photo from Rally-America.com

Mark Fox in the #54 National Guard rally car received the 2009 Rookie of the Year award capping an action packed rookie season in the Rally America Championship Series.

Fox joins the company of recent winners Ken Block, Kyle Sarasin, “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram, and Dave Mirra who have all gone on to successful rally careers.

Rally America presents the award to the driver who has made the most significant pro-gress in his first year of national competition and holds the highest overall year-end standings. Fox was a clear leader in the competition having nearly secured the title after Rally Colorado’s tie for third, resulting in a fourth place finish. Adding to the accom-plishment is the fact that Fox competed the entire season with rookie co-driver, Jake Blattner at his side. “It’s a real honor to be in the company of the past winners” said Fox. “It feels great to be rewarded for the hard work and difficulties that accompany a first championship season”.

“It’s a steep learning curve, and it couldn’t have happened without such a solid team”. “We learned continually throughout the season, and that knowledge insures we will com-pete successfully next year” The 2009 campaign was defined by change with team adjustments and Fox driving three different cars. The team finally purchased a 2007 WRX Impreza. In the new car he went on to place fourth, seventh, and tie for third in the last three races of the year.

We would like to thank our fans and everyone who helped make this season such a great success. See you next year!

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Live coverage of The Race of Champions to be broadcast on Eurosport and online through Freecaster - Action to be broadcast daily in Europe from 12:00 GMT, 13:00 CET - CCTV5 showing all three days of action live in China Motorsport fans around the world will get the chance to watch the biggest ever Race of Champions live on TV or on their computers, after organisers confirmed that the event will be broadcast live on TV channels across the world, as well as online through www.raceofchampions.com and www.freecaster.tv.

The three-day event will be held in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium from Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 November and, like the 2008 Olympics, the time difference means that most of the action will take place during the European afternoon. “This is the first time The Race of Champions has been held outside Europe, and we don’t want fans to miss out on live coverage,”said Fredrik Johnsson, President of event organisers IMP. “As well as the TV companies who will show the event around the world, the online broadcast, which was extremely popular last year, means that if viewers can’t get to a TV, they can watch the action live action wherever they are.

“The Race of Champions 2009 begins with ROC China on Monday 2 November, where China’s top racers will compete to see who represents the country in The ROC Nations Cup on Tuesday. The ROC Nations Cup will feature drivers put into pairs based on their nationality, with each team battling to prove they are the fastest nation. In The Race of Champions itself, on Wednesday 4 November, all the top drivers will fight against each other to see who is crowned the “Champion of Champions”. All days of the event are broadcast live on www.raceofchampions.com, with action starting each day at 20:00 local time in China, which is 12:00 GMT and 13:00 CET.

Drivers confirmed for this year’s event include newly-crowned F1 World Champion Jenson Button, seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, eight-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen and five-time MotoGP Champion Mick Doohan. Any media interested in broadcasting the event through their website should contact press2009@raceofchampions.com. Other ROC news, 2008 AMA Supercross and 2009 National Motocross Champion Chad Reed will step in as Mick Doohan’s Australian Team-mate in The Race of Champions. Jamie Whincup decided not to attend due to concerns it may affect his chances of winning a second consecutive V8 Supercar Championship.

Worldwide television coverage confirmed for ROC 2009 so far:

Worldwide www.raceofchampions.com

- Live coverage of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Europe Eurosport

- Live coverage, delayed coverage plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Middle East Al Jazeera Sport

- Live coverage plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Asia Eurosport Asia

- Live coverage, delayed coverage plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions South America ESPN International

- Highlights of The Race of Champions Pacific ESPN International

- Highlights of The Race of Champions Australia Network Ten

- Delayed coverage plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions ESPN International

- Highlights of The Race of Champions Brazil Sport TV

- Live coverage of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions China CCTV5

- Live coverage of ROC China, The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Finland MTV3

- Live coverage of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions France Eurosport France

- Live coverage, delayed coverage, plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Great Britain British Eurosport

- Live coverage, delayed coverage, plus highlights of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions Iceland 365

