Block Wins, but the battle for championship is still on  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
With Block taking the victory here in Colorado he moves solidly into the chase for the Championship.
Only four points separate the top three; Pastrana, Pinker, or Block could easily be the 2007 Rally America National Champion.

It will all come down to the last round of the Rally America National Championship, Lake Superior, will be held October 26-27 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Make sure to check back as the Championship battle is decided.

Car 433 Williams/Hakala Win Both Regionals  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
The finishers in the Middle Cog 2 Regional Rally Results are as follows:

Overall and Open Winner: Car 433 Williams/Hakala 26:21.0
Group 2 Winner: Freehill/McGuire 26:45.7
2nd Group 2: Car 418 Keeney/Keeney 29:02.9
3rd Group 3: Car 319 Greenhouse/Marsh 29:23.9
Production GT Winner: Car 486 Mennig/Schnell 29:53.7
2nd Open: Car 482 Rose/Vitera 30:20.0

After 2 previous failed attempt to finish here at the Middle Cog 1 and 2 regional events in previous years, Williams/Hakala have come away victorious in both the Middle Cog 1 and Middle Cog 2 Regional Rallies.

Williams/Hakala managed to keep the car in one piece, despite wet and sloppy conditions. "Mitch drove great today and the car stayed together" stated co-driver Alex Hakala "we could not have done it without our sponsors, Checkpoint Racing, Salta Motorsports, and Suba Performance as well as our service crew, TroyMatta, Ty, and Andrew."

No news is good news for "Cowboy" Kenny Bartram  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
Car 690, Bartram / Hotson have nothing notable to report this weekend...and that's a good thing! Their rally luck hasn't been great lately, so a nice clean finish is just what they needed. "We're not upside down and we made it to the finish!" smiled Bartram. The team finished tenth overall and sixth in Open class.

Zedril's Leading Production Class  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
Despite starting out a little slow on the first four stages, Car 708 Zedril/Zedril are leading Production Class.

The Zedril's are from Winnipeg and have worked rally events, primarily at Ojibwe Forest Rally, their "home" event. Last July, they bought their first rally car and have run 6 events since.

They have found themselves in the enviable position of possibly running for the Production Championship; however, in order to do that, they will need to finish here. "If we don't finish here, we will have no chance of winning the P Championship, but if we finish we could win it" stated co-driver Jody Zedril.

Right now, the team is sitting in 18th overall, and while content with that, would have liked to be in the top 15th, "with no power, we cannot gain overall positions unless someone else has problems - as long as we finish, we are content with that" Zedril went on to say.

Dunkin Rally Team Pressing On  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
Car 19, Penasack / Putnam, and the Dunkin' Rally Team (DRT) are making their first appearance at Rally Colorado this weekend. Day one was not without challenges for the team; they suffered two flat tires and a starter problem which held them back on the stage. Despite their problems, DRT was able to keep pace and complete day one of Rally Colorado. The crew worked late into the night to prepare for today; they grooved tires, changed brakes and wheel bearings, and fixed the starter problem. Penasack and Putnam were ready to continue strong and push the limits in the rain today with hopes of a top finish in the PGT class. More information on DRT can be found at www.dunkinrallyteam.com.

Flat for Foust  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
It was reported from the fuel stop that Car 34, Foust / Beavis, had suffered a flat and lost some time. We will know more when the cars arrive to service.

Duplessis Officially in the Hunt for National Group 2 Title  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
Car 70 Duplessis have found themselves in an interesting spot.

Last year, Duplessis attended a 9 month program at Wyotech, which limited his ability to run as many events as he would have liked. The team knew this year, they would be able to run more events and chose to run primarily a regional schedule. Under Rally America rule, a team is only able to upgrade to a national license three times within one year - an option that the team exercised.

During these three events, the team found themselves not only leading Eastern Region Overall, but also 2 Wheel Drive, and Group 2 after 4 wins in 4 events.

After these events, the team realized they also had the potential to win a national Group 2 title as well. In order to do this, they needed to upgrade to a national license, which would limit their ability to gain any more regional points.

After much planning, and 2/3 of the way into the national championship schedule, they decided to make a run for the national title. Entering Ojibwe Forest Rally, the team trailed Group 2 leader Hoche-Mong by one point. Mechanical problems for Hoche-Mong and a flawless run by Duplessis left him leading the charge by 20 points at the end of the event.

Once again, Duplessis was left with choices. To attend a rally 3000 miles from home and run Colorado Cog to buffer his tenuous lead or let the competition gain valuable points and force a run off at the final event of the year, LSPR.

The choice was made when their sponsors, Team O’Neil Rally School and Go Fast Sports, a Colorado Based Energy Drink Company, saw both the potential for the event and the team, helped send the team to the Colorado Cog Rally.

The team is here at Colorado Cog and have been leading the Group 2 field from the beginning. “Team O’Neil teaches their students well” stated co-driver Kim DeMotte, “Chris is driving at about 80% of what he is capable of because he knows he needs to finish in order to secure as many points as possible here. He is making a nice, clean run and we are not taking unnecessary chances.”

Right now, the team is leading Group 2 by about 3 minutes, over 2nd place, a position held by Hoche-Mong.

The start of day two  - Sunday, September 23, 2007
The warm sunshine of yesterday has turned into cold an rain. The rain is expected to continue all day and the road conditions are expected to deteriorate. The roads here are mostly clay, when they become completely saturated they will become extremely slippery. To compound the problem, the slick clay builds up on the tires and the teams will be left little or no traction. It had been rumored that SS14, the superspecial stage, may be cancelled due to the muddy conditions; another stage may be substituted.

