"Grommit"

Car #554

Press Release:

Date: May 8th, 2000

PRESS RELEASE: Buskirk/Whiteman racing team

Morris, PA
Ski Sawmill Rally School

The Buskirk/Whiteman team loaded with car and spares headed to Morris
Pa 8:00am Thursday morning with service crew chief Eric Burmeister and
future co-driver Mike Paulin.  The team made great time to the event
traveling in luxery with Eric's new F350 extended van with all the
comforts of home.

Thursday upon arrival consisted of registration and tech inspection.
After just having an annual done and log book started, the car passed
with flying colors.  In fact, the comment "Very Nice" was logged in
the book by Ed Brennan.  After tech, a relaxing night of meeting all
the new competitors was at hand.

Friday began the first day of co-driving and driving school.  Chris,
Mike and Mark attended the introduction and driving technique classes before
splitting off to driving exercises and co-driver classroom training.
The driving exercises started out with car handling and progressed to
left foot braking and handling while the car was pitched into a side-
ways slide.  Amazing what control you have on a car while driving 
aggressively!

Friday night included a night driving stage on the Ski Sawmill grounds
with drivier and co-driver in the car.  It was a great opportunity to
test the driving lights and see first hand conditions with night driving.
Mark was able to take both Chris and Mike for a ride in the dark and
didn't scare either of them.  Maybe my driving is improving?  Friday
night ended with Eric finishing the installation of the rally computer
pickup off the speedo-cable and a working terra-trip computer for the
rally on Saturday.

Saturday morning consisted of advanced driver/co-driver training and
the rally was scheduled to start at 3:00pm in the afternoon.  After
lunch, Chris was anxiously awaiting the route book, but was not delivered
until 1 hour before the event.  After marking the route book and getting
the start order, Mark and Chris suited up for their first event as
driver and co-driver.  Stage #1 was on the Ski Sawmill grounds and had
2 90 degree turns with the lake very close to each turn.  Mark and Chris
wowed the crowd as they took the first 90 degree corner late pulling the
GTI to the inside and cutting the second 90 degree inside to produce
a stage time of .91 hundreds of a minute.

Stage #2 was the first off site stage and a true test of driver/co-driver
interaction.  Both Mark and Chris were able to apply their training from
the school to head the GTI to it's stage finish in the mountains of PA.
Stage #3 (the old press stage from STPR) proved that hills do slow down
any vehicle.  The team passed several cars that had gone off or failed
with mechanical difficulties.  With a great finish on Stage #3 the team
proceeded to the service to be greeted by Eric Burmeister and Jerry
Brownell with very little work to be done.  A PCV filter and hose was
blowing oil into the air intake of the engine but was quickly fixed
before leaving service.

The start of Stage #4 was long with 36 of the 40 cars still waiting to
take the start line.  The stage and rally was cancelled at this time due
to complications in the rally.  All competitors were lead back to Ski
Sawmill and the Burskirk/Whiteman team survived their first rally with
no damage to the car.

A special thanks goes to Eric Burmeister, Jerry Brownell, and Mike Paulin for
an excellent job as service crew.  A great time was had be all, and alot
of knowledge was gained about the sport of rallying and driving.  Although
Ski Sawmill 2000 will be remembered for it's accident on Stage #4, it was
still an excellent school to learn about Pro-Rallying and the safety
involved with the sport.  Thanks to all the organizers and workers at
the school!

Mark Buskirk