Photo by Tom Buckhoe ANDERSON AND PRELUDE VTEC STAY IN THE HUNT FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP - FINISHES 3rd IN CLASS AT LAKE SUPERIOR The JPIII Rally Sport team had a difficult time at the 1996 D&N Bank Lake Superior PRO Rally held October 18 -19 in Houghton, Michigan, but managed to finish third in class, 11th overall. This year, the roads for the rally had changed dramatically from the rough, nearly impassable roads of years past to fairly smooth, very fast roads. This year's event used a one-day format starting at 2 pm and finishing up around 5 am the next morning with the majority of the 160 stage miles held well after dark. The weather cooperated granting near perfect conditions with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees F and light winds. Recent rains meant the roads would be damp and occasionally slippery, but there would be no dust. Tad Ohtake joined the team in the Navigator's seat as Martin Dapot could not attend due to pressing business matters. We also enlisted many volunteers from Michigan Tech University to help clean windshields, change tires, etc., much to the delight of our service crew. Other Production Class entries included Lon Peterson in his Kia Sephia, A. K. Kaumeheiwa in his Dodge Neon, and the '96 Civic of Team Honda Research with Jay Kowalik and Jeff Wheeler. Peterson had retaken the Drivers Championship points lead by running the Prescott Forest 60% National rally 3 weeks earlier.

Peterson had retaken the Championship points lead at Prescott Forest.

Budgetary constraints did not allow JPIII Rally Sport to make the journey to Arizona and Lon got 12 uncontested points. A total of 21 cars started the National event - again a relatively small field, but also again, a high quality field with only 5 drivers being seed 4 or below.

Our strategy was to be sure we made it to the finish to score points and then see where we were. I had to score points in both this event and the final event in Washington to have any hope of getting the Driver's Championship. I had to beat Peterson once during the two events and finish both, so I was determined to finish this rally, and win if we got a few breaks.The first 4 stages were held in the late afternoon with the sun going down, blinding us in several spots on the stages. Fallen leaves also covered many of the corners, making for a few surprises! Peterson was attacking strongly in the early going, and managed to get about a 45 second lead going into the night sections. This rally is a long rally, so this was fine. We would attack a little later. Unfortunately, that did not work out. On Stage 6, just as the roads were changing to higher speed, sweeping tracks, the vehicle speed sensor joint sheered in two.

Just as the roads were changing to higher speed, sweeping tracks, the speed sensor broke!

This sensor drives the speedometer, the navigator's rally computer and, most importantly, is an input to the main engine computer (ECU). The ECU then decided to not engage the high-lift cams (the heart of the VTEC system) and have the rev limiter engage at 6,000 rpm instead of 7,800. As a result, we lost about 50-80 hp and slowed considerably.

From that point, Tad and I just drove to the finish. Fortunately, there were no other problems and we were able to stay ahead of the THR Civic and scored 3rd place class points and finished 11th overall. Kaumeheiwa's Neon bested Peterson's Kia by 16 seconds to take 1st in the class. With only one event left, Pacific Forest November 8 - 10, things look good. If we win the last event, we win the championship. Our strategy there will be simple ... WIN! As usual, many thanks to all of the JPIII Rally Sport sponsors! Without their support, we are now in a position to win the National Production-Class Driver's Championship!