Mayhem Racing wins ProRally Championship
by Mary Utecht
The ProRally season has recently come to a close with the Lake Superior ProRally, run out of Houghton, Michigan. At the event, Mark Utecht and Brenda Corneliusen capped off a successful season by winning the Group 5 National ProRally Championship and the Woodner Cup, which is the Championship for 2wd cars. Many miles were put on the tow vehicle as the team traveled to events in the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan, Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington State, Arizona and Northern Minnesota in order to stay ahead of the competition in the points battle.
The team spent the off season building a new Omni GLH to replace a car that had an unfortunate meeting with a tree at Ojibwe the previous year. Mark and Brenda had set their minds that this season was going to be spent learning a new car, and since this was going to be Brenda’s first year of co-driving for Mark, a new set of communication skills. They narrowly won their class at the Sno*Drift ProRally in late January, despite having alternator problems. The results at Sno*Drift were quickly tempered by a DNF at the Headwaters ClubRally and a third place in class at the Susquehannock Trails ProRally in Pennsylvania. Even with these results, Mark and Brenda found themselves in the middle of a three way fight for the Group 5 Championship with two factory backed teams. It was then on to the Maine Forest ProRally.
Maine in the summer is a beautiful place to hold a rally. Mark really liked the roads as they were fast and open. The rally ends every year with a paved special stage through downtown Rumford, with hundreds of spectators and squealing tires. Mark had a comfortable lead in his class so he didn’t push it on the in-town stage. We came away from Maine with the class win and at the top of the points chase.
The Ojibwe Forest ProRally is one of those nemesis rallies for the Mayhem team. In past years we have had several mechanical DNF’s, and there was the tree incident last year. This year, we vowed it was going to be different. The goal was to finish. The roads were in great shape, very little of the dust that had so
often plagued the later stages. There was even the addition of two new spectator stages. Mark and the factory Honda were only a few seconds apart going into the last stage. Neither of them were going to give up. Mark turned in the fastest stage time overall and the Honda was close behind. It wasn’t enough of a difference to bridge the gap and we wound up second, but at least we finished. Mark now had a smaller lead in the points. The decision had to be made whether to go to two West coast events in the fall. We had not originally planned to go to these events, but it is not very often that you get a chance to vie for a national championship. So we packed our bags and headed for Washington State. Unfortunately, we forgot the good fortune, and the car was heavily damaged in a three quarter roll, followed by a hit from another rally car. As we packed the mangled car back on to the trailer for its trip back home, we were already trying to make plans to rent a car for an event in Arizona, only two weeks away. We were able to secure a very competitive but less powerful Group 2 car and it was off to Arizona.
Despite being in an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads and losing a wheel, Mark and Brenda were able to secure a second place in class in Arizona. Bryan Hourt in the factory Honda had a drive of a lifetime, and Mark now found himself in a tie for the championship going into the last event. They were even tied in the tie-breakers. This championship would need to be won on the stages.
With the wrecked car rebuilt, we headed north to the UP of Michigan. The Lake Superior ProRally has always been one of our favorites. The roads are conducive to Mark’s driving style and he usually does pretty well there. The first stage was not kind to the factory Honda and he ended up spending 16 minutes stuck on the side of the road. All Mark and Brenda needed to do was finish the rally. Mark said that it was actually harder to drive slower than it is to drive at the limit.
All in all, we were able to see some beautiful parts of the country and meet lots of wonderful rally people, although we have found that most of the best are right here in LOL.
Tonneau On-Line February 2001
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Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
