EPAS Announcement...

Eastern Pennsylvania Stages 2012 Announces Initial Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Windham, NH (February 18, 2012)

Today, NISMO Stuff Racing LLC formally announced the introduction of a new event for the 2012 NASA Rally Sport season. Eastern Pennsylvania Stages (EPAS) will be held at a location long-familiar to stage rally fans in that it will mark the return of rally cars to the Rausch Creek Offroad Park. Earlier this century a number of top flight teams utilized this location for testing alongside a number of RallySprint and rallycross events featuring familiar names such as Dimiters, Hall, Kearney, Lawless, O'Brien and Przybysz amongst others, regularly drawing over twenty competitors. Saturday November 10th will be the day to witness a rebirth of grassroots rally action in Eastern Pennsylvania.

While the event will still be held at the familiar Rausch Creek Offroad Park, the competitive stages will be entirely new, featuring roads that have never seen rally cars in the past. The land upon which prior rally testing and events took place on is no longer part of the facility's available acreage. The new acreage already has numerous roads cut across it and has hosted a number of motorsports events including Ultra4 racing and Wide Open Baja car excursions. Park owners Bruce Shallis and Lynn Ehrenfeld have been instrumental in bringing the opportunity for rally racing back to Rausch Creek and are working diligently with NISMO Stuff Racing LLC to lay out the best possible course amongst the near limitless possibilities offered by both the terrain and the road surfacing equipment available. Their new ownership of the facility is making great events possible.

The mid-fall, Saturday scheduling of the event is intended to make it available to as many grassroots participants as possible, keeping the date as far away from other traditionally East Coast oriented events as possible while also accommodating local hunting seasons and winter weather conditions. The early November date, high in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania should make for some brisk conditions--ripe for a warm campfire with competitors when the day is done!

With local hotels and eating establishments only a ten minute drive or less away and primitive camping available on-site, budgets of all sizes can be accommodated. A large gravel parking lot is also present at the site--directly across the street from where the race will occur--making service, storage and scrutineering and contingency a breeze for all involved.

For this season, EPAS will now be the seventh and final stop of the NASA Rally Sport season. The November 10th date will come after the conclusion of the Atlantic Rally Cup series which occurs on October 27th at the Rallye Charlevoix.

As befitting a season ending event, NISMO Stuff Racing LLC has something special in store for this weekend. "I've always taken an interest in a number of differing motorsports and have always favored drivers that excel at a number of disciplines," said NISMO Stuff Racing's Dan Spalinger "I hope to bring a bit of that variety to this event."

NISMO Stuff Racing LLC is working with its partners at NASA Rally Sport to open the entry field to competitors operating Ultra4 desert-buggie style (http://ultra4racing.com/), as well as the SCORE tagged Wide Open Baja, vehicles (http://wideopenbaja.com/wideopenusa/the-car/), while still adhering to NASA Rally Sport safety requirements, to expand competition. This should allow for a substantial increase in entrants over prior rally events at this facility, expand knowledge of the sport and put on a great show for both competitors and spectators.

Having a larger, varied, field of competitors can only help the grassroots of all these varied motorsports as well as result in a successful event that will allow rally vehicles to return to Rausch Creek time and time again as a mutually beneficial relationship is developed over time. Just imagine, a screaming, anti-lag Evo, sliding its way around a Right Two, followed by a giant, thundering V8 Ultra4 able to ignore the snowglobe size rocks the Evo needed to pick around, while right behind comes the Wide Open car with the travel necessary to float over the tabletops the Ultra4 needed to crawl over. Each vehicle has things it does well and things it does not so well--it will be up to the DRIVER to make the best of it and come out on top!

The event (run under a Rally Sprint format) will be sanctioned by NASA Rally Sport, the grassroots rally sanctioning body for the US. NASA Rally Sport focuses on competitor fun and providing support for rally organizers. Providing tools to the racers, organizers, and fans to increase their enjoyment of rally is one of the core missions of the organization.



FOR EDITORS:

Media Contact: Dan Spalinger / spalind@yahoo.com / 603-475-7860

*The event is sanctioned by NASA Rally Sport.

NASA Rally Sport logo:

http://www.nasarallysport.com/graphics/NASA-Rally-Sport-Logo-Banner-800.png

*More information is available on: http://www.nasarallysport.com/main/Eastern-Pennsylvania-Stages