the top spot back for the second event in their Toyota Corola FX. Both these teams expressed how much fun they had at High Desert Trails, and we’re glad they could come out.
The rally kick started the CRS-Moto (Bikes) Championship with two entries. Roger Eggars finished both events and took the points for the Over 800 class in a 1200cc BMW. Andrew Sutherland finished both events and took the points home for the Under 800 class in a KTM Enduro. We hope to see them out on the stages again this year!
One team that I would like to personally mention is the team of Jack Szanto and Katianna Pihakari. As first time organizers we were humbled to see the excitement of this team. A novice team that had never run notes at our novice rally offering them - it was a perfect fit. Even though they were only able to finish the first event, they described the feeling a team gets when a co-driver and a driver are on pace and driving to the best of their ability together. This resonated with us, and I believe they understand why Christine and I feel so strongly about notes and team building in the rally car. We hope that all of you continue to practice what you learned at High Desert Trails and we hope to see you out there next year!
Thanks to ALL the teams for coming out and having fun with us!
- Kristopher & Christine Marciniak
High Desert Trails Organizers
Posted in: Competitor, Press Release, Rally.
Receiving a great competitor turnout, the High Desert Trails Rally will be run this weekend, Saturday, February 21st, 2009 in Ridgecrest, California. The high turnout actually forced a slight change in schedule. Co-Organizer Kristopher Marciniak explains, “As a novice style event, run at a small private venue, we were looking for around fifteen competitors. Once the numbers went up to twenty, we had to re-evaluate the schedule. In order to keep the eight stages and 45 event miles from going into the late evening, we’re going to get started a little earlier and try to stick with one minute intervals.”
Teams are in for a couple of fun surprises as the course was altered and lengthened just before this event. The rally will also use a twisty section of road not previously used in competition. To prepare them for this, all cars will be provided stage notes, and will be doing a single pass reconnaissance just before the event. A recce and notes class will be offered Friday night by Co-Organizer and National Championship winning Co-Driver, Christine Marciniak. “I’m excited to give teams that have never run notes the opportunity to use them in a low-pressure event,” explains Christine.
Even though this is a low pressure event, look for this to be the launch pad for some of these teams in their quest for a 2009 California Rally Series Championship. Real time scoring will be provided by the CRS and can be found at: http://rallydata.com
The course is ready, the notes are printed, and the stage is set.
Twenty teams will challenge the High Desert Trails, and look to have a fantastic weekend in Ridgecrest!
Posted in: Press Release.
Feb 17th, 2009
by Christine.
Regular entry ends Wednesday, February 18th! This is the last date that you will be able to pay the regular entry price of $375 for cars or $200 for bikes. We remind ALL competitors that this is the last opportunity to mail out a check (as per the supplemental regulations). Online payment with a credit card through PayPal will be available through Friday. However, after Wednesday, late entry fees of $425 for cars or $225 for bikes go into effect. We will accept payments of cash at the event, and may have the capability to accept credit card payments through PayPal.
The $25 discount for all CRS Rally School participants will continue apply through the end of late entry.
Posted in: Competitor, Rally.
Version 3 of the High Desert Trails Rally Supplemental Regulations are now available. Please be aware of the highlighted changes.
HDT Supps v3.pdf
The updates mostly pertain to the fact that we are starting 30 minutes earlier in the day, and are going to be using 1 minute intervals. This is directly due to the amazing competitor turnout for the rally! We chose getting up a little earlier and running short intervals in a typically windy location (no lingering dust) over dropping stage miles.
Any competitors wishing to take advantage of late registration are HIGHLY encouraged to scan and email copies of the required entry information to the registrars PRIOR to the event. We also ask that if you need to apply for or renew any membership or license that you bring the completed paperwork with you to registration. Copies of all applications can be found on the competitors page.
Other changes include an addition to Friday evening: Christine will be giving a stage notes orientation & recce class (open to all competitors), just before the NCO (Novice Competitor Orientation). The NCO will be led by our CRO (Competitor Relations Officer), Michel Hoche-Mong. Both classes will take place at the Heritage Inn & Suites, with the exact room number to be announced at registration.
The new schedule can be found here: HDT Schedule 2009v2.pdf
The new stage schedule can be found here: HDT Stage Schedule.pdf
Spectator Information: HDT Spectator Guide.pdf
High Desert Trails Stage Map: Satellite Version / Printable Version
All currently published HDT documents can be found in /downloads/
You have now been so informed!
Posted in: Competitor, Rally, Spectator, Volunteer.
If there was any question: We have hit our budget goals, and the rally is on! Allow me to take a second and thank all those who signed up and got their payment in for the early entry. As first time organizers, this was a big help.
We have a good field of Group 2 and Group 5 cars. Maybe we can get another Open class entry to round out the competition? We’ve been working hard to get the CRS Moto championship kick started for 2009. We have 3 Moto entries - and are certainly looking for more, although we did have to expire the $100 entry fee offer. 
If you have friends that ride, be sure to tell them how exciting and different a rally is compared to a desert race or trail riding.
Over the weekend we were able to refine and complete the stage notes. The rain after the grading has really helped put the course into top shape. It will also help firm up the new 1/2 mile section of road graded just for HDT! We were able to drive the whole course in our RWD Blazer with street tires, which is something we would not have been able to do two weeks ago. Mark and his team have done a great job working on the stage and pulling out any big rocks.
Version 2 of the supps, a preliminary stage schedule, and sample time cards have been posted in the competitor area. If you have any questions please let us know! If not - we’ll see you in less then 2 weeks! 
Posted in: Competitor, Rally.
Feb 5th, 2009
by Christine.
Early entry ends Monday, February 9th! This is the last date that you will be able to pay the early entry price ($325 for cars) online through PayPal or to get your checks postmarked by. We remind ALL competitors that if their names are not on the entry list at this point in time, their entry will not be counted for the number of trophies that will be ordered (as per the supplemental regulations). After Monday, regular entry fees ($375 for cars) go into effect.
We want to remind Moto riders that our offer to lower the early entry moto fee to $100 for ADV riders (from $175) will also expire on Monday (and go up to $200). At that point, the early entry fee and all moto fees will stay at the previously published amounts.
The $25 discount for all CRS Rally School participants will continue apply through the end of late entry.
Finally, a reminder to all competitors, volunteers, and spectators: the lowered rate and reserved block of rooms at the host hotel (the Heritage Inn and Suites) will also expire on Monday, and the rooms will be released. So if you have not made your reservations already, please do so as soon as possible!
FYI: We just talked to the property owners, and the roads were just worked on - freshly graded and a brand new section cut JUST for HDT. So come out and play on a new course!
Posted in: Competitor, Rally, Spectator, Volunteer.
We are pleased to announce that Checkpoint Racing has pledged its support for the 2009 High Desert Trails Rally. Checkpoint Racing carries hundreds of items for your racing and rally needs. From tires to trip computers, they have it! Visit Checkpoint Racing at cp-racing.com.
We would like to personally thank Mitch and the gang from cp-racing for supporting us!
- Kris & Christine
Posted in: Press Release, Rally.