The final day of Rally Colorado is scheduled to consist of eight stages with the first one to begin at 9:17 am. The cars are expected to arrive to the Hayden Fairgrounds about 11:30 am for their first service break of the day.

End of day one  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
With eight stages remaining, Car 43, Block / Gelsomino, leads the rally by just over 30 seconds. They made good time on the fast stages without taking many chances. The team needs to finish on the top of the podium to gain maximum Championship points.

The teams will have a 8:00 am drivers meeting; the first car will start at 8:31 am. Check back tomorrow for the final results of Rally Colorado.

Who is Will Corry?  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
That was the big question about this Group N competitor around the service area today. After running just four rallies in his native Ireland, this is Corry's first rally in the United States. This 23 year old has been a top 10 downhill mountain bike racer and a Colorado Hillclimb Championship competitor; he now has his sights set on the Rally America Championship for 2008. Due to their budget, this was the teams only U.S. rally this year, but they have high hopes for 2008. Car 117, Corry / Greek, plan to run a smart rally and maintain their fifth place overall standing.

Leaderboard after ten stages  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
The class leaders are as follows:

Overall and Open Class: Block/Gelsomino 52:06.1
Group N: Corry/Greek 55.51.5
Production GT: Johnson/Wimpey 56.28.5
Group 5: Kendall/Friberg 58:16.0
Group 2: Duplessis/DeMotte 1:00:32.3
Production: Zedril/Zedril 1:02:32.0

Foust has no boost  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
Car 34, Foust / Beavis, were pulled off on the transit between SS9 and SS10 to see if they could find what was causing their lack of boost. Teammates Car 5, Pinker / Durant, stopped to see if they could assist them, but there wasn't much they could do. This is a new engine as of last night for the 34 car; the motor is down on power to their Rockstar teammates, "we're about 15 mph slower than Pinker at the top end" said Foust. Both teams continued, their crew will have the rest of the night to work on the car before the 8:30 am start tomorrow.

Pastrana takes a detour  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
"That was the most fun I've ever had in a car in my whole life", said Pastrana with wild eyes and a huge grin as he pulled into the start of SS8. The 199 team ended up off the road, over a cliff, and 60 yards into a field. "We hit some doubles, good thing we made it because that could've been bad, got a flat, we're totally out of control, and ended up back on the road. The car's good though" Pastrana smiled as he patted the dash of his Subaru. The team is in fourth place after eight stages.

Great Battle, Great Character  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
After much ado about nothing in earlier rounds of the championship, it truly seems that here at Rally Colorado, the battle is heating up between Car 429 Verdier/Crouch and Car 46 Johnson/Wimpey.

"We have been talking trash all year, but nothing has really been happening, now it is really coming to fruition here" stated driver Matthew Johnson.

The most interesting part of the story is not that Verdier and Johnson are only separated by .1 seconds, or even that the two teams are tied for second in the PGT championship.

It is that Johnson would not be running here if not for the Flatirons group, who have helped him twice recently. Flatirons Subaru and Scott Crouch organized the repair of Matthew's car after his roll at Ojibwe Forest Rally; in addition, after losing 3rd gear in the practice stage yesterday, the flatirons crew yet again went into action and found a gearbox for their closest competitor.

In addition to help received from Car 429's crew (and sponsor, Flatirons Subaru), Johnson got help from Car 59's crew installing the gearbox, and Car 19's Bill Grooms rebuilt the box.

All of these teams are direct competitors to Johnson, but in a testament to the true spirit of rally, they all stepped up to help each other.

A lot of action up front  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
Car 199 Pastrana/Edstrom lost a turbo return hose in the last 2 miles of SS2 and ran that way through the transit prior to SS5, where they were able to fix it. The team felt they would have lost another 45 seconds had SS4 not been transitted.

Car 43 Block/Gelsomino had a left front puncture 4.5 miles into SS2. The puncture cost them 20 seconds.

Car 34 Foust/Beavis popped a bead on a tire on SS2 and they changed the tire in less than 2 minutes on the very short transit before SS3. In addition to the tire, the team has lost 4th gear and are hopefully going to be able to get that changed during the long lunch service.

Stage Detail  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
Currently, there are 26 national entries, 8 regional entries and 2 dual entered teams.

The teams will run five stages before arriving for the first service in Hayden. Descriptively, the first few stages are as follows:

SS1 - Wolf Mountain - length: 4.13 miles. SS1 is a hard dirt surface, wide and fast
SS2 - Elkhead Loop 1 - length: 8.17 miles. Twisty, hardpack, smooth and fast. Narrow culvert at 1.64, noted as "don't cut"
SS3 - Middle Cog 1 - length: 5.26 miles, a technical stage and stable road. Multiple entries in notes for very narrow culverts and a double caution at 2.39 for crest and exposure
SS4 - Elkhead Loop 2 - same as SS2
SS5 - Middle Cog 2 - same as SS3

At the driver's meeting, competitors were reminded that in the Rocky Mountains, most every road has some exposure and because Colorado is an open range state, livestock should be expected at all times.

Welcome to Rally Colorado  - Saturday, September 22, 2007
Round eight of the Rally America National Championship. This two day National event will cover nearly 110 stage miles in and around the resort community of Steamboat Springs, just a short drive west into the mountains from Denver. The teams will run five stages before their first service stop; they are expected to arrive about 12:00.