New Home for Rally New York

International Rally New York Announces a New Home and Opens Entry
Ellenville, NY -- The Rally New York Organization is pleased to announce the opening of the entry for the International Rally New York (www.RallyNewYork.com) scheduled for September 6 – 8, 2007. The entry will open on August 3. The International Rally New York is a round of the United States Rally Championship (www.usrallychampionship.com). Each of the two days of the Rally is a separate round of the New York Rally Championship (www.RallyNewYork.com).
We are expanding and moving closer to New York City into an entirely new headquarters town – Ellenville, New York. Ellenville is located just north of New York Route 17 – Quickway only 80 expressway miles from New York City. The Rally will be headquartered in a new community that is welcoming our event and will be rolling out the red carpet for competitors, service crews, staff, spectators and fans. This is an area with past racing history where the historic Mount Cathalia Hillclimb race took place for several decades. They are anxious to hear the sound of racecars in their town again!
The Rally will be based at a new single headquarters hotel location at Nevele Grande Resort that features breathtaking views of Shawangunk Mountains range! This hotel has 432 rooms and together with Fallsview Resort next door with additional 250 rooms is large enough to accommodate everyone with Central Service Park, indoor Scrutineering and indoor Parc Ferme just a short walk from your affordably priced room.
We are sure everyone will enjoy the friendly welcome atmosphere this town has to offer. Nevele Grande Resort boasts indoor and outdoor swimming pools, sauna, exercise room, lake, golf, indoor and outdoor tennis, horseback riding, babysitting service and if you come in the winter an indoor skating rink and its own ski hill. This region of New York has a lot to offer to every visitor before and after the Rally with historic Hudson River Valley, magnificent Catskill Mountains and exciting New York City nearby.
The Rally will be 450 miles long with 100 miles of special stages divided between tarmac and gravel. We will have a full day of tarmac in Ellenville, Wawarsing and Monticello on Friday and a full day of gravel rallying in Narrowsburg and Wawarsing on Saturday. Full Reconnaissance will take place all day on Thursday followed by Ceremonial Start in the center of the town in the evening. Ceremonial Finish in town is scheduled for Saturday night. The Rally will end with awards at Nevele Grande on Sunday morning.
The International Rally New York and its sister event Rally New York USA are the only two events in the United States that are conducted according to the international rules with FIA-style full Reconnaissance of the route and pace notes for increased safety.

More info:

http://www.rallynewyork.com/

http://www.nevele.com/

http://www.unitedstatesrallychampionship.com/

Burke Takes Round Five of the United States Rally Championship

Burke and Fries storm to victory at Rally West Virginia [Photo Neil McDaid]

By Neil McDaid

Elkins, West Virginia - August 3, 2007. Seamus Burke takes maximum points at Rally West Virginia in his bid to retain the United States Rally Championship title. Round five of the USRC took place in the high hills of the mountain state. The rally would not go down without its fair share of drama and excitement along the twisted back roads of Randolph County.

Rally West Virginia also counted as round three of the Eastern States Rally Championship, along with the added bonus of been a part of the 2007 Max Attack Triple Crown Series.

Day one would see the 38 crews tackle the first of the very technical all gravel mountain stages. Lined with hairpin turns and incredible drop offs, crews were given both written and verbal warnings of several triple cautions on the Friday stages.
As expected, Seamus Burke and Eddie Fries in the Shamrock Building Systems sponsored Mitsubishi would push the early pace setting the fastest time over SS1, “Turbodawg Long”. Some 34 seconds off the pace of Burke, fellow Irish driver Charlie Donnelly would claim second.
Justin Pritchard and Kyle Sarasin would lock bumpers for third.

Before the end of the first stage several crews would fall victim to the tough twists and turns of the tight country roads. Tyrone man Martin “the other” Donnelly out of NYC, who has been away from the sport for a few years, was out for the first time in his new Mitsubishi Evo 8. Martin would be first to explore the West Virginia scenery. Brake failure on a nasty downhill section into a tight hairpin turn at the bottom would be the demise of Donnelly and co-driver Stephen Duffy’s Friday stages. Luckily for the crew the car came to rest against a large tree only sustaining minimal damage. With some donated parts and a great effort by their service crew they would be back in action for day two.

