North Nevada Rally Win!
Team Universal Rally driver Andrew Sutherland and co-driver Amar Sehmi put their brand new Subaru Impreza Open Class rally car on the top of the podium in this years revitalized North Nevada Rally with a NASA Rally Sport Open Class and Overall victory!! The team was still putting the final touches on the car the night before the event and had only completed a very limited number of "shake-down" miles before the start of the rally.
The new car going through tech inspection.....more action photos to follow...
2008 Plans 12-12-07
Universal Rally is still in the planning phase for 2008 and a Rally America class selection and schedule of events to attend has not been decided. Progress on the Open class car has been good (see below) but there are still several key componetnt that need to be installed to make the first event of the year, Sno-Drift (www.sno-drift.org) on January 25th, 2008.
The other option is to prepare the teams current recce car,a 2006 Subaru WRX, for the Production GT class. This would allow the team to compete for the Subaru Plan A contingency payouts which is much needed boost to the team budget.
Idaho Success 6-16-07
Andrew Sutherland and co-driver Josh McConnell earned a 2nd overall and 1st in class in the inaugural Idaho Rally. This event was Andrew's first rally on a sealed surface and it was Josh's first time ever in a rally car. A two pass recce was provided which provided an extra level of complexity to an already challenging situation.
The team piloted a rented Ford Escort from Jim Peirce Motorsports (www.advanceoffroad.com) . The car is typlicaly used for endurance road racing and was modified to meet rally regulations. With only 130 naturally aspirated horsepower the key to success was carring as much speed as possible. The plan worked as the team quickly secured 3rd overall and 1st in class during the morning stages. By the final stage they had moved into 2nd overall and remained 1st in class.
Update 12-5-06
Group 5 Champions!!
Andrew Sutherland wins Group 5 at Reno! The 2006 Reno Rally was the finale for the Southwest Cup Rally series. Andrew’s victory at Reno gave him enough points to take the Group 5 Driver Championship and place 2nd Overall in the series. Co-Driver Chrissie Beavis also took top honors in the series despite her entry as a Group 2 Driver at Reno.
- Andrew Sutherland 2005/06 Group 5 Driver Champion
- Chrissie Beavis 2005/06 Group 5 Co-driver Champion
Read more here: http://www.universalrally.com/6.html
11/20 - Update
With less than two weeks until Reno things are looking a "sparse"
11/01 - Update
Finally! I know it’s been a long time since we updated the website and I apologize…it’s just really hard finding good web-gurus that work for free!
In the last year and a half a lot has gone on. I’ll give you the consolidated version:
- We won day one of the 2005 Reno Rally, 1st overall and 1st in our class.
- We placed 2nd overall on day two of the 2005 Reno Rally and 1st in our class.
- We finished the season 2nd overall in points for the Rally America Western region.
- We went to the Rally America Regional “run-offs” in Missouri to race for the overall club Group 5 championship.
- We led the Group 5 championship race from the first stage….all the way until we rolled 2 ½ times into some trees.
We’ve been rebuilding ever since!
The rebuilt and revised car will debut in December at the 2006 Reno Rally http://www.renorally.com
Here’s a sneak peek…
More to come!!