- Live coverage of The ROC Nations Cup & The Race of Champions USA Discovery Channel

- Highlights of The Race of Champions and delayed coverage of ROC Nations Cup

Editors’ Notes Photos are available on www.raceofchampions.com Alternatively you can E-mail press2009@raceofchampions.com

The Race of Champions was started in 1988 by Fredrik Johnsson and Michele Mouton, the world’s most successful female rally driver. The event has traditionally moved from venue to venue around the world, being most recently held at the Stade de France in Paris (2004-2006) and Wembley Stadium in London (2007-2008). The 2009 event will take place in The Beijing National Stadium from Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 November, on a specially constructed asphalt circuit. The Race of Champions 2009 will be made up of three separate competitions - ROC China, The ROC Nations Cup and The Race of Champions itself. Each competition pits drivers against each other in a head-to-head format, with equal equipment ensuring races are won and lost on talent alone.

ROC China will decide which drivers represent the host country in The ROC Nations Cup, which takes place the following day. The ROC Nations Cup features drivers paired into teams based on their nationality. In 2009, a group stage will decide which four teams progress to the semi-finals, when a best-of-three knockout competition will determine who makes it to the final. Last year Team Germany (Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel) beat Team Scandinavia (Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekstrom) in the final to win The ROC Nations Cup for a second consecutive year.

In The Race Of Champions individual drivers go head-to-head until the champion is decided. In 2009, a group stage will be held to decide the final eight drivers, before the traditional knockout format resumes for the quarter-finals. In last year’s Final, Sebastien Loeb beat David Coulthard in the third race of a best-of-three battle. Drivers confirmed for The Race of Champions 2009 include: Seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher (Team Germany) Formula 1 World Championship leader Jenson Button (Team Autosport Great Britain) Red Bull Racing F1 race winner Sebastian Vettel (Team Germany) World Rally Championship leader Mikko Hirvonen (Team Finland) 13-time Formula 1 Grand Prix Winner David Coulthard (Team All Stars) Five-time MotoGP Champion Mick Doohan (Team Australia) Eight-time Le Mans 24 Hour Winner Tom Kristensen (Team Scandinavia) Triple World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx (Team Autosport Great Britain) Double World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm (Team Finland) Double DTM Champion and two-time Race of Champions winner Mattias Ekstrom (Team Scandinavia) World Touring Car Champion Yvan Muller (Team France) 10 time X Games Gold Medallist Travis Pastrana (Team USA) 2008 AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed (Team Australia) Two-time Formula Drift National Champion Tanner Foust (Team USA) 2009 Dakar Rally Winner Giniel de Villiers (Team All Stars) 2009 FIA Cross-Country Cup Winner Guerlain Chicherit (Team France) For media enquiries call Paul Rayner on +86 152 1042 7721 or email press2009@raceofchampions.com

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The action-sports veteran took the Jon Woolf Cup with six outright wins in nine starts and also earned the X Games 15 Rally Car Racing silver medal. Christian Edstrom, who returned to Pastrana’s side in 2009 after a year-long hiatus, took the Grant Whittaker Cup as the top co-driver.

The championship runner-up was Andi Mancin, who also debuted in the X Games Rally Car Race this summer in Los Angeles. After establishing a reputation as a competitive driver in his native Poland, 2009 saw Mancin run his first full season in the United States in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. NOS Energy backed Andrew Comrie-Picard rounded out the top three and scored a top-five finish at X Games 15 in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

The hotly contested new Super Production class saw fierce competition all season and came down to the final round when Colorado’s Jimmy Keeney took the Roy Donnison Super Production Cup by just one point over Ohio’s Pat Moro. Keeney’s wife Melissa Keeney was the winning Super Production class co-driver for 2009. The Keeneys also made their first appearance at X Games this summer, while Moro attended as the alternate, both in similarly prepared Subaru WRX STI rally cars.

In two-wheel drive, series newcomer Dillon Van Way, from Louisiana, took a decisive victory after putting in a consistent performance all season in his Ford Focus to earn the Jon Woodner Cup. The teenaged Van Way’s season highlight was a dramatic demonstration of his real commitment to the tough sport of rally when he finished the Rally Colorado after a rollover. Colorado’s Keith Rudolph was the top two-wheel drive co-driver for 2009.

