Golden Valley, MN — The 2008 Rally America Series has concluded, but rally fans will always have the season’s many memorable moments ranging from Andrew Comrie-Picard’s X Games 14 end-over-end flip to the introduction of Subaru Rally Team USA’s new rally car. All these great moments were recapped by Managing Director, J.B. Niday, at Rally America’s end-of-the-year awards breakfast and the Series’ trophies announced.

The Rally America year end awards include Rookie of the Year, Rally of the Year, and the perennial memorial awards given to dedicated volunteers and overall class winners.

Rookie of the Year:
From BMX to Rally Car Racing, Dave Mirra dominated one discipline and jumped into another. Nobody in the rally community expected Dave to achieve the heights he reached in the rally world in just his first year!

Adding a level of celebrity to the Rally America 2008 schedule, the BMX superstar debuted a Monster Energy Drink backed Open class Subaru Impreza at Sno*Drift where he finished 18th overall out of 42. He later improved to 7th overall at the New England Forest Rally before scheduling conflicts required his attendance elsewhere.

“I enjoyed just being part of rally and hanging out with Ken and Travis at all the events,” said Mirra. “It’s so different from BMX events and I really enjoyed the family feel.”

Mirra was invited to X Games 14 where he participated in a combination of BMX and Rally Car Racing events. In rally car, Mirra persevered and eeked out two wins before breaking his steering rack on the 70 foot jump. Officials ruled that both Ken Block and Dave Mirra would share the bronze medal after neither was able to continue after the semi finals.

“The X Games was my highlight. Not so much for the real rally aspect but all the fans were there to cheer me on.”

Dave Mirra scored the most points as a rookie and became Rally America’s Rookie of the Year.

“I really had no expectations other than ‘give it your best shot…’ It was a bonus to my first year in a rally car. This award is my reminder that I made a mark in rally and it’s an honor to win anything on a new journey,” says Mirra.

Rally of the Year:
After their 2007 event, the STPR committee was in serious danger of losing many of their roads and not being included in 2008’s national schedule. Key members of the committee immediately began exploring options and devising a plan to present to the community. Sweeping changes were adopted resulting in the addition of a one pass recce, new sponsor, superspecial stage, and converting the event from a one day to a two day format.

“Additions of the Waste Management site and the superspecial stages were the most difficult,” said STPR Chairperson, Meredith Croucher. “After the disappointments of 2007, I believe everyone on the committee realized that the event had to change. Sort of like a phoenix rising out of the ashes. I only heard positive about what we were trying to do.”

With a fervor and sense of mission, the committee used their vast experience to carry out their initiatives and put on a highly successful rally! Waste Management was impressed with the rally, spectator attendance increased 85%, and the drivers enjoyed recce, the new schedule, as well as the new stages.

“This award is for the STPR committee, the 415 volunteers, Waste Management, Citizen and Northern Bank, Subaru, the Wellsboro Chamber of Commerce and our other sponsors,” said Croucher.

The STPR committee is beginning to plan for the 2009 season and rally fans can expect STPR to keep the 2 day format and the fairgrounds where the superspecial has already included the stage on their schedule. Says Croucher, “More stages? More show? Better superspecial? It’s all up in the air right now.”

Rally of the Year (Honorable Mention): Sno*Drift Rally While all of the championship rounds are outstanding, Sno*Drift despite the challenge of being the first event of the season sets the standard by being prepared months in advance making their event the smoothest running each year. This year they added recce and were the first to implement fuel depots. While the “Rally of the Year” award does not go to this event, they deserve an “Honorable Mention.”

Bill Bradshaw Award:
Beryl Ann Burton, Al Kintigh, Tara McMann, Heidi Meyers, Bob Nielsen, Kristi Parker, Bruce Weinman

The Bill Bradshaw Award is given to the selfless rally volunteer dedicated to improving the quality of the sport. This year the Award was given to a group of individuals who have been ever present at each rally event fulfilling much needed duties, such as signage, live updates, stewardship, and tech support.

Rally America honored the seven volunteers who are a consistent presence at every national rally. Giving up their vacation time for the love of the sport, these volunteers travel the country filling important operational functions. Rally America’s national events would not operate at such a high level without the support of this group of volunteers.