Donnelly and Duffy would make a return Saturday after their off stage adventure on Friday [Photo NeilMcDaid]

Unfortunately, Carrie Wilburn’s Subaru Impreza would not come off as lightly. Carrie would leave the road and land hard on the front of the car then collided with a tree, eventually ending up on her roof. Thankfully both Carrie and navigator Damian Treanor managed to escape unharmed.
Brian Rutledge would also damage a ball joint on his Impreza, forcing him to retire. He would make repairs and return Saturday

Charlie Donnelly and Noel Gallagher, the current point leaders in the USRC, would get within 6 seconds of Burke’s pace on SS3, but trouble loomed for Donnelly on SS4. They would break a front drive on their Evo 2. Unfortunately, the car was not repairable and their rally was over. At the end of day one Seamus Burke held a two minute advantage over Justin Prichard in his Subaru. Putting in a fantastic drive teenager Kyle Sarasin was holding down third in his Ford Focus.

Day two saw crews hit the road bright and early heading south of Elkins for the first of 13 special stages. Not using the conventional continuation of stage numbers from day one, rally organizers would start the first stage on Saturday as SS1, a little confusing for some.
SS1 “Adolf Expressway” could have been more appropriately named the “eye opener.” The rally organizer suggested that this stage could possibly have more turns per mile that any other stage in the country. It would be another rerun of the Burke and Fries show; they would set fastest times over the first four stages of the day. Justin Pritchard would hold his ground maintaining second over Charles Sherrill in third.

All two wheel drive cars entered in the rally were eligible to contest for the Max Attack cash prizes. The two wheel drive competition, at times, was more exciting that the battle for the overall rally lead. The top six finishers in two wheel drive would all receive cash ranging from $800- $2,000. Mere seconds separated the top contenders throughout the rally.
Little did Seamus Burke know entering SS5 that his 4 minute advantage over the field would be erased. About half way through the stage, Burke’s gear selector would jam leaving the car stuck in high gear. Burke pulled off the stage to make repairs. After losing some six minutes he managed to get going again, his rally lead gone.

Heading into SS6, Burke was now down almost two minutes to Pritchard. He would throw caution to the wind and set a blistering pace over “UberDeustchland 3.” Burke was some 25 seconds faster than Enda McCormack who also obviously liked the conditions and found his form taking second. More importantly Burke was some 29 seconds faster than rally leader Justin Pritchard.

Justin Pritchard found himself in first if only for a while due to Burke's gearshift problems [Photo NeilMcDaid]


After setting the fastest time on SS6 over his fellow Max Attack competitors, a ruptured gas tank would be the end of the road for Seamus Burke’s son Joseph. In only his second rally “Young” Burke in his G2 Acura, with Boston’s Eamonn Sweeney guiding his way on the notes, would catch and pass several cars throughout the rally. Obviously, the apple did not fall far from the tree. We expect to see some great stuff from Joseph in the future. We would also lose Greg Healy in the Datsun 280Z. Greg would slide off the road into a field of cattle.

The elder Burke would continue to claw back time on SS7 but the cancellation of SS8 due to communication problems piled the pressure on Burke as stage miles dwindled. Burke could not afford to lose the rally or his hopes of retaining the championship title would be gone.

SS9 “Boney Turk,” a high speed challenge on smooth fast small gravel with a few hairpins and crests to make things interesting, scores high as a driver’s favorite. Again it was Burke that threw down a time of 4:07 over the 6.61 mile test; Charles Sherrill could only manage 4:20 to claim second.

Burke would continue his domination over the final stages to reclaim the lead and ultimately the overall victory. Justin Pritchard claimed second with Charles Sherrill taking third. Continuing his fantastic drive, Kyle Sarasin claimed forth in the FWD Focus beating out many more powerful all-wheel drive cars. Kyle would also claim the top prize in the Max Attack.

Up next for the east coast will be round seven of the USRC, International Rally New York, September 6-8th. This year the rally headquarters will relocate to Ellenville. With Donnelly still well ahead in the points Rally New York is shaping up to be a great battle. I expect to see strong entry from the Irish teams for this local event. For more information: http://www.rallynewyork.com/

Rally West Virginia report later this week