RALLY: ProRally: Ojibwe Forests: Start order, late breaking news

BEMIDJI, Minnesota A highly competitive field of 52 cars are entered into the Ojibwe Forests Rally, Round #8 of the 2002 ProRally Championship, and another 25 in the supporting 10,000 Lakes and Paul Bunyan's Ride ClubRallys. All three Overall Championship Manufacturers (Hyundai, Subaru and Mitsubishi) are represented along with both of the Group 2 Manufacturers (Mazda and Mitsubishi). Known for its fast speeds, smooth roads and frequent 'yumps' that demands unflinching concentration, Ojibwe Forests, according to several overseas observers and participants here this weekend, is as close to rallying in Finland as you can get in the United States.

Late Breaking News:
· Big change at the front of the pack - Hyundai driver Mark Higgins' long-time co-driver Michael Gibson was seriously injured last weekend at an Irish rally, fracturing a lower vertebrae - and will be out for at least for at least the next two ProRally Championship events. A full recovery is expected, and Michael should be back in the right seat for the season ender at Lake Superior. In his place for the next two rounds is UK co-driver Claire Mole, a former British Rally Championship title-holder, her most recent experience has been in the Super 1600.

· While the average age of performance rallyists in this country has plummeted in the past 5 years, this is still a sport with plenty of elder statesmen (and women) that are very active. The top of the list is easy to pick - North American rally legend John Buffum has been working the business of performance rallying as long as it has existed in this country - but others on the list might not be as easy to identify. Retired schoolteacher, and Ojibwe Forests Rally founder Bob Nielsen (#98) is celebrating his 25th year in rallying this weekend, and Jimmy Brandt (#22) has more years than that as a co-driver. Doug Shepherd and Joe Andreini (#52) Dave Weiman (#86) and former ProRally Series Manager John McArthur (#77) also have their roots in rallying back in the mid-70's.

· The weather for this years running of the northern Minnesota event is markedly different from past years, with a cooling blast of Canadian air keeping temps in the mid-70s in the day-time, possibly dropping into the lower 50s at night. Scattered thundershowers are also on the weather forecast - although last year a similar prediction turned into a fierce hailstorm on SS1.

Web sites: · SCCA ProRally: http://www.sccaprorally.org/
· Ojibwe Forests official site: http://www.ojibweforestsrally.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 Groups A, 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> Top 50 Start Order - subject to revision (Balance of entry list available to view at www.ojibweforestsrally.com) St Car Seed Class Driver Country Co-Driver Country Car 1 16 0 Open David Higgins UK Daniel Barritt UK 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 2 1 0 Open Mark Lovell UK Steve Turvey UK 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 3 6 0 Open Paul Choiniere USA Jeff Becker USA 03 Hyundai Tiburon 4 5 0 Open Mark Higgins UK Claire Mole UK 03 Hyundai Tiburon 5 25 0 Open Seamus Burke USA Rory Kennedy IRL 02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 6 3 1 Open Rhys Millen USA Garry Cowan NZ 02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 7 2 1 Open Ramana Lagemann USA Michael Kidd UK 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 8 12 FIA-B GA John Lloyd UK Pauline Gullick UK 96 Subaru Impreza 9 88 3 Open Doug Havir USA Scott Putnam USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 10 32 1 Open Paul Ekund USA Scott Huhn USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 11 110 1 Open Mark Nelson USA Charles Bradley USA 02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 12 50 1 Open Steve Gingras USA Christian Edstrom USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 13 44 1 GN Henry Krolikowski USA Cindy Krolikowski USA 00 Subaru Impreza WRX-STi 14 22 1 GN Ralph Kosmides USA Jimmy Brandt USA 99 Subaru Impreza WRX 15 52 1 Open Doug Shepherd USA Joe Andreini USA 02 Dodge Neon SRT-4 16 48 1 Open Lon Petersen USA USA 00 Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 17 28 2 GN Bill Malik USA Dave Kean USA 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI 18 41 2 Open John Drislane USA Ronan Burke USA 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI 19 83 2 GN Mark Utecht USA Jeff Secor USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 20 971 2 GN Brendan Cunningham USA Paul McClean USA 97 Subaru Impreza 21 29 2 GN Tim O'Neil USA Martin Headland CAN 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 23 78 3 Open Paul Dunn USA Ray Summers USA 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 24 527 3 Open Chris Gilligan USA Joe Petersen USA 91 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX 25 173 3 Open Patrick Lilly USA Mark McAllister USA 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 26 891 3 Open Randy Zimmer USA David Shindle USA 93 Subaru Impreza 27 49 3 Open Jonathan Ryther USA Roger Loeffers CN 00 Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 28 45 3 GN Shane Mitchell USA Paul Donnelly USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 29 103 3 GN Wyeth Gubelmann USA Therin Pace USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 30 36 3 GN Mark Cox USA Jim Gill USA 00 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI 31 94 3 GN Craig Peeper USA Ian Bevan UK 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 32 136 3 GN Jason Rivas USA Ole Holter USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 33 207 3 G5 Dave Hintz USA Rick Hintz USA 86 Mazda RX-7 Turbo 34 98 3 G2 Robert Nielsen USA Brenda Lewis USA 87 VW Golf GTi 35 90 3 G2 Lauchlin O'Sullivan USA Matt Chester USA 02 Mitsubishi Lancer RMR 36 42 3 G2 Eric Burmeister USA Eric Adams USA 01 Mazda Protégé MP3 37 86 3 P Michael Halley USA Dave Weiman USA 99 VW New Beetle 38 77 4 PGT Bob Henderson USA John McArthur USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 39 122 4 Open Dennis Martin USA Kim Demotte USA 97 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV 40 588 4 GN Jerry Churchill USA Jim Roxbury USA 02 Subaru Impreza WRX 41 504 5 Open Carl Redner USA Scott Carlborn USA 92 Mitsubishi Eclipse 42 432 5 GN Ron Nelson USA James Burtis USA 02 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 43 549 5 PGT Thanasi Samaras USA Erick Vandeburg USA 93 Eagle Talon 44 514 5 PGT Roland McIvor USA 95 Mitsubishi Eclipse 45 916 5 PGT Jonathan Bottoms USA Eric Dahlgren USA 99 Subaru Impreza 46 534 5 G5 Robert Olson USA Conrad Ketelsen USA 93 Porsche 911 47 121 5 G2 Pablo Sanfranciso USA 85 VW Golf GTi 48 84 5 G2 J.B. Niday USA Allan Kintigh USA 92 VW Golf GTi 49 545 5 P Eric Seppanen USA Jake Himes USA 92 Nissan Sentra 50 72 5 P Jon Hamilton USA Ken Sabo USA 00 VW Golf TDI

-scca pro racing-

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