51°µÍø

DENVER, Colo. (Oct. 10, 2009) - The 2009 RallyCross championships got underway today with sub 30 degree temperatures, snow flurries, wind and ice. Still, the field of sixty nine rallycrossers broke into four groups and took to their respective courses to battle each other for the title of National Champion. In Stock Front, Timothy Hardy (Ford Escort GT) took the lead immediately and never gave it up on the north course. Matthew Dahn (Nissan Sentra SE-R) started to gain and actually turned a better time on his fourth run. Dahn continued to lead the class after the switch to the south course, however, it wasn't enough to overcome the lead Hardy carried over from the morning runs. Stock Rear action saw Greg McMahon (Toyota MR2) pull away from the class steadily both in the morning and afternoon. While McMahon had the lead, the real battle in the class was between William MacDonald (Volvo 750 Wagon) and Michael Byington (Mazda RX-7). MacDonald led on the north course, but Byington came on strong on the south. After eight runs, MacDonald led by only 0.151-second. Stock All was dominated by Robert Johnson (Mitsubishi EVO VIII) on the South course over Jason Miller who was plagued by pylons on the first and second run. Miller tried to make up for it on the north course by turning some ballistic times, however, it wasn't enough to make up the difference from the morning runs. Prepared Front belonged to Bryan Tippens (Honda CRX SI) on the north course, but not by much. Bret Hunter (Honda CRX) and Ryan Heanny (Chevy Beretta) were only tenths behind. The afternoon proved a difficult time for Bryan as he slipped to fourth with cone trouble and Ryan Haenny improved from third to replace him for the top spot going into day two. Jarred Burnard (Toyota MR2) had an almost uncontested lead in Prepared Rear over Mark Atterbury (Alfa Romeo GTV 6) on the north course but inconsistent runs on the south course saw Atterbury turning better times on the south course but it wasn't enough to make up the difference from the morning. The second largest class of the event, Prepared All, saw quite a battle between Max Johnson (Subaru WRX), Ryan Gates (Subaru WRX), Michael Bond (Subaru STI), Zachary Collins (Subaru WRX) and Brian Francis (Subaru STI). All but Johnson and Gates had cone trouble in the morning runs leaving Johnson in the lead by over five seconds. Martin gave it a good effort in the afternoon runs, but Johnson wasn't having any of it and kept the lead going adding almost five more seconds to his cumulative times to take a nine plus second lead into day two. Modified 2WD became a battle of co-drivers with Chad Ones (Isuzu I-Mark Rs) leading by less than a second after the first four runs over his co-driver, Cole Ones. Chad extended his lead slightly after the afternoon runs on the north course. The lead wasn't the only co-drivers fighting each other. Mixing it up for third and fourth was Kent Hamilton (Honda Civic) and co-driver Aaron Miller with Hamilton leading his co-driver by about 1.5 seconds. By far the largest class of the weekend, Modified 4WD was a battle of Subaru's, Mitsubishi's and Mazda's. Chris O'Driscoll (Subaru WRX) took the lead on his second run over Eric Genack (Subaru Impreza) and never gave it back in the morning. Kenneth Cashion (Mitsubishi EVO IX) had some different plans in the afternoon and kept a 1.3 second lead over O'Driscoll on the north course. Like other classes today, it wasn't enough to take the overall lead for the day. Eric Genack continues to hold the third spot with Warren Elliott (Mitsubishi EVO), Drew Little (Subaru WRX) and Todd Hart (Subaru Impreza WRX) maintaining trophy positions. The action is far from over with another chance tomorrow for lead changes. The two courses areas will be combined for a large course with all four groups making their final bids for the top spot in RallyCross competition.