ProRally: Maine Forest: Start order and late breaking news

Start Order & Late Breaking News:
SCCA ProRally Championship - Maine Forest

SUNDAY RIVER/RUMFORD, Maine A season high record of 96 cars are entered in the Maine Forest Rally, Round #7 of the 2002 ProRally Championship. All three Overall Championship Manufacturers (Hyundai, Subaru and Mitsubishi) are represented along with both of the Group 2 Manufacturers (Mazda and Mitsubishi). The two-day event will be held on privately owned lumber roads of the MeadWestvaco Paper Company, International Paper Company and Seven Islands Land Company in Western Maine, near the New Hampshire border. The Rally starts Friday afternoon, 26 July at 2:00 PM EST from downtown Rumford at the thrilling Mexico Recreation Park Spectator Stage, then promptly moves North into the breathtaking Maine woods.

Late Breaking News (driver/co-driver):

* Weather & Start Order: Much like last year's drought conditions, Maine is still very dry, and therefore first car on the road will remain a highly coveted position. Since last year, however, SCCA ProRally rules have been adjusted to help diminish that advantage somewhat, with all eight top-seeded drivers getting a 2-minute start window. In addition, the traditional Maine Forest stage-one reseeding has been eliminated by the SCCA ProRally Series Manager, Dan Coughnour, which may help curb some of the banzai driving seen last year on the very short ½ mile special stage as the top drivers fought for a dust-free restart position.

* At tonight's start-order draw, Canadian champion Tom McGeer drew top honors, hopefully a good omen after his disappointing DNF last year on stage 2.

* Jonny Milner, one of the UK's top ranked national drivers will be making his US rallying debut this weekend in one of Subaru Rally Team USA's backup cars. Milner, who regularly drives a Toyota Corolla WRC car in the UK, (winning the Rally of Wales in May) most recently won at the Swansea Bay National Rally driving a Hyundai WRC. Milner had some engine problems in testing earlier this week, but US Prodrive Motorsport Manager Ed Bentley made it clear that the car was completely sorted by this afternoon.

* More British Invasion: US Group N regular Craig Peeper is swapping co-driver's for Maine. With his regular navigator Ian Bevan away with other rally commitments, Peeper selected a top-drawer replacement in Andrew Dugdale, who is fresh from a win at the Malcolm Wilson Rally in the UK.

* This afternoon's shakedown stage brought out a large number of entries, both for testing purposes, and also to give teams still new to stage notes a chance to try them out at speed before the rally begins tomorrow afternoon. Looking impressive at shakedown were a very confident Mark Higgins and Michael Gibson in the Hyundai Tiburon, Gibson remarking that the car was feeling very solid.

*   SCCA ProRally: www.sccaprorally.org/

*   SCCA Maine Forest ProRally: www.maineforestrally.com

Information regarding the start order list:
Car # number on vehicle. Car # under 200 are ProRally entries. Car # over 200 are generally ClubRally (regional) entrants. Class Open, FIA Group N - fastest; are cars with considerable modifications; P (Production) - slowest; are cars very near to showroom stock configuration. G5 - two wheel drive high HP cars; G2 - two wheel drive normally aspirated cars; PGT - high horsepower all-wheel-drive production (stock) cars.

<pre> Maine Forest - SCCA ProRally Championship Round #7 26-27 July, 2002

Top 50 Start Order -subject to revision (complete start list available to view at www.maineforestrally.com)

