The competition amongst the top teams in the CRS-2 class can only be described as epic. Three extremely talented drivers were within seconds of each other throughout the event, and the leader board seemed to change with every stage. At the end of the day, Michel Hoche-Mong and Marie Boyd secured the top spot in their VW Golf (and second place overall), ahead of George Doganis and Tom Smith in a Honda Civic (who finished third overall). 2010 rookies of the year Gaylord Van Brocklin and Steve Secviar were on maximum attack from start to finish (and then some). They crossed the flying finish of the last stage fast enough to take first place, but perhaps too fast to negotiate the next corner. Immediately after the finish they lost control of their VW Golf going over a crest and went off in spectacular fashion, cartwheeling down the hill in full view of the finish control workers. The team emerged unscathed, but would end up officially scored as a “Did Not Finish” as they were unable to complete the final transit. Inheriting third place in CRS-2 were Eddie Fiorelli and Brent Ellzey in the rally debut of their VW Golf.

Hakan Okcuoglu took first place in Open 4WD (and fourth place overall) in his Mitsubishi Eclipse. Mitsubishi seemed to be the manufacturer of choice in this class, with Vartan Samuelian and Lawrence Babahekian scoring second place points in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

CRS-GT, the production-based four wheel drive class, was won by Paul Willemsen and Travis Bos in their Subaru Impreza WRX. The event marked Paul’s return to rally after a several year hiatus. He proved he did not lose much speed during the break as he finished over two minutes ahead of 2010 CRS-GT champions Kevin Welker and Nolan Sambrano in their Subaru Impreza.

Performance-Stock was also won by a driver coming off a multi-year hiatus. Tony Chavez and Raquel Salas drove their VW Golf to a P-Stock victory in a close battle with John Black and Lori Stone in their Ford Ranger. The second place finish is enough for Black/Stone to maintain their lead in the championship thanks to a strong finish.

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.

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.

Teams immediately stepped up to that challenge by taking the twenty reserved car spots, and when RallyMoto entries failed to appear, the organizers moved swiftly to reallocate those spots, maxing the event at thirty cars. Notable entries for this years rally include: Top drivers, Doug Chernis and George Plsek, who will each be piloting AWD turbo monsters, but Bill Holmes will also be pushing for the overall win in his powerful RWD Ford F-150 – having won this event in the past. In CRS-2, last years winner, Gaylord Van Brocklin, (pictured) will be defending against the very consistent George Doganis. Don’t be surprised to see any of these drivers on the podium.

The route will take competitors up twisty switchbacks and over ridgelines of hard-packed, wide, dirt roads. This is followed by a fast flowing route that rises up out of a valley and descends sharply onto a short section of tarmac. Over sixty miles of stages with a one hour service stop should make a great day of rallying!

Rally-Tire.com will once again be helping us with gear for the event and this year have offered their national contingency to our regional event! What does this mean for our competitors? Run a Rally-Tire.com sticker set and be eligible for a $250 gift certificate raffle in 2WD and 4WD. That’s two $250 gift certificates (1 raffle for 4wd, 1 raffle for 2wd) as contingency winnings for cars displaying rally-tire.com decals on both front fenders.

Streetwise Motorsports is a new web site supporter this year, but has helped us in the past by providing event stickers and personnel. They will be doing the same this year and we appreciate the help! Check out streetwiseparts.com for your race and rally prep needs.

The Prescott Rally is offering a raffle prize for a ½ priced entry to the 2011 Prescott Rally! ½ price will be calculated when the Prescott Rally entry is paid and the winner must be present at the High Desert Trails awards to win. Prize is not transferable and does not have any cash value. Prize will be drawn from car competitors (drivers) who started the 2011 High Desert Trails Rally.

Kris will be introducing communicators to the exciting sport of stage rally and will have an action packed demonstration that should not be missed! Performance rally could not take place in this country without the help of amateur radio. See how communicators keep the rally running on time and the competitors safe. Learn what little equipment you’ll need to become a volunteer. Learn what it takes to work an active stage.

The organizers utilized this medium for a couple of reasons as Kris explains: “These are totally new roads for the rally and we wanted them to speak for themselves. I can describe a stage to someone, but when you see the terrain and the road in three dimensions, it gives you a clear indication of how awesome these roads are. Now that you have a complete picture, I think you’ll definitely want to participate.”

In the spirit of blind rallies of old, the exact roads, route, and stages will not be disclosed to the competitors until the organizer provided stage notes hit co-drivers hands. What we can tell you is this: The roads are a comfortable distance from rally headquarters in Ridgecrest, California. The event will be a Coeffecient 3 (at least 60 stage miles) with a central service location. The organizing team has been working with the county and other local interest groups to secure the use of the roads. To celebrate our history, High Desert Trails will be offering a “Special Invitation Early Entry Fee” for those of you that have run High Desert Trails in the past (1973-2010), we will be offering a discounted early entry fee. All you will need is verifiable documentation that you were on the entry list and started the High Desert Trails Rally anytime in the past thirty seven years. More details will be available on the rally website as we get closer to the event. We hope you can join us!

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!

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.

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