US - Trunkmonkey Racing finishes Maine Forest Rally
Aug-04 2005 / 04:05 EDT

HAVERHILL, MA (07/31/2005) – New England-based motorsports team Trunkmonkey Racing successfully completed Maine Forest Rally which plays host to River Valley Rally and Bethel Rally of the Rally America Eastern Regional Championship. Competing in Production GT Class with their 1996 Subaru Impreza 2.2 L, the team placed 3rd in class at Bethel Rally and 5th in class at River Valley Rally. Over the two-day event driver Sean Sosik-Hamor and co-driver Andrew Hobgood traversed 88 miles of special stages and 260 miles of total distance through the picturesque landscape of Maine.

Trunkmonkey Racing has been extremely active in the New England motorsports community for the past four years both competing in and helping organize autocross, ice racing, rallycross, and road rally events as well as marshaling and crewing performance rally events. Their inaugural performance rally, Maine Forest Rally was a turning point in the team's history.

Said Sean Sosik-Hamor, "As rookies running on novice competition licenses our primary focus was to simply finish the event with an undamaged car, gain experience, and acquire the coefficients required to move up to full competition licenses. Although our stage times got faster and faster over the two days of stages as Andrew familiarized himself with the routebook and solidified his calls I was intentionally taking it slow and braking early while playing dodgeball with watermelon-sized rockadillos. In essence, Maine Forest Rally was simply a long shakedown session to see exactly what the car could do."

Andrew Hobgood later added, "I still don't fully realize that we're done with Maine...it's been so long in coming and to manage a solid finish in our home rally was an absolute blast."

Running with dual-layer shimmed skidplates constructed from 1/8" aluminum and 3/16" high density polyethylene (HDPE), the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza survived Maine with minimal damage including a lost exhaust tip, two bent wheels that were easily banged out in service, and many broken skidplate zip ties.

The Trunkmonkey Racing crew was the backbone of the weekend consisting of Dan Oliver, Nick Rabchenuk, Kelly Sosik-Hamor, John Tourville, and Sabrina Vollers who rolled into service early and were ready and waiting to inspect the car and rectify any issues. Team members Brian Batty, Chris Brenton, and James Mackey were instrumental in preparing the Trunkmonkey Pink Impreza in the weeks leading up to Maine Forest Rally. Many thanks also go out to Josh Bressem for helping out the team for the weekend after his driver retired during shakedown.

Trunkmonkey Racing would like to thank their 2005 sponsors and partners:

Finer Touch Auto Body: http://www.finertouchauto.com/
RallyDecals.com: http://www.rallydecals.com/
Arcamedia Corporation: http://www.arcamedia.com/
RallyHo Motorsports: http://www.rallyhomotorsports.com/

For more information about Trunkmonkey Racing, please visit:
http://www.trunkmonkeyracing.com/

For more information about Maine Forest Rally, please visit:
http://www.maineforestrally.com/

Photo Copyright © 2005 Pete Kuncis, On A Limb Racing Rally Photography