The 2009 Jeff Moyle Memorial Rookie of the Year Award went to the National Guard-backed Mark Fox who took the step up from regional competition to contest every round of the Rally America national season. He and co-driver Jake Blattner finished the season ranked seventh overall.

Two events, the Oregon Trail Rally and the Rally of the 100 Acre Wood, were jointly awarded top honors for the 2009 Rally of the Year.

Awards were distributed Sunday at the Rally America National Championship Awards Banquet presented by BFGoodrich Tires in Houghton, MI.

A simplified class structure, another exciting X Games and steadily increasing entries marked Rally America’s fifth season as the premier sanctioning body for rally sport in the United States.

The national class structure was simplified to three classes in an effort to increase the sport’s appeal for fans and competitors alike. The change was a success with the new Super Production class for lightly modified, production-based vehicles bringing out intense competition at every round. Subaru Rally Team USA even added a third driver to their roster, signing BMX superstar Dave Mirra to contest the class. He joined Open class drivers Travis Pastrana and Ken Block on the factory team.

As expected, the fourth X Games Rally Car Race provided a season highlight for fans. Although not a points event for Rally America competitors, the high profile contest features select top series competitors, plus top racers invited for their credentials in the racing community at-large. Former Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack took the gold in an Olsbergs Motorsport Evolution Ford Fiesta, in the manufacturer’s first appearance in the contest. Pastrana earned silver for Subaru and Tanner Foust took Ford’s second medal, the bronze.

Series entries were on the rise as the economic tide began to turn at the mid-point in the 2009 season. Entries were up an average of two per cent over 2008, with New England Forest Rally boasting a 50 entry field in 2009 — up an astounding 67 per cent thanks to a series of inventive marketing initiatives this year.

As further demonstration to its commitment to the growth and success of rally competition, Rally America has recently announced positive changes to its championship calendar and its expansion into the exciting sport of European-style rally cross.

Also in 2010, Rally America officials will once again be involved ESPN’s Summer X Games competition, the leading action sports event broadcast live on ABC and ESPN. X Games 16 is scheduled for July 29 to August 1, 2010.

Considered by many to be the extreme sport of auto racing, rally car racing is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads. Among the marques typically represented in Rally America events are Subaru, Ford, Mitsubishi, Dodge and Volkswagen.

The 2009 Rally America championship was made possible with the assistance of Subaru of America, DC Shoes USA, BFGoodrich, Mazda, Lanson Champagne, defNder, and Fulmer, with contingency support by Exedy Racing Clutches, Q Racing, and Endless USA.

The 2010 Rally America season begins in January at Sno*Drift, January 29 - 30, in Atlanta, Michigan.

For more information regarding Rally America, Inc., the 2010 Rally America National Rally Championship or the new European-style rally cross events taking place at the New Jersey Motor Sports Park in the fall of 2010, please call (763) 553-2742 for details or visit www.rally-america.com.

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The 2009 United States Rally Champions are Keith Jackson and Mara Estepp in the All- Wheel-Drive (AWD) category and Dan Brosnan and Shane McCann in the Two-Wheel-Drive (2WD).

The Winners of the USRC Production Cup are Shawn and Jennifer Hudspeth in AWD and Michael Reily and Josh Benthien in 2WD. The first three teams in each category are as follows:

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Regarding the Calendar for the 2010 United States Rally Championship, Mr. Taylor said the following: “We are working on the 2010 USRC Calendar, which will be announced well in advance of the 2010 season. At this point, we are planning the following changes: The International Rally New York that has been the final round of the season for the past two years will take place earlier in the year, namely on September 10 and 11, 2010. Competitors will travel to the final round of the 2010 USRC season at the Prescott Rally in Prescott, Arizona, which is scheduled for October 1 and 2.

Atlantic Division teams will be again competing for coveted cash travel subsidies that will be awarded to top six teams in the Division. The total of $12,000 in subsidies will be distributed to Atlantic Division teams to assist them with travelling to the final round of the 2010 United States Rally Championship in Prescott, Arizona.

