Shepherd fastest two-wheel drive at STPR
Monday, June 5, 2006
Rally veteran Doug Shepherd scored a two-wheel drive win at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally Saturday, finishing eighth overall -- more than three minutes ahead of class challenger Andrew Havas.
“I haven’t driven in anger since LSPR 2005,” said Shepherd at the finish. “I was a little rusty at the beginning but I found my stride.”
Shepherd, along with co-driver Pete Gladysz, contested the race in the highly tuned Group 5 Dodge SRT4. They put in an impressive performance on the winding northern Pennsylvania course, setting top times throughout the day.
But Havas, along with co-driver John Dillon, didn’t give their rivals much breathing room until their Group 5 Mazda RX7 let them down near the end of the race.
“This is 30-year-old technology,” said Havas, who added he was also recovering from the flu. “It was a struggle.”
Canadian driver John Nichols, along with co-driver Carl Shenk, rounded out the top-three positions in a Group 2 Volkswagen Golf. The team also took the class win.
“It was a brutal rally,” said Nichols, a two-wheel drive veteran known in Canada for his skill on slick surfaces. “It was very fast.”
Nichols said he battled mechanical problems throughout the race, with his car engine stumbling intermittently. “It was a really hot and cold event for us,” he said.
Also in two-wheel drive, motocrosser Kenny Bartram snapped up yet another class win in his Production class Volkswagen Bug.
The rally ran all day and into the night Saturday, with competitors taking on more than 100 miles over nine stages. Tough, wet conditions and dense forest roads are this event's trademark. Competitors hit breakneck speeds on slick, clay and gravel roads as they pass by trees growing perilously close to the road edges.
STPR is the fourth round of the Rally America national championship and this year will be televised on ESPN. The race served as a qualifier for this summer’s X Games, with two top finishers awarded a chance to compete at the high profile race in August. Australian Andrew Pinker and Californian Lauchlin O’Sullivan qualified in Open class Subarus.
Although the race for X Games gold will be between Open class competitors, there will also be a demonstration of two-wheel drive talent at the race. The drivers have yet to be selected.
The Rally America national championship is a challenging, all-season series comprised of nine events across the country, beginning with Sno*Drift in January and wrapping up 12 months later with the Reno Rally in Reno, Nevada.
The annual X Games is the premier action sports event in the world, featuring athletes from across the globe competing for medals and prize money in sports including BMX Freestyle, Moto X, Skateboard, Surfing and Rally. X Games 12 will be telecast live on ESPN and ABC.
Rally America, a Minneapolis, MN, based corporation, holds the sanctioning and marketing rights to the Rally America Championship. The company was founded in 2002 by rally driver and CPD Rally Team owner Doug Havir.
