ProRally 2003 Sno Drift Rally

The first event of the 2003 ProRally season gathered a number of familiar faces in Atlanta, the elk capitol of Michigan, including Subaru Rally Team USA's 2001 driver's champion Mark Lovell, teammate Ramana Lagemann and Tim O'Neil, this year in an A/V Sport-prepared Open Class Ford Focus.

There was one team conspicuous in its absence, Hyundai, which pulled out of ProRally after winning an unprecedented sixth manufacturer's championship last year.

The new Team Mitsubishi Motor Sport America showed up with two new bright red and silver Open Class Lancer EVOs powered by "400-plus-hp" HKS engines. They will be prepared and serviced between events by Lance Smith's Vermont Sportscar.

2002 driver's champion David Higgins has teamed with Daniel Barritt in the number one car while Lauchlin O'Sullivan, the 2002 Group 2 champion will team with Mark Williams in the number six car. The new team was put together by Peter Collinson's Co-ord Sport, another English concern with close ties to Mitsubishi's Group N and Group A WRC programs. Expect to see the red cars for a while. The team reportedly signed a three-year deal.

International interest in the U.S. series continues to grow. Jonny Milner, 2002 British rally champion, is back and hopes to run both the U.S. and British championships this year. Finns Tapio Laukkanen and co-driver Ilkka Riipinen also hope to run the nine U.S. events. Lithuanians Valdemaras Maciukevicius and Arunas Salkauskas are back, finishing second in Production GT.

Reflecting ProRally's continuing growth, the SPEED channel's coverage will grow to a full hour this year with Marty Reed Enterprises handling all post-production. "We're concentrating a huge effort on the day's critical stages," says Reed. "It's impossible to cover every mile of every stage, so we have six on-board cameras in case something happens out of our other camera's sight."

Nearly 70 cars started Leg One from Lewiston. Mark Lovell, with Nicky Beech sitting in for Steve Turvey (off in Monte Carlo doing notes for Richard Burns), quickly discovered the narrow WRC-style snow tires he picked were the wrong choice. Bitter cold had made the recent snowfalls very light and fluffy. The snow offered little traction and the ice below was quickly exposed. Most of the roads had a slight crown and the ice made any off-camber corners doubly tricky.

Running on a hand-grooved ice tire, David Higgins was quickest through the new EVO's debut stage, but a flat on SS2 dropped him nearly a minute and a half to the Subarus of Lagemann and Lovell. Teammate Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Finn Tapio Laukkanen also suffered right-front flats on SS2. Laukkanen was fastest through SS3, despite tapping a tree and bending a rear control arm on SS2. Matt Johnson wasn't so lucky, retiring his Group 2 GTI after several offs on SS2.

When the cars returned to Lewiston for a quick dinner and service, Lovell was leading Seamus Burke by 11 seconds, with Tim O'Neil another 13 seconds back. The WRXs of Ramana Lagemann (despite three spins) and Mark Utecht (Group N) rounded out the early top five.

Higgins and Laukkanen tied for fast time through SS4, with the former winning Leg One's last two stages. Subaru's gearbox woes continued, Lovell was stuck in third for the three night stages and at the end of Leg One, Seamus Burke led Lovell by 15 seconds. Higgins was up to third despite another puncture on SS6 with Lagemann, Laukkanen and Jonny Milner close behind.

"We lost about 30 seconds going straight at a junction. I wondered why the people were looking at me funny when I upshifted coming into that corner," says O'Neil. "Over the crest flat out in high gear. It was a 'crest 70, bad right.' The biggest thing is trying to work out our communications." Like O'Sullivan, O'Neil has a new co-driver, Alex Gelsomino (longtime co-driver Martin Headland is off to the WRC).

Unfortunately for the two, a fifth-to-second shift locked up the tires on SS5. "As soon as you do that, you're a passenger. If it had been gravel, I would have over-revved and blown the engine," says O'Neil, who missed the stumps, but a hidden log ended his rally.

A hidden log also ended Lagemann's rally, three stages into Leg Two, when he flew off into the trees on SS9.

Seamus Burke led the rally out of Atlanta the next morning for the start of Leg Two, but being first on the road was more like being lead snowplow. Higgins and Laukkanen took advantage of Burke's tracks, Higgins setting fast time on SS7 and 9 with Laukkanen fastest through SS8. The two finished the three stages only one second apart with Higgins leading the rally. Laukkanen was fastest through SS12 but Higgins was fastest through SS10 and SS11 and gained another 10 seconds. Lovell was solidly in third while Burke's snow-plowing duties had dropped him to fourth.

Back in Group 2, Eric "Lurch" Burmeister's 54-second lead over college roommate Chris Whiteman evaporated during an off-road excursion just before the lunch service. Driving his father's GTI (Lurch had paid Dad's entry fee as a Christmas gift) after last-minute electrical gremlins sidelined his Mazda MP3, Burmeister was able to borrow a set of front struts from Matt Johnson and was only 40 seconds behind Whiteman's Neon with three stages to go. Whiteman held off the challenge to win the class.

It was a good day for Dodge as Don Jankowski and Pete Gladysz took the Group 5 win in their SRT-4, and Neons were also third in both 2WD classes. Look for continued support at a grassroots level from the company.

Lovell's day ended just after lunch with a turbo fire at the start of SS13. Higgins was fastest through SS13 and 14, leading Laukkanen back into the last service by nearly a minute. When a cam sensor failed on Burke's EVO 6 on SS15, Laukkanen, running in second, backed off, his nearest competitor, Jonny Milner, now 4 minutes behind.

Despite more snow and a blinding near-blizzard on SS17, Higgins was fastest through the day's last three stages to bring home a storybook win for his new team. O'Sullivan drove at a conservative pace, struggling a bit in the slow corners as he learned to work with the new car and co-driver, but was rewarded with a fourth overall, the highest finishing American. Mark Utecht and Jeff Secor were fifth overall in their Group N Subaru with Shane Mitchell and Paul Donnelly right behind in another Group N Subaru.

After the rally, Lovell hurried back to England to test the new car Subaru will be bringing to Rim of the World. "We will have a completely new car for Rim-new shape, new spec, much more like a WRC car. It has a Group A gearbox, and, of course, its own U.S.-spec engine," he e-mails.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi has three months to savor its victory. Next up-Rim of the World, May 2 and 3.