John Woolf Cup and Grant Whittaker Cup:
These two prestigious awards are given to the overall Rally America Champion driver and co-driver, and is named after John Woolf and Grant Whittaker. Both made their first competition appearance in the U.S. in April 1980 by winning the Golden WestRally (featured in the BFG film “race against time”) in their Mazda RX-3.

Having grown up together in the same Auckland neighborhood, they had been a team since 1975, when they took up the sport in earnest. John and Grant led the New Zealand Rally Championship until the last special stage of the final round, when retirement took victory and the championship from their grasp.

Feeling their horizons were somewhat limited "down under," Grant and John packed up their RX-3 rally car and boarded a plane for the States. They were an instant success not only in competition, but socially as well, making friends with disarming ease.

Their first win in the PRO Rally series came at the 1980 STPR. John wound up the year ranked third - behind Buffum and Millen - in the Pro Rally championship.

For '81 the two Kiwis switched to a new RX-7 and once again Woolf and Whittaker won STPR, and together with a trio of second places, two thirds and two fifths, this gave them the runner-up position for the national title.

Despite his success with Mazda, that company could provide little more than moral support for Woolf's endeavors, so for '82 he accepted an offer from Peugeot to campaign one of the ex-works 504 V6 coupes.

John and Grant, both just 26 years old, died instantly when their rally car collided head-on with another vehicle. The accident occurred Memorial Day weekend 1982 when they were running first-on-the-road at the Chisum Trail Rally in Oklahoma. Rally workers had somehow become lost on the way to their assigned position, and driven onto the stage by mistake from an obscure side road not shown on area maps.

This year The Woolf and Whittaker Cup go to Subaru Rally Team USA driver, Travis Pastrana, and co-driver, Derek Ringer.

Travis Pastrana’s season could have been much different season after experiencing challenges from his teammate, Ken Block, and young upcoming driver, Kyle Sarasin. After some early season troubles, Pastrana showed why he is considered the nation’s top rally driver with a collection of consistent finishes and netted his third straight Rally America Championship.

Travis noted during the award breakfast that he felt lucky winning the Championship, but would have liked to have earned it not at the expense of Ken Block’s DNFs at key rally events. Rally would not be rally without overcoming awesome challenges and Travis proved he was a winner. Not only did he win the Series, but he won the gold medal at X Games 14.

Continuing his ongoing rally success, Derek Ringer, whose name is synonymous with co-driving Colin McRae to a 1995 World Rally Championship, began co-driving for Travis at the 100 Acre Wood Rally and recorded first place finishes at the Oregon Trail Rally, Ojibwe Forests Rally, and Rally Colorado, The Duo gained enough points to secure the Championship on the second to the last round of the season.

Jon Woodner Cup:
This award is given to the 2 wheel-drive national champion named after a dedicated and influential rallyist, Jon Woodner. Jon started his racing career running Go Karts in New York City when he was still too young to drive a car. He kept the thing in a parking garage and hid his tools in his bedroom because "Big Woodner" (as he always called his father) did not approve. On race days, he would hail a cab and load his Kart in the trunk to get to the races.

He went off to California to attend Berkeley and go racing. He hooked up with Joe Huffaker at Sears Point and drove for the British Leyland team, winning several Pacific Championships. In the mid 70’s Jon drove drove a Lola T332 Formula 5000 against the likes of Mario Andretti, Al Unser, and Brain Redman.

In the late 70's Jon up picked PRO rallying. He ran a TR-8, a Datsun 510 (with a BDA) and a series of Peugeots including a 205 T16. In Europe he ran a Talbot Lotus and a Lancia 037 in several events. Jon was fatally injured in a crash of his experimental “formula One Shoestring” airplane on a Sunday in April 1988.

John Buffum said, "He was a sportsman in the truest sense. He raced for the pure joy of doing it”

The Jon Woodner Cup goes to Christopher Duplessis, of Mason Township, ME, who won just 3 of the 4 events he entered during the season in his 1990 Volkswagen GTi and 2003 Dodge SRT4. Using a combination of points from participation in the Production, G5, and G2 classes, Christopher maintained a one point margin over John Conley. Christopher won the 2 Wheel Drive Champion without having to enter the last three events.