St  #  Seed Class   Driver  Country  Co-Driver  Country         Car
1   17  0   Open    Tom McGeer  CAN Mark Williams   USA         02 Subaru Impreza WRX
2   5   0   Open    Mark Higgins    UK  Michael Gibson  UK      03 Hyundai Tiburon
3   16  0   Open    David Higgins   UK  Daniel Barritt  UK      02 Subaru Impreza WRX
4   6   0   Open    Paul Choiniere  USA Jeff Becker USA         03 Hyundai Tiburon
5   25  0   Open    Seamus Burke    USA Rory Kennedy    IRL     02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII
6   1   0   Open    Mark Lovell UK  Steve Turvey    UK          02 Subaru Impreza WRX
7   15  0   Open    Jonny Milner    UK  Duncan McMath   UK      02 Subaru Impreza WRX
8   87  0   Open    Frank Sprongl   CAN Dan Sprongl CAN         93 Ford Escort Cosworth
9   3   1   Open    Rhys Millen USA Garry Cowan NZ              02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII
10  2   1   Open    Ramana Lagemann USA Michael Kidd    UK      02 Subaru Impreza WRX
11  110 1   Open    Mark Nelson USA Charles Bradley USA         02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII
12  52  1   Open    Doug Shepherd   USA Pete Gladysz    USA     94 Mitsubishi Eclipse
13  39  1   Open    Carl Jardevall  USA Amity Trowbridge    USA 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV
14  107 1   Open    Tim Paterson    USA John Allen  USA         97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV
15  761 1   Open    Jon Nichols CAN Dave Shindle    USA         98 Subaru Impreza WRX
16  80  1   Open    Jon Kemp    USA Rod Hendricksen USA         89 Audi Quattro 4000
17  41  2   Open    John Drislane   USA Ronan Burke USA         00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI
18  22  1   GN      Ralph Kosmides  USA Jimmy Brandt    USA     99 Subaru Impreza WRX
19  30  2   Open    George Plsek    USA Joshua Bressem  USA     00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI
20  925 2   Open    Sakis Hadjiminas    USA Jose Vicente    USA 88 VW Fox
21  29  2   GN      Tim O'Neil  USA Martin Headland CAN         02 Subaru Impreza WRX
22  83  2   GN      Mark Utecht USA Jeff Secor  USA             02 Subaru Impreza WRX
23  971 2   GN      Brendan Cunningham  USA Paul McClean    USA 97 Subaru Impreza
24  857 2   GN      Peter Thomson   CAN                         02 Subaru Impeza WRX
25  119 2   GN      Peter Malaszuk  USA Darek Szerejko  USA     02 Subaru Impreza WRX
26  62  2   G5      Chris Havas USA Dave Kean   USA             00 VW Golf
27  914 3   Open    Noel Nash   USA                             97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV
28  891 3   Open    Randy Zimmer    USA Russell Strate  USA     93 Subaru Impreza
29  88  3   Open    Doug Havir  USA Scott Putnam    USA         02 Subaru Impreza WRX
30  64  3   Open    Sylvester Stepniewski   USA Adam Pelc   USA 87 Audi Quattro 4000
31  185 3   Open    Jon Bogert  USA Daphne Bogert   USA         88 Toyota Celica All-Trac
32  928 3   Open    Dean Fry    USA Greg Usavage    USA         90 Subaru Legacy
33  937 3   Open    Patrick Farrell USA Bob Kelly   IRL         00 Subaru Impreza
34  957 3   GN      Malachy Crawford    USA Mark McAllister USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX
35  103 3   GN      Wyeth Gubelmann USA Therin Pace USA         02 Subaru Impreza WRX
36  94  3   GN      Craig Peeper    USA Andrew Dugdale  UK      02 Subaru Impreza WRX
37  124 3   GN      Peter Workum    USA Alex Gelsomino  USA     97 Subaru Impreza
38  45  3   GN      Shane Mitchell  USA Paul Donnelly   USA     02 Subaru Impreza WRX
39  992 3   PGT     Bruce Perry USA Adrian Wintle   CAN         90 Eagle Talon
40  27  3   PGT     Greg Healey USA John MacLeod    USA         97 Subaru Impreza
41  851 3   PGT     Julien Pilon    CAN Marie-Eve Pilon CAN     02 Subaru Impreza WRX
42  755 3   PGT     Eoin McGeough   USA Jason Gillespie USA     92 Eagle Talon
43  166 3   G5      John Daubenmier USA Stanley Rosen   USA     88 Chevy S-10
44  90  3   G2      Lauchlin O'Sullivan USA Matt Chester    USA 02 Mitsubishi Lancer RMR
45  42  3   G2      Eric Burmeister USA Cindy Krolikowski   USA 01 Mazda Protege MP3
46  947 3   G2      William Bacon   USA Peter Watt  USA         97 Acura Integra
47  954 3   G2      Michael White   USA Chris Morand    USA     84 SAAB 99
48  266 3   G2      Scott Fuller    USA Jeff Call   USA         96 VW Golf
49  885 3   Prod    Ted Mendham USA Lise Mendham    USA         91 Nissan Sentra SER
50  79  3   Prod    Jeff Field  USA Dave Weiman USA             00 Toyota Celica

The SCCA ProRally Championship is presented by Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Subaru, and is televised in North America on SpeedChannel. Time and date listing information available at www.speedtv.com

The SCCA name and logo is a registered trademark of the Sports Car Club of America, Inc. ProRally, ClubRally and RallyCross are service marks of the SCCA.

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