The United States Rally Championship will continue its bold steps to make national competition more affordable and accessible to a larger number of rally teams. The Championship structure minimizes or, for many teams, eliminates the need for repeated cross-country travel during the Championship season by providing competition on each side of the country. The final round of the Championship at the end of the year counts both in the Atlantic Division and the Pacific Division and together with the results from all previous rounds decides the top spots in the Championship. As a result, 197 competitors, drivers and co-drivers, participated during the 2009 USRC season, nearly twice as many as in any other championship series in North America.

The Championship season consists of a combination of gravel and tarmac events. Events of the United States Rally Championship allow for reconnaissance and pace notes. Tarmac events, full reconnaissance and pace notes make the United States Rally Championship unique in North America as no other series in North America encompasses all these features. More information on the United States Rally Championship is available at www.usrallychampionship.com.

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Going into the second day, an accomplished Finnish crew of Jani Paasonen/Mika Rajasalo (Subaru Impreza), had a lead of 43 seconds. With a competitive car and more experience than their rivals, United States Rally Championship (USRC) regulars assumed that the visiting Finnish team would be able to cruise to a victory. At the time, Lawless/Sharkey were second, 43 seconds behind, despite a bit of turbocharger and fuel pump trouble on the first day. Seamus Burke/John Buffum were third, but would soon withdraw from the rally due to a head gasket failure.

And then the momentum of the event went the other way: Paasonen’s car broke an axle during the final morning, which slowed Paasonen enough to allow Lawless a 13-second lead. Paasonen responded by taking back seconds on each special stag - despite heavy rain, mud, and deep puddles which limited his and everyone else’s speed. The margin was down to about three seconds at lunch time. But as Paasonen should have surged ahead on the final two or three stages, the Subaru broke a differential. Paasonen/Rajasalo decided to pace themselves and finish, falling to 1 minute and 17 seconds behind the winners.

Martin Donnelly/Stephen Duffy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo) placed third. They were far enough behind the leaders, 6-3/4 minutes, that Donnelly joked afterward that they became spectators in the rally. United States Rally Championship hopefuls Daniel O’Brien and Brendan McCabe finished under Super Rally rules. This was not enough to secure the Championship title. Keith Jackson/Marra Estep (Subaru Impreza) took fourth, garnering enough points to wrap up the United States Rally Championship in the All-Wheel-Drive category. Shawn and Jennifer Hudspeth (Mitsubishi Eclipse) placed fifth overall and secured the USRC All-Wheel-Drive Production Cup for the season. Both teams traveled to the final round of the 2009 USRC season in New York from California.

Like the overall victory, the Two-Wheel-Drive win was not settled until late in the rally. United States Rally Championship contenders Josh & Jeremy Wimpey (Volkswagen Golf Mark 2) and Dan Brosnan/Shane McCann (Nissan Sentra) both suffered mechanical breakages on the first day, broken suspension and steering, respectively. Likewise, the very rapid Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino (Ford Escort Mark 2) were stopped by a broken differential. And so, in the heavy rains of the final afternoon, Wojtek “Al” Kulpa/Adam Pelc (Volkswagen Golf Mark 3) raced with the father-son team of Simon & Kieran Wright (Ford Focus ZX3). Kulpa/Pelc reached the final control with an advantage of 39 seconds for the trophy.

Dan Brosnan and Shane McCann finished under the Super Rally rules, which was enough for them to secure the United States Rally Championship in the Two-Wheel-Drive category. It might have been a golden opportunity for the up-and-coming team of Michael Reilly/Josh Benthien (Ford Focus SVT), but they were delayed by an off-course excursion while leading the Two-Wheel-Drive classification. In the end, they finished tenth overall and won the 2009 USRC Two-Wheel-Drive Production Cup.

The International Rally New York 2009 was broadcast live on USTREAM TV. Hours of recorded live broadcast may be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/discovery/live/all?q=irny . More information on the International Rally New York 2009 is available at http://www.rallynewyork.net/irny2009.html. Information on the United States Rally Championship is at www.usrallychampionship.com

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