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Bemidji and
Jim: Well, we could be in better shape. The DNF in Maine was real bummer! Now I,ve really gotta turn the wick up and close the gap between Lon and myself at these next two events. The roads at Ojibwe are well suited to the Prelude and the asphalt in Ohio is where the Prelude is at it,s best. Unfortunately, we are in second place again! I had hoped to be in a better points position, but DNF,s are part of rallying. However, there are still 4 more events to be run, roughly half the season left, still a long way to go. The next two events are crucial to our prospects for a championship. The car's ready to go and we dont expect to have any more spring perch failures. Q: Where the heck is Bemidji, Minnesota? Jim: The Ojibwe Forest rally is held in northwestern Minnesota near the wonderful town of Bemidji. This was my third trip to Ojibwe and I knew the road fairly well. The weather turned out to be great and the rally was a lot of fun. Martin, my regular co-driver, couldn't make the trip so I secured the codriving services of divisional champion Anne Thomas and she did a terrific job. Anne usually competes as a co-driver for Leslie Suddard in a Group 5 Dodge Charger, but Leslie wasn't running at Ojibwe that year. We also had problems getting my regular crew to Minnesota so I enlisted experienced rally mechanic Skip Morgridge to solo in the service van. Q: Is it hard adjusting to a new co-driver and crew chief during competition? Jim: You might actually ask the others instead of me. Drivers can get quite testy during a rally - or so I'm told! Seriously, different codrivers have different methods for timing and different ways of describing the route and that does require adjustments on the stages. But after a few miles, things usually start to click just fine. My style of communication in the car is one where too much information (for example, when a turn is coming up or what kind of turn it is) is usually not a problem. It would be a problem to not get the info and go straight at a "T" junction! So I don't mind being told more than once what direction to turn the car. The crew, on the other hand, can be a more difficult adjustment. In this case, Skip was perfect! He's been around racing and rallying for quite a while and knows what has to happen and when. And that's a great feeling when you come into service and your tired, hungry, excited and nervous all at the same time. The driver needs to be able to sit in the service truck and not worry about getting gas in the car or the windshield cleaned or other little things. I still usually look after the crew while I'm eating a banana or a sandwich, but when I need to relax a bit, I know I can do that with guys like Skip or my regular crew looking after things. Q: How'd the actually rally go? Jim: The first day went perfect - good weather, good roads - just perfect. The Honda Prelude VTEC really maximized its ponies during the long smooth sections. We ended the day with a 72 second lead over Al Kaumeheiwa's Dodge Neon ASR who was 2 seconds ahead of Lon. As is typical in PRO rallying, the second day held several surprises for us. First, on SS2, I ended up off road. We hit a slick spot just before a right-hander and ended up missing the turn. Fortunately we found a nice sandy berm to plow into and I just reversed it out - but it cost us over 20 precious seconds! Later, I miscalculated the fuel economy and we almost ran out! We slowed considerably to conserve what remained until the next service stop. Finally, during the longest stage of the rally, a mud build-up on the right rear wheel caused a bad vibration which limited our speed. At the same time, Al's Neon had to retire with a bad throttle position sensor but Lon was charging hard! With two stages to go, we were only 20 seconds ahead. Fortunately the last two stages were trouble free and we won by 36 seconds.
Q: Next up was another exotic sounding local - Chillicothe, Ohio - and the Sunriser 400 PRO Rally. Any special preparations? Jim: Martin returned to the co-drivers seat but the crew was still a problem. We ended up relying on the generosity of Steve Sherman and Mike Grumble from the Team Honda Research (THR) rally team - back in a new Civic EX for their first event since crashing out at STPR. Their timing could not have been better and, even though we compete in the same class, the Honda teams help each other out whenever possible. I felt really good going into this rally. We'd just overcome a ton of adversity at Ojibwe and still managed to win. Lon's lead was narrowing. The asphalt stages here favor the Prelude. Another win would really help our chances. Q: Did the rally gremlins strike? Jim: Almost. Martin and I had a heart-stopping experience at the end of the 3rd stage. We were going about 110mph when we crossed the finish line. We had just started slowing down when we saw Lon's Kia stopped in the road not 50 yards ahead at the timing control point. Usually the control point is much further down the road. So the question in my mind was "Can this Prelude go from, oh, 90 mph to 0 in less than 150 feet?" I suspected not(!) and fully engaged the ABS. As I recall, Martin made several choice observations and I'm pretty sure I verbally concurred! We went through the control point doing, oh, 50 mph- oh well! Fortunately Lon had been watching his mirrors and he pulled away when he saw us coming. We still ended up having to steer around them though. In the end there was no damage, just a lot of skipped heartbeats. Except for that little hiccup things went very well. We led wire-to-wire and ended up winning by almost 8 minutes(!) over Peter Watt and Dick Casey in a Suzuki Swift GT. Lon finished in 6th position after losing his rear brakes halfway through the rally. I was amazed that he finished at all without them. However it meant that we had retaken the points lead! Jay Kowalik in the THR Civic was poised to make it a 1-2 Honda finish, but he and co-driver Jeff Wheeler got lost on a transit and were assessed 7 minutes of road points. Even so, it was a great debut for the new car and their best finish to that point.
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