Southwest RallyCup Series Presented by Bilstein will be at Rally Colorado
The series has had a hiatus from Desert Storm Rally in March and now the series is gearing up for the second half of the season starting with Rally Colorado which is part of the Rally America national and southwest regional series. Travis Pastrana, Ken Block will be there for the Subaru Rally Team and we will have a big regional presence at this event. The Southwest RallyCup and Colorado series will be present for the regional competitors to compete in both series to gain points to win in their prospective classes or to get the overall wins in both series.
This year, the series will have over $800.00 prize series purse for the regional competitors; plus a tow fund for any California, Nevada, Arizona competitor to use to help them to get to the event.
Rally Colorado (www.rallycolorado.org) is based in the beautiful year-round resort community of Steamboat Springs, just a short drive west into the mountains from Denver. The landscape includes fast sections of road and open areas for great spectating, perfect for any rally fan to enjoy watching national and regional competitors rallying along some really fantastic stage roads
Series Standings:
Overall/Group 5
So far in the standings the standings show Bill Holmes/Sean Gallagher with the Bilstein sponsored F-150 truck which is in first place overall and in the Group 5 class with Jim Morris/Steve Palermi just right behind them in a close second place overall and in Group 5. This year Group 5 has the overall lead in the series. WILL that change during Rally Colorado? We shall see….
Open Class:
In third place overall standings is Doug Chernis/Craig MacNair both from Phoenix, Az… a sponsor for the SWRC series and first place in Open class. But Ryan Millen from the famous Millen family and his co-driver Colin Godby came out to do one event –Plan B Rally who has second place but Jonathan and Thomas Ryther are not far behind in third place. The Open Class Colorado teams are not far behind…so this class should get interesting to watch at Rally Colorado. I see some shaking up coming up here….
Open Light Class:
BUT Kevin Welker/Nolan Sambrano both from California are not far behind in third place overall and in a close fourth place and first place in the newly developed RA Open Light class. They have a BIG lead in points in this class. Andrew Morton/Aaron Searle both from Colorado are in second place….but will there be more Open Light competitors at Rally Colorado?
Group 2 Class:
Group 2 class has two professional stunt drivers winning that class (Chris Palermo/Jeremy Fry) but Chris Wilson/Aaron Laeng are in second place. We had a Colorado team come out and take part in at Plan B and Desert Storm consisting of Roger Mathews/Jack Penley who have a big desire to win their class.
Production GT:
Marco Zapata/Francisco Arellano from Las Vegas, Nv and are 5th place overall in the series standings and 1st place in Production GT by doing Plan B and Desert Storm Rally and Christopher Weloff and Brian Paul from California are in second place.
Production Class:
Jeff Hendricks/Kristopher Hendricks have a commanding lead in this class after the unfortunate DNF at Desert Storm Rally for John Black/Christine Marcinak. I hope to see them at Seed 9 later on this year to get some points in this class and take second place.
BUT, this all can change at Rally Colorado…when most of the Colorado competitors will be coming into play to compete at this two day event. Rally Colorado has not disappointed anyone yet in who will win the CheckPoint Racing “Darlin Cup.” This is the award for outstanding overall point’s leader in winning in the Southwest RallyCup Series. Who will be the next name placed on that cup alongside the names of Doug Chernis, Bill Holmes, Jeremy Brown (2008 overall winner)?
Plus, who will win the Tim O’Neil Rally School $4000.00 gift certificate to a 4 day rally school for drivers? This year the school wanted to give the gift certificate to anyone who participates at the SWRC series events. Each driver participant who enters a SWRC event this year has their name placed into the Tim O’Neil jar so if they run all the SWRC events they get 7 chances to have their name drawn to win the gift certificate. BUT they must want to go to the Tim O’Neil Rally School. If they choose not to go then the second drawn name will be given the prize. So we will draw names at the SWRC banquet and place their names onto a winner list…and we will go down the list until the person who really wants to go to this BIG chance to perfect their driving skills and what a chance of the life time to go…
The Southwest RallyCup series supports regional competitors who give to the sport by competing in the regional events that are supported/sanctioned by Rally America. (www.rally-america.com)
Again, we need to thank our series title sponsor Bilstein who helps to make this all possible. Plus our other series sponsors Tim O’Neil Rally School, RallyGrafix, K2 Awards/Trophys, Subaru of SW Region, CheckPoint Racing, Silverstone tyres, Racetech, Race Technik and website maintained by Marketing-Matters. Plus some other partners without them this could not be possible at all and they know who they are….thank you. Please do support these sponsors who DO care about you succeeding.