Tulsa, Oklahoma -- After being repeatedly seen in over 55 million households, the Volkswagen New Beetle featured in those "Cute Car" television ads is returning to Sports Car Club of America ProRally Championship competition. Mike Halley, president of RealAutoSport, LLC, purchased the well-known rally car and said, "We have always known how strong this car is and we could not allow it to languish in a garage another season. This car needs to be out there competing for another championship and that's what we intend to do with it."

The New Beetle Rally Car carried Karl Scheible and Gail McGuire to the 1999 SCCA ProRally Production Class Driver and Codriver Championships, respectively, and they also garnered class laurels in the North American Rally Cup that counts both Canadian and US events. For 2001, Halley and the Stage Fright Rallye Team will try to repeat Scheible’s impressive SCCA performance.

The New Beetle Rally Car will return to SCCA ProRally competition at the Cherokee Trails International ProRally in Chattanooga, Tennessee scheduled to run on 15, 16 and 17 March 2001. The grueling three-day event covers 814 miles with over 180 competitive stage miles. Halley said, "Cherokee Trails is the big event for us this year. It will give us the opportunity to prove how sound a rally car the Beetle is as we battle with cars from all over the world before a truly international audience. It will be exciting to compete in one of the most distinctive championship-winning cars in the history of this sport."

The Stage Fright Rallye Team (www.realautosport.com) is a Sand Springs, Oklahoma based group of autosport enthusiasts who compete in both the SCCA ProRally and SCCA ClubRally series, and are finalizing plans to run the world-famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

The Sports Car Club of America ProRally Championship is the nations only performance rally series with uniquely varied venues coast-to-coast. Teams compete flat out against the clock for hundreds of miles over closed-to-the-public forestry roads separated into a series of special stages. A co-driver tells the driver where jumps, dangerous turns or other obstacles are to the hundredth of a mile by utilizing a route book while competing. All events are televised on Speedvision (www.speedvision.com).

The team is sponsored by KC HiLiTES (www.kchilites.com), e-mediablitz.com (www.e-mediablitz.com), Flower City Printing (www.flowercityprinting.com), Floor Gator spill remediation systems (www.okgator.com), Competition Graphics (www.competitiongraphics.com), Lazer Corporation (www.lazerracing.com) and Vincent Allen Motorsports Management (www.vincentallen.com).

Event information for the SCCA organized, FIA listed International Cherokee Trails Rally is available at www.cherokeetrailsrally.com. The SCCA website www.scca.org covers all performance rally activity sanctioned by the organization.

Event information for the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb is available at: www.ppihc.com.

Media and Sponsorship Contact Information:
Michael E. Halley, Manager, Stage Fright Rallye Team, a division of
RealAutoSport, LLC
1235 S. 263rd W. Ave. Sand Springs, Oklahoma, 74063-5184
Phone: (918) 865-7046 Email: mehalley@realautosport.com