ProRally: Rim of the World Final NotesResults

Rim of the World PRO Rally Round #4 - 1998 Michelin PRO Rally Championship Palmdale, California Press Notes #7 - Saturday, May 9, 7:00 PM PDT

More on the Buffum DNF. The crossmember, put in over the winter, gave no indication is was going to give way. In fact, as rough as the rally has been, Buffum/Becker did not hit anything, so this was just "fate of fatigue." Buffum said the part broke approx. three miles from the end of the stage, and they dragged the rear end that far, but it would have been another seven miles on pavement to service - and the team did not have the heavy-duty welding equipment to affect the repair even if they could have made it.

Henry Joy/Michael Fennell have reported rear end problems, and, although they were trying to fix it at service after stage #10, it looks like they will be unable to continue in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution II. More details as we get them.

We also have a report that the Dave White/David Watts VW GTI, which had been leading Group 2 and was running fourth overall, is out of the event, but we have no details yet.

National Leaders after ten stages: CAR # (DRIVER/CO-DRIVER) CAR SEED SCORE CLASS

26 Hiroyuki Genta/K Takata Subaru 1 1:31:52 1 Open 77 D Summerbell/C Griffin Lancer IV 1 1:32:15 2 Open 3 Carl Merrill/Lance Smith Escort 0 1:35:50 3 Open 11 R Kosmides/J Noyes Supra 1 1:44:14 1 Group 5 33 L Peterson/J Love Arrow 2 1:44:24 2 Group 5 34 C Jardevall/A Trowbridge Volvo 740T 3 1:45:14 3 Group 5

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. The Rim of the World PRO Rally's 15th edition is now over, and the David Summerbell/Chris Griffin Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV overcame the early lead built up by Hiroyuki Genta/Kazmasa Takata Subaru Impreza to win the event by 21 seconds.

Summerbell, from Kingston, Jamaica, in only his second U.S. rally, was trailing Genta by 22 seconds after 10 stages, but made up the time a little at a time to take the lead with one stage to go. Genta had built up an early lead on Friday night by dominating the field in the fog on Friday night.

"I saw fog rolling in on the last stage," said Summerbell, "and I thought to myself 'here we go again.' So I drove like I was behind, and it paid off."

Genta's car had no clutch at the end, but his Impreza ran perfectly all day - impressing both spectators and competitors with his driving in the rough conditions.

Carl Merrill/Lance Smith were third overall in their Ford Escort Cosworth, five minutes behind Genta, while Group 5 winner Ralph Kosmides/Joe Noyes were fourth overall - five minutes ahead of the Lon Peterson/Jim Love Plymouth Arrow in class. Final Results - Rim of the World National event CAR # (DRIVER/CO-DRIVER) CAR SEED SCORE CLASS

77 D Summerbell /C Griffin Lancer IV 1 1:59:59 1 Open 26 Hiroyuki Genta/K Takata Subaru 1 2:00:19 2 Open 3 Carl Merrill/Lance Smith Escort 0 2:07:43 3 Open 11 R Kosmides/J Noyes Supra 1 2:14:36 1 Group 5 22 V Samuelian/A Manoukian Eclipse 4 2:19:12 4 Open 33 L Peterson/J Love Arrow 2 2:20:09 2 Group 5 85 Tony Chavez/M Mancilla Galant VR4 4 2:20:28 5 Open 20 George Plsek/Mark Rathsam Saab 99 3 2:21:06 3 Group 5 79 Lee Shadbolt/Paul Eklund Impreza 4 2:27:03 1 GT 25 F Ronn /J Dillon Celica 6 2:27:21 1 Group 2 66 D Robinson/B Hidde Mazda RX-7 6 2:30:20 4 Group 5 31 G Valentini/L Sorenson Mazda RX-7 4 2:31:21 5 Group 5 16 Tom Bier/Ole Holter Saab 99 6 2:35:33 2 Group 2 35 M Brown /W NeundorCorolla 4 2:39:18 1 Production 53 Pete Morris/Nick Taylor Corolla 6 2:46:27 3 Group 2 15 David White/David Watts VW GTI 1 2:46:43 4 Group 2 65 Dennis Chizma/C Marie 3000 GT 4 2:59:12 2 GT 21 Trevor Donison/B Bradley Neon 6 3:13:12 2 Production 30 K Russell/L Dillon Shadow 4 4:18:18 3 GT 1 J Buffum /J Becker Hyundai 0 rear crossmember 2 Henry Joy/Michael Fennell Lancer II 0 transmission 41 Rui Brasil/Carlos Tavares Quattro 1 crash 45 A Odero-Jowi/F O'Sullivan Eclipse 6 cooling fan 27 Tony Takaori/Ken Cassidy Lancer III 2 catch a plane 8 Bill Malik/C Edstrom Volvo 240 2 driftshaft 34 C Jardevall/A Trowbridge Volvo 740T 3 rear end 19 Ben Medeiros/T Medeiros Mazda 323 6 engine # # #