This year’s Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally®, presented by Citizens & Northern Bank, more commonly known as STPR®, turns the ‘girl power’ up a notch as champion Nathalie Richard will co-drive with Verena Mei for the tokidoki / TrueCar Rally team in the Fiesta dubbed “Trixie.” The rally is based out of Wellsboro, Pa. and runs Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1.
Nathalie Richard, who's won more rallies than any other co-driver in North America, will call the notes for Verena Mei at next week's Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally.
Mei's regular co-driver Leanne Junnila is unavailable: Richard's perennial pilot Antoine L'estage is unable to compete after the big accident at the Oregon Trail Rally which wrecked his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC...
And so 8-times champion Richard is taking over in the co-driver for the young U.S. driver in her Fiesta.
L'estage has tweeted: "Good luck, and have fun girls..."
The Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally - STPR - starts on Friday May 31 in Wellsboro Pennsylvania.
Source: iRally
Verena Mei & Nathalie Richard team-up for STPR
This year for STPR, Verena Mei brings on the most decorated Co-Driver in North America, Nathalie Richard, as a guest Co-Driver for the tokidoki / TrueCar Rally Team. "I'm very excited to drive with the record setting North American Champion! It will be a great experience driving with Nathalie. She's won STPR 3 times, including last year, so I know she'll push me hard. I'm very fortunate to work with empowering women," says Verena Mei.
Richard, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who usually co-drives for Antoine L'Estage on the Rockstar Energy Drink Rally Team, will take Leanne's Junnila's seat for STPR. Junnila will return to New England Forest Rally with Verena and the tokidoki/TrueCar Rally Team and together, complete the rest of the 2013 Rally America season.
Please welcome Nathalie to the tokidoki/TrueCar Rally Team at STPR!
Keep up on the latest with Verena and Nathalie:
Twitter/Instagram @VerenaMei @NathalieRally
facebook.com/VerenaMeiRacing
facebook.com/NathalieRichardRally
verenamei.com, nathalierichard.com
Photo: Pinky Yoshimoto/Aaron Kathman
Source: Rally America
As the days to STPR (Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally) rapidly approach, rally driver Verena Mei suddenly learned that her regular co-driver Leanne Junnila would not be available for the event. Leanne has been working hard at school and won a scholarship which gave her a rare opportunity to present at an International Design conference. As it would happen this conference that is only held once a year is the same weekend as the next round of the Rally America Championship. That didn’t leave Verena much time to get acquainted with someone new for the upcoming rally in Pennsylvania.
If we rewind back a little bit, you might remember the loss of the Rockstar Energy Team’s 2005 WRC Lancer at the Oregon Trail Rally a couple of weeks ago. Not having a car meant that the team had to pull out of STPR and possibly future Rally America rounds this season. Apparently that loss has a bit of a silver lining for Verena Mei. As fate would have it Rockstar Energy Co-Driver Nathalie Richard was now available and willing to step into the right seat to take Leanne Junnila’s place in the Tokidoki/TrueCar Rally Team Ford Fiesta for the STPR event.
Source: OpenPaddock.net
TrueCar Rally America driver Verena Mei will compete in the 4th Round of the Rally America National Championship Series, The Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (commonly know as STPR) in Wellsboro, PA June 1 – 2.
Mei and her co-driver, Leanne Junnila of Calgary, compete as the only all-female national team in Rally America. The duo solidified their lead in Rally America's B-Spec National Championship after an impressive top ten finish at the Oregon Trail Rally earlier this month.
The STPR course is not only fast, with speeds in the dense forest reaching more than 100 mph, but also slippery and very dangerous. Rally America is quoted as saying "this rally is not for the feint of heart."
