September rally race in Tusten cancelled

Organizer cites competing events

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The Rally New York race, scheduled for September for various locations in Tusten and western Sullivan County, has been cancelled. Ivan Orisk, one of the driving forces behind bringing the races to the county over the past three years, said he was forced to cancel the event because of a lack of participants.

At previous events in April and in September of 2005, Orisek said there were 45 to 65 teams of drivers who had signed on to compete. This time, only 20 had signed up by Friday, September 8, forcing cancellation under the rules that govern the events.

Orisek said part of the reason for the low number of participants is the growing success of the sport itself. This year, between the last week of August and the first week of October, there are seven rally events scheduled for the United States, which is more than in the past when there were only two or three.

Orisek said he has been in contact with the various people responsible for scheduling the events, and hopes to work out greater coordination in the future. He said he hopes to bring another race to the county next spring, but it is too early to know when that might happen.

Orisek said another factor in the low-driver turnout might have been the controversy stirred up in the Town of Liberty during the event last spring. Several residents complained about not being able to use the roads in front of their homes for hours. On some occasions, residents stepped onto the roadways when they weren’t supposed to, creating what Orisek called “a safety issue.” He said this upset some drivers, but was unsure if it was sufficiently upsetting to prompt drivers to stay away from the event.

This time, the race was to be run on only dirt or gravel roads, and none of the so-called special stages was going to take place in Liberty. Most of the stages were scheduled for Tusten and two-thirds were to take place on private property. There was to be a ceremonial start in Narrowsburg at noon on Friday.

Tusten supervisor Ben Johnson said he was disappointed that the race had been cancelled because it brought a lot of people to the area, and people in town largely supported it. He said there had been concerns by some residents about race cars using public roads in the past, but the rally organizers had been able to allay those concerns.

Liberty supervisor Frank DeMayo said he was not sure he could support the race on public streets in that town in the future because there was “quite a lot of opposition from the residents.”

Lilliam Stettner, one of the Liberty residents who complained bitterly about the rally in April, said, “If the race comes back to Liberty, you can come and visit me at the county jail, because I will lay across the road to prevent it, and they will have to arrest me and take me away.”