Oregon Trail Forest Rally- Round 3 of Rally America National Championship
Apex, NC (August 28, 2006)

The 2007 Rally America season got off to a great start for the Hankook Carolina RallySport team with a PGT class win at the SnoDrift Rally in Michigan.  Challenges and setbacks have played into the season since, and the Rally at Oregon Trails unfortunately added itself to the list of ‘unplanned outcomes’.

Getting to the Oregon Trails Rally with a new rally car ready for competition was welcome victory for the team.  The 100 Acre Wood National Rally in late February left the team with a totaled car and not much time to get ready for the next rally, let alone build a new car from the ground up.

Johnson: “With only 6 weeks to find a shell and get a new car built, it was a huge success to pull all that together and show up here with a nice looking car… never mind how the rally actually goes from here.”   Read more about the new car build and sponsors who helped at:
http://www.rally-america.com/story.php?article=201

The Oregon Trail rally started on Friday night at the Portland International Raceway just north of Portland, OR with short, spectator-friendly stages that lasted into the night.  Johnson and Wimpey got a great start to the event by winning the first three of five stages that evening in Production GT and ended the night with a 12 second lead over their nearest rival Pat Moro.

Saturday started off well with things going just as planned. Johnson often says the crowned roads of the northwest are a challenge to drive, although that morning, he and Wimpey were working up a nice groove and new philosophy around how to best tackle the first couple of challenging stages.

With a PGT class stacked with fast and talented competitors like Stephan Verdier, Norm LeBlanc and Pat Moro, the plan was to build into a measured rhythm on the crowned road surfaces, and then worry about speed and winning stages afterwards.

Johnson: “Saturday had two nice 17 mile long stages that I was really looking forward to running. On the first run through that stage, I felt we were clean and efficient and fast until the gearbox came apart around 14 miles through. I’m disappointed to have a DNF on my record as a result, but more so, I’m disappointed to lose the experience to see how the time on that stage measured against Steph and Norm.”

Wimpey added: “Matt and I have a good thing going here, the new car felt great and is already competitive.  Our results so far this season are NOT a clear indication of what you’ll be seeing from the team here on out!”

The next event will keep the team out in the northwest area and will be held in Olympia, Washington.  At Olympia, teams will have the option to ‘RECCE’ the stages before the rally starts.  “RECCE’ allows the teams to preview the stages and amend the notes supplied by the organizer to better suit themselves during the event.

Follow the Olympus Rally log on the Rally America website to see live updates, picture gallery, stage times, maps and other event information.
http://www.rally-america.com/event.OLYMPUS.2007.php

Remember to tune into the exciting ESPN2 coverage of the 2007 Rally America National Championship!  The events leading up to X Games 13 this summer will air Tuesday July 3rd, 2007 5:00-5:30pm EST.  Look for upcoming show times and Rally dates at: http://rally-america.com/schedule_2007.php