June 18, 2007

MERRITT, BC - Despite a deluge of heavy rain, Aaron Neumann of Vancouver won the Mountain Trials Rally in a two-wheel drive rally car this past weekend. Neumann displayed confidence and car control in keeping his quick, red Honda Civic on the road and ahead of all other competitors at the closely fought race. He and co-driver Graham Coates won six of the event's eight competitive stages, taking the lead at the start and maintaining it throughout the entire rally. They finished with a time of 01:08:12 and a sixty-two second margin of victory over their next nearest competitor.

The heavy rain that fell off and on throughout the day made for extremely slippery driving conditions. Despite the weather, a large field of twenty-one entries and featuring some of the best rally drivers from around British Columbia and Alberta, put on a great show for the volunteers and fans who braved the cool, damp weather at the high elevation Helmer Lake summit spectator area.

Neumann's closest challenger was Calgary's Zbigniew (Zibi) Szewczyk, with Tomasz Karzynski co-driving, in their Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart. The pair won the last two stages and appeared to be pushing hard to try and catch the leader, but came up just short at the finish with a time of 01:09:14.

Meanwhile, Colin Armstrong was third overall in his Volkswagen Golf, with Ryan Warrington co-driving. The Calgary-based duo put in an impressive performance, keeping their car on the road and moving along quicker than many of the more powerful machines behind them with a time of 01:10:25.

A late challenge by BC native, Mark Jennings-Bates and co-driver Jennifer Daly, ended when their Subaru Impreza left the road on the penultimate competitive section. The pair had been running as high as second overall at the time and fortunately neither were hurt in the incident.

The event was a tremendous success on all fronts thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers who braved the uncharacteristically cool, wet weather.

"We are blessed with a talented group of supporters who come out to help rain or shine," said event coordinator Paul Westwick. "Without their commitment to the sport, rallying would not be possible."

Thanks to support from The Easy Rider, an Edmonton area snowboard shop, competitors and volunteers received much appreciated take away gifts and prizes

Special thanks to all those in Merritt who supported the rally and the Merritt Canadian Tire store for providing parking space for the teams' service pits.

There will be a long break in the racing action from the Western Canadian Rally Championship during the extended summer season. The next event in the championship will be held in October when the Western-based teams return to Merritt, along with visiting National and North American Championship teams, for the Pacific Forest Rally on October 19-20, 2007.

For more information about this event and to view the complete results, check out Results

The totals in this report include Assigned Penalties and Road Penalties

For more information contact: Paul Westwick - Organizer Ph: (604) 682-3296; e-mail: paul@rallybc.com