|
features :: stories
:: 2007 :: K&N Engineering goes rally
racing
For Immediate Release
Contact: David Gee/952-201-3151
Season-long team sponsorship
continues relationship that began at X Games
RIVERSIDE,
CA. (January 23, 2007) K&N Engineering,
the world leader in performance filter technology,
has signed a season-long primary sponsorship
agreement with Twin Cities-based CPD Racing,
one of the leading teams in the professional
rally motorsports series Rally America.
This
solidifies a successful relationship that
began at the X Games last summer when Lauchlin
O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam drove
their K&N-sponsored Subaru to an impressive
fourth-place finish, the highest of any
non-factory team. They are aiming for victory
in the X Games this summer, as well as the
2007 Rally America Championship.
“K&N
is proud to announce our continued support
of Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam
in the 2007 Rally America Series and their
pursuit of an X-Games Championship win,”
says David Vespremi, Marketing Director,
K&N Engineering. “At K&N,
we see rally as an ideal showcase and proving
ground for the High-Flow Technology of our
air and oil filters. At K&N, our development
time with teams like this is just as important
as the R&D that takes place in our laboratories.
And rally is unique in that it presents
an environment in which a wide array of
elements are present: from dust to snow
to dirt to gravel. The cars breathe through
a mandated restrictor plate, just like NASCAR.
However, unlike NASCAR, these engines are
small displacement turbocharged engines
running high levels of boost that are essentially
highly tuned variations of what a consumer
might drive on the street. For this reason,
consistent air flow, low maintenance, durability,
and superior filtration are critical in
these applications and the development that
takes place as a result of racing with teams
like this improves K&N's consumer product
lines."
During
the 10-round calendar, the Rally America
Championship visits eight different states,
taking in a variety of road – and
weather – conditions from Maine to
Washington.
Amidst
it all, the competitors pit themselves against
each other and the clock in one of the most
open and unpredictable championships in
sport. Any one of the top drivers could
realistically win, and while outright fitness
and driving ability is of importance, guile
and experience are of equal value.
“As
we prepare for this weekend’s Sno*Drift
Rally in Michigan, the first event of the
2007 season, we are very excited about preparing
to partner with K&N Engineering for
a full season as well,” says CPD Racing’s
driver Lauchlin O’Sullivan. “We
certainly aspire to be the best so it makes
sense to use the best products we can in
our race car. K&N makes the finest air
and oil filters and is the true industry
leader. We use their products with total
confidence and will do all we can at each
– and every – rally event to
make them proud.”
Sno*Drift
is the first stop on the 2007 Rally America
National Championship. It's a full-on snow
and ice event through the back roads of
northeastern lower Michigan which will present
plenty of challenges for O’Sullivan,
a native Californian who still resides there.
The
former Mitsubishi USA factory driver helped
capture the Manufacturers Overall Championship
for Mitsubishi in 2003 and finished second
overall in the driver’s championship
that year. He makes his living driving stunt
cars and performing maneuvers for feature
films and commercials, and you may have
seen his latest work in the recent movie
“Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
Co-driving
for O'Sullivan is Scott Putnam. After he
and O’Sullivan first rode together
at the Ojibwe Forest Rally in 2004, everyone
recognized they had instant chemistry and
should be a team. Putnam has received high
level co-driving training in Finland by
WRC ace Jakke Honkannen and at Team O'Neil
Driving School in New Hampshire.
2007
Rally America National Championship Series
Schedule:
Sno*Drift
Rally, Atlanta, Michigan, January 26-27
Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, Salem, Missouri,
February 23-24
Oregon Trail Rally, Hillsboro, Oregon, April
20-22
Olympus Rally, Olympia, Washington, May
19-20
Susquehannock Trail Rally, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania,
June 2
New England Forest Rally, Bethel, Maine,
July 13-14
X Games 13, Los Angeles, California, August
2-5
Ojibwe Forests Rally, Bemidji, Minnesota,
August 24-25
Rally Colorado, Steamboat Springs, Colorado,
September 22-23
Lake Superior Rally, Houghton, Michigan,
October 26-27
K&N
Engineering, Inc., with headquarters in
Riverside, California, has been the world’s
leader in performance filter technology
since 1969, serving the needs of the automotive,
motorcycle, marine, industrial and military
markets. K&N is heavily involved in
nearly every form of motorsports from off-road
and powersports to drag racing, stock cars
and road racing. For more information about
K&N Filters, please contact K&N
Engineering, Inc., P.O. Box 1329, Riverside,
CA 92502-1329, (800) 213-4182 for a dealer
near you, (800) 858-3333 for technical service/questions,
(951) 826-4001 Fax, e-mail tech@knfilters.com,
or visit www.knfilters.com.
CPD Racing is a professional rally team
owned by Doug Havir and based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. The team fields two Subaru WRX
STi’s in the Rally America series,
the principal sanctioning and governing
body of rally racing in the United States.
Rally America is also owned by Havir. CPD
Racing, a proven rally race winner, is also
sponsored by Luther Automotive Group’s
Bloomington Acura Subaru and subenet. For
more information about CPD Racing please
go to www.subaru.net.
|