Roy Donison Cup:
Roy Donison was involved in performance stage rallying on the west coast from its beginning. He raced Mazda RX2's and RX3's.

In 1975 Roy decided to run the POR (now LSPR) rally, so he packed up the Mazda, drove from Portland to Houghton, finished 4th overall and drove the same car home…the POR back in those days was twice as long as the current LSPR, and on roads that would send current competitors running to the Rally America truck!

While looking to purchase a Production car to run the rest of the 1979 season, he learned that the Plymouth Arrow came with a Factory option package called the Fire Arrow with a 2.6 liter engine. Roy dominance resulted in the 108 HP Fire Arrow being deemed too powerful of a car for Production class, and eventually the new Production GT class was created.

Late in 1979, while testing tires, Roy was fatally injured in a head-on collision with a 4wd truck. Roy wasn't wearing his shoulder harnesses and his helmet was still in the back seat. Roy Donison was 32 years old.

This year the Production winner is Jan Zedril from Winnipeg, Canada. Jan built a commanding lead with Production wins at the first three events of the season and at the Ojibwe Forests Rally in his privateer 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer ES.

They have won Production 2 years in a row, however, this year’s Roy Donison Cup was a surprise because Jan did not intend to enter as many events. A week prior to the 100 Acre Wood rally, Jan had knee surgery and still made the decision to enter the event. Amazingly, Jan gamble resulted in a Production win. Jan also entered the Olympus Rally after finding out it had moved to Eastern Washington. They immediately contested the event and took first in Production as well. Jan credits these unexpected wins to securing the Production class win and the Roy Donison Cup.

Next year, Jan plans on moving into the more powerful Group 2 class and will concentrate their efforts in the Canadian Rally Series to take advantage of the Mitsubishi contingency program.

Production GT Class Winner:
Patrick Moro of Dublin, OH, piloted his 2002 Subaru WRX for his first PGT win after nearly winning it the prior season. Amassing a substantial points lead in six events, Pat placed third or higher leading to an X Games 14 invitation where he lost in the qualifying rounds to Matt Johnson.

Pat entered LSPR to complete the Series and walked away with PGT accolades. Next year Pat expects to build a new car and expand his rally team.

Group 5 Class Winner:
John Conley of Monument, CO drove his 2003 Dodge SRT4 to the Group 5 Win with two 1st place and two 3rd place finishes. Known as “Papa Con,” John is the father figure in a family that fields three cars with his sons and daughter-in-law.

I was a difficult year for John whose son and daughter-in-law, slated to compete at X Games 14, experienced a Pikes Peak Hillclimb accident. The family garnered support for the couple who was able to attend the X Games. John is elated to have won the G5 class considering the difficulties the family faced this season.

Group 2 Class Winner:
Campaigning a 1985 Volkswagen Rabbit GTi, Michel Hoche-Mong of San Jose, CA took first place at all three events he entered with finishes at Oregon Trail Rally, Rally Colorado, and LSPR. Michel came close to winning G2 last year

Rally America returns with a full 9 event national schedule in 2009 and will be the rally car sport organizer at X Games.

Sno*Drift Rally	Atlanta, MI	January 30 - 31
Rally in the 100 Acre Wood	Salem, MO	February 27 - 28
Olympus Rally	Pomeroy, WA	April 25 - 26
Oregon Trail Rally	Hillsboro, OR	May 15 - 17
Susquehannock Trail Rally	Wellsboro, PA	June 5 - 6
New England Forest Rally	Bethel, ME	July 17 - 18
X Games 15	Carson City, CA	August 2
Ojibwe Forests Rally	Bemidji, MN	August 28 - 29
Rally Colorado	Steamboat Springs, CO	September 19 - 20
Lake Superior Rally	Houghton, MI	October 16 - 17

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2009 Rally America National Championship series will consist of nine exciting events throughout the country in many different weather and road conditions. Throughout the year, teams take on everything from snow-covered trails of Michigan, forest-logging roads in Minnesota, coastal paths of the Pacific Northwest, fast but rocky challenges of New England, to the high-altitude roads of Northwest Colorado, and finally to its conclusion in the fall splendor of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

For more information please send an email to ananda@rally-america.com.