Verena Mei & Leanne Junnila 2012 Rally America B-Spec Champions
TrueCar Racing’s Verena Mei from Littleton, NH and co-driver Leanne Junnila from Calgary, Alberta made Rally America history as the first team to win the inaugural B Spec Championship and the first all-female team to win a Rally America Championship. The team amassed 120 points over five Rally America National Championship events with the chance to add more at the Olympus Rally in Olympia, WA on September 22-23rd. Though their success is partly due to showing up more than their B Spec rivals, the team pushed hard to win all their B Spec events. TrueCar Racing only lost to James Robinson from Delaware, OH and James Guitar from Marysville, OH at February’s Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.
"This title means a lot to me as driver of the TrueCar Racing Women Empowered Initiative, and my TrueCar Racing teammates, because now we're part of Rally America history,” added Mei, “When people look back on who won the inaugural season of the B-Spec Championship, they'll see that it was a women's team, and that will never change. My personal goal is to inspire and empower women that they can accomplish anything."
Verena in action at New England Forest Rally
Mei is in her first full season campaigning a 2011 TrueCar Ford Fiesta as the only national all-female rally team. She comes from a drifting and time attack background before making a huge commitment to rally racing. She began her rally career at the 2011 New England Forest Rally under Team O’Neil Rally School’s guidance to learn the secrets of speed on dirt. (Get to know Verena Mei better: rally-america.com/news/latest/1118/)
Source: Rally America
SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar Rally America Driver Verena Mei and her Co-Driver Leanne Junnila finished the fast and extremely narrow stages of the The Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (commonly know as the STPR) in 5th Place in the highly competitive 2WD Division of the Rally America National Championship. The TrueCar B-Spec Fiesta #335 was dubbed "The Little Fiesta That Could" by fans and competitors alike as Verena and Leanne climbed from back in the pack and steadily moved up to compete with highly modified entries and European Spec Ford Fiesta R2's.
“When Verena first came to me and said she wanted to rally I told her to start with the school, then co-drive then finally drive and she has done everything I asked of her,” O’Neil said. “The way she went about putting her program together is text book. She is extremely intelligent and her marketing background has served her well. She won a class in Formula D so she has the ability and she has gone about things every methodically and building her confidence in the car. She is fast and she is tough and I am excited to see how her season unfolds.”
