High Desert Trails

The organizers would like to welcome and thank the supporters for this years event:

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.

High Desert Trails Rally Organizers Kristopher Marciniak and Christine Marciniak are pleased to announce that they will be using new roads for the April 9th, 2011 event. Announced this week with a Google Earth Rally Road Fly-Over video, the new stages were revealed in a spectacular visual that had viewers asking about the cost of the aviation fuel. The video was created and edited entirely on the computer using Google Earth and some free video capture software. From flowing desert landscapes to up-hill hairpins, the full length video can be seen here on YouTube.

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