With top times all day, the Mitsubishi Evo #89 driven by Wolfgang Hoeck & Piers O’Hanlon set a fantastic pace for the entire rally and took 1st overall. Piers remarked later, “I do think the rally met its stated goals – being a great beginner rally for novice teams, while still being a fun challenge for more experienced teams. It was good to have the old Mozart Racing team back together again.” For the first three stages the Subaru WRX #200 driven by Jon Burke and Brian Hamblin were keeping up when a massive oil leak forced them to withdraw. This opened the door to Timo Hayosh & Eric Olson in their 4WD Toyota Tacoma to claim 2nd overall for the day! Rounding out the podium and 1st in CRS-GT was Kevin Welker & Nolan Sambrano in their Subaru Impreza.

In RallyMoto™ the fastest bike of the day was Chris Martin’s KTM EXC #2 in the Under 800 class. Setting times that kept up with the top three cars, he was only to be beaten once on SS3 by Andrew Sutherland with his KTM Enduro #24. Ken Wahlster finished 1st in the BikeBandit.com CRS-Moto Over 800 class with his KTM 950 SE R #41.

In CRS-2, the Volkswagen Golf #78 driven by Gaylord Van Brocklin & Steve Secviar showed what they could do in their second rally ever. They won 1st in class and 4th overall, just edging out 1st in class CRS P-Stock competitors Michel Hoche-Mong & Marie Boyd’s Volkswagen Golf #31, who got a flat on SS6. Rounding out the large CRS-2 field, 2nd place went to the consistently driven Ford Escort #15 driven by Chuck Wilson & Jonathan Schiller.

Lots of fun was had last weekend in Ridgecrest, California. We would like to thank all the competitors, volunteers, and sponsors for making the 2010 High Desert Trails a big success!

Kristopher & Christine Marciniak
High Desert Trails Rally Organizers

Bill Holmes & Sean Gallagher who won overall last year will be competing with a new engine and they will have their work cut out for them as the 2006 USRC Champions Wolfgang Hoeck & Piers O’Hanlon showed up early on the entry list. Expect this event to be a launchpad for their 2010 championship battle. Other returning teams include production entries Alex Rademacher & John Stewart (pictured) and John Black & Brent Ellzey. Expect these guys to be trading stage times. Last year’s winning GT class Subaru Impreza driven by Kevin Welker & Nolan Sambrano will again be out on the course, this year with some new competition from Katianna Pihakari and national championship winning co-driver John Dillon. Chuck Wilson, who won G5 last year has switched to his new G2 Ford Escort with a new but very experienced co-driver Jonathan Schiller. Look for Wilson to put down consistent times all day.

In RallyMoto, Andrew Sutherland and Roger Eggers are both back this year to defend their 2009 titles against 4 new riders: Chris Martin, Les Martin, Ken Wahlster, and Raphael Bertolus.The High Desert Trails kicks off the 2010 California Rally Series Moto Championship!

Over 50 volunteers will be out on the stages this year helping to make this event run. The rally would like to thank those who have signed up as volunteers, the South Orange Amateur Radio Association, Checkpoint Racing, and Rally-Tire.com for their support. Without the support and donations from these organizations, this rally would not run.

Spectators will see tons of action from the Palapa this year and are encouraged to download the spectator guide from our website. http://highdeserttrails.com/spectators/

The stages are in great shape after grading and rains. The teams are all ready to go. Please join us for a great day of rally action in the High Desert!

The 2010 Stage Schedule is also available: HDT Stage Schedule 2010.pdf

Are you ready to challenge the High Desert Trails? The rally competition is now at 17 entries for cars and 6 entries for bikes. We need a couple more entries to comfortably make our budget, but 25 days out with a high number of paid entries is fantastic and we want to thank the competitors that got their entry payments in early.

High Desert Trails wants to thank the outstanding services of Paula Gibeault and Chuck Griffin for the grading! The course has many different sections, some are nice hard-packed fast sections, some are sandy soft sections that rocks will pop out of. There are tricky tight areas that are a blast to drive on. There are sandy areas that you’re going to have to use your skill to get through. There is a pretty decent straightaway that you will to want to go really fast on. We have mitigated the trouble spot hairpin(s) that used to be directly in the bottom of the wash. These stages are a good challenge and a lot of fun!

SpringHill Suites Marriott
113 E. Sydnor Avenue
Ridgecrest, CA 93555
(760) 446-1630
Website for the SpringHill Suites

When making reservations mention:

The High Desert Trails Rally Group Rate!
The Queen Suite sleeps 6 -$99*
The King Suite sleeps 4 – $99*
* plus tax

There are many additional hotels in Ridgecrest to choose from with rates ranging from $50-$150 per night.

Photos – Updated 2/26/2009
High Desert Trails Rally 2009 Gallery – Taken by John Dillon
HDT flickr photo set – Taken by Loren Bench
HDT flickr photo set #1 – By Rally Innovations
HDT flickr photo set #2 – By Rally Innovations
HDT Kodak Gallery – By Richard K6RBS

Videos – Updated 2/26/2009
HDT09_SRT4_SzantoPihakari
HDT SS5 – Kevin Welker #77 Rally Innovations
HDT SS2 – Kevin Welker #77 Rally Innovations
HDT SS3 – Kevin Welker #77 Rally Innovations

If you have pictures or video of the event posted – comment or send us the link!