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

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!

We would like to personally thank Mitch and the gang from cp-racing for supporting us!
- Kris & Christine

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! 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.

Held just outside of town at the Ridgecrest motorsports park, the course is a 6 mile loop 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 compact rally split into two coefficient one events. 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 2009 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