Neohio Region, Sports Car Club of America Inc.

 

NEOHIO Region SCCA, with support from the Saturn of Mentor Car Dealership, presented the Ohio Winter Rally 2007 -- click here for previous winners

This year's Ohio Winter rally was held on Saturday, January 20th 2007, as part of the NEOHIO Region and CENDIV SCCA Rally Championship series.  13 Cars started from the Dealership, to experience the finest snow that northeast ohio has to offer.  They were not disappointed, as the conditions changed all evening, from ice with snow on top, to dry roads.  This made for fun for both driver and navigator, and is the one of the reaons this rally remains after 37 years of running.

Once again the workers made the event possible, and I want to list them here, without them we don't have an event.  

TOM KIMBALL KA8BZB, LISA HINKLE, CONNIE PEPLOWSKI, DAWN SMITH, MARK KUNDRATH KB8FKM and Sue, JOHN HINKLE, PAT KARL - N8ONI, VALERIE,
RON JOHNSTONBAUGH, IAN ABBOTT, BOB MAGREE N8KBX, BRYAN BARTZI KF8G, JIM VANZANT , PAUL BELL, DIAN SWARM,
STEPHANIE EISLE, SCOTT IVANCIC KD8DZM, KEN KANE, DOUG, GREG LESTER, ALEX QUIRK N3WRJ, BOB NICK KC8TNI, JOHN LESTER, BRENDA NICK, AND KAREN

Jaeger's straight claimed another victim,  but all in all the competitors were once again well behaved and we received no complaints and there were no incidents.  Thanks to the competitors, as this makes it easier to concentrate on managing the event, which is usually challenging enough.  Bob Magree came through again saving checkpoint #7 by giving out times for #6 which I messed up on.

For the first few controls it looked as if Benham and Hinkle would run away with the Limited class, scoring only 5 points for 5 controls, but then they had some difficulty with the slippery conditions on 7 and 8.  They recovered and took first place in L with only 35 points.    A similiar situation existed in Novice class, with Gary and Carlo scoring higher on the slippery sections of 5,7,8 but recovering to take the win in the second half.  In Stock class, Adam and Piotr seemed to have the advantage, with excellent scores in the first half, and they remained consistent throughout the event scoring only 77 points to take first place.  Placing second in Stock,  car 10 manned by the 'buick' guys (Eric and Jon)  took some big scores early in the first half, but got their act together in the second half  (144 pts. only in second half) to take second place with 502 pts.  Close on their heels with 559 pts was car #12 for third in stock class.

We had 5 E class entries and they showed us what superior technology could do again.  Third in E, with only 25 pts for 15 controls, was Michael H. and , with an especially strong second half.  They were equalling or bettering the scores of cars 4 and 5.  Car 4 was crewed by veteran Audi pointer Dave Harkcom and Greg Lester navigating, and they put on a strong showing  beating or tying Car 5 on 7 of 15 controls.  But in the end the consistency of the team in Car 5 crewed by Tom Bell ( in his really nice WRX STi) and Jack VonKaenel proved to be too much.  Tom and Jack scored better than everyone else on 2 controls, and tied for low score on  8 other controls.  Tom and Jack scored only 14 points total for 15 controls, while Dave and Greg ended up with 20 pts.  

The award for best driving on a ridiculously splippery road has to go to the guys in Car 8, who somehow managed to zero checkpoint 7.  No one else got a zero there, and it was difficult to stand on this road, let alone drive on it.  

So there you have it, we got snow and went out and had a blast playing in it.  Hope everyone had fun and hopefully we'll get snow again every year from now on.

Here’s the results overall:

CAR #

overall position

Cls position

class

Driver

Navigator

total

1

2

3

4

5

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

CAR #

5

1

 

E

Tom Bell

Jack VonKaenel

14

0

1

0

0

2

1

0

0

0

1

6

2

0

1

0

5

4

2

 

E

Dave Harkcom

Greg Lester

20

1

0

1

0

1

4

0

1

1

1

4

2

1

2

1

4

9

3

 

E

Michael Hordijk

Jesse Graves

25

2

1

3

1

1

3

2

1

0

0

5

1

0

1

4

9

2

4

 

L

Thomas Benham

John Hinkle

38

3

0

2

0

3

5

5

2

2

3

4

3

0

3

3

2

3

5

 

S

Adam Spieszny

Piotr Roszczenko

77

5

0

7

1

11

1

4

1

8

6

11

5

6

10

1

3

8

6

 

E

Dan Harkcom

Justin Miller

129

2

88

0

6

0

0

5

5

1

1

5

11

2

2

1

8

1

7

 

E

Dave Sellers

Janice Ford

223

2

0

83

22

1

5

0

1

1

1

5

100

0

1

1

1

10

8

 

S

Eric Grothaus

Jon Bartles

502

100

15

14

44

23

34

100

28

7

8

100

6

6

15

2

10

12

9

 

S

B. Jeffery Arendas

Matthew Arendas

559

18

45

100

100

100

100

14

39

2

3

3

23

10

2

0

12

14

10

 

S

Mark Adler

Tim Walker

777

16

100

100

100

43

58

100

6

59

12

3

100

9

8

63

14

11

11

 

N

Gary Kennegiessser

Carlo Matos

848

100

51

88

12

100

100

100

37

21

5

56

3

27

77

71

11

13

12

 

S

Mike Foster

Gary Hickman

872

48

61

100

100

22

30

100

73

58

83

65

59

50

19

4

13

6

13

 

S

Jeff Colah

Jamie Thorrat

1388

100

100

100

60

100

100

100

92

100

61

100

100

100

100

75

6

Here’s results by class:

CAR #

overall position

cls position

class

Driver

Navigator

total

1

2

3

4

5

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

CAR #

5

1

1

E

Tom Bell

Jack VonKaenel

14

0

1

0

0

2

1

0

0

0

1

6

2

0

1

0

5

4

2

2

E

Dave Harkcom

Greg Lester

20

1

0

1

0

1

4

0

1

1

1

4

2

1

2

1

4

9

3

3

E

Michael Hordijk

Jesse Graves

25

2

1

3

1

1

3

2

1

0

0

5

1

0

1

4

9

8

6

4

E

Dan Harkcom

Justin Miller

129

2

88