Greer Enterprises and Nokian Tyres - 2007 Sno*Drift Contingency / Worker Awards program.
Greer Enterprises and Nokian Tyres are pleased to announce the 2007 Sno*Drift Contingency / Worker Awards program.
The 2007 Awards program will be identical to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 programs with 6 sets of Nokian tires awarded to competitors and 2 sets awarded to workers. Two years ago the then new Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi was tested by Mark Utecht three weeks prior to the rally -the article describing his results appears later- [see endorsement below - Nokian Tyres Hakkapelitta RSi Tire Test:.). Last year we achieved our greatest results in the 4 years of our program- Nokian Tyres equipped cars won all three rallies! Andrew Comrie-Picard won the National rally using Hakka C2's and Robert Borowicz won both Regional rallies on one set of Hakka RSi's! Other notable National Nokian equipped overall finishes were Travis Pastrana-2nd, Ken Block-4th, Chris Gilligan- 7th and Andrew Pinker- 9th ! And last year a record 65% of the 2006 starting field was on Nokian Hakkapelitta's. Many thanks and congratulations to all the Nokian equipped competitors for their efforts and results over the last four years! So if you haven't already joined the Hakka Group, why not join the winners on Nokian Hakkapeliitta Tyres this year? See the Sno*Drift Competitor / Worker Promotion below.
| Competitor Contingency Awards | |
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| Worker Award |
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One set of 4 Nokian Tires will be awarded to each of two lucky workers [one set each] at the Awards ceremony in Hillman after the rally by a lottery to be determined by the Sno*Drift Organizers. Details will be provided at worker registration. Any tire[s] in the Nokian line are available for this promotion and will be shipped to the winner anywhere in the U.S. at no charge. |
At least one set of 4 Nokian tires must be run on at least one stage on each day of the rally to qualify for this program. At least 2 Nokian Tyres stickers must be displayed on the rally car for the entire duration of the event, including post-rally celebration and media display. Nokian Tyres stickers will be supplied to eligible teams at Scrutineering and must be applied there and approved by the Greer Ent. rep. on site, A team may only win one set of tires for the duration of this event. If a team's finishing position would qualify for more than one set of tires, the next best Nokian Tyres equipped finisher will be awarded the prize. The decision of the Greer Ent.Rep.on site will be final. These Rules may be amended by Greer Ent. and it's rep. at any time.
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Sno *Drift National and
Regional Rallies combined- 66% of the starting field
equipped with Nokian Tyres. [ New Record- previous
record was 65%]
Sno*Drift National Rally- 57%
of the starting field / 52% of finishers equipped
with Nokian Tyres.
Sno* Regional Rally- 68% of
the starting field / 65% of finishers equipped with
Nokian Tyres.
Drift Regional Rally- 65% of
the starting field / 70% of finishers equipped with
Nokian Tyres.
Award winners:
Sno*Drift Nat. Rally - Best
AWD Nokian equipped finisher, 12th OA: Chris
Gilligan / Joe Petersen - Mitsubishi EVO IV.
Sno*Drift Nat. Rally - Best
2WD Nokian equipped finisher, 18th OA: Cary Kendall
/ Scott Friberg - Dodge SRT4.
Sno* Regional Rally - Best AWD
Nokian equipped finisher, 4th OA: Tom Ottey / Pam
McGarvey - Mazda 323GTX. [ Note: Zenz / Parps
finished 3rd OA but not eligible for promotion due
to affiliation with Greer Ent.]
Sno* Regional Rally - Best 2WD
Nokian equipped finisher, 6th OA: Joel Sanford /
Scott Sanford - Chevy Cavalier.
Drift Regional Rally - Best
AWD Nokian equipped finisher, 2nd OA: Piotr
Wiktorczyk / Martin Brady - Subaru Impreza.
Drift Regional Rally - Best
2WD Nokian equipped finisher, 7th OA: Evan Moen /
Daniel Victor - Acura Integra
Workers:
Todd Campau.
Tim Carmean.
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I recently had the opportunity to compare the
Nokian Hakkapeliitta Q with the new Nokian RSI. The Q has been a great
tire. We ran the Q on our Group N WRX at the Sno*Drift rally the last 4
years, winning our class 3 of those 4. I had heard that the new RSI was
better than the Q but I was skeptical. The Q is a great tire and I
thought it would be very difficult to make a better tire. So... we
arranged a test!
The test car was a 2004 Subaru Forester base model
with an automatic transmission. The tire size was 215/60/16 on 7 inch
wide rims. The testing surface was a frozen lake with about 2 inches of
snow cover. The course had very tight esses sections and high speed
sweeping corners. In some corners on the course, previous cars had
blown the snow clear and polished the ice. Basically, we had all the
usual Sno*Drift conditions.
First, we ran the car with the Qs. They performed
great as usual. You could exceed the grip the tire provided by throwing
the car around or overcooking a corner. The Q is very predictable and
reacquires grip when lost easily by reducing the control inputs in the
car. The Qs are the same great tire I remembered. We ran three runs
trying three driving styles, max attack, slow and steady and then the
compromise between those two. The compromise style yielded the best
time.
Next, we mounted the RSIs. Within 100 feet of the
start line, I could feel the difference in the seat of my pants. The
tire had more grip in all circumstances. The first run, we did the slow
and steady method. It did not yield a faster time than the Q but was
much more controllable. The second run was max attack. The car was
even more predictable than on the Qs. Because of that, I pushed the
pace even more. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm sent me far off course in
one corner and the time clearly showed my mistake. Finally, we ran the
compromise pace. After having less than 2 miles experience with the RSI,
I was able to shave two seconds per mile off my best time with the Qs as
timed from inside the car. The higher level of grip made the car much
more stable. It was harder to get the tires to break traction and they
came back much quicker. The biggest change was under braking. The RSIs
made braking on snow covered ice feel like wet pavement in warm
weather. There was enough grip that we actually got weight transfer to
the front end and I had to counter steer to keep the rear end behind us.
Overall, I was very impressed with the new RSI. I
will be running them at Sno*Drift and will recommend them to anyone that
asks my opinion.
Mark Utecht
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