External Links: 1995 PRO Rally Results

Pre-season Preparations Q: What was your strategy going into the 1996 season? Jim: Well, after helping Honda win the Manufacturer's Title in 1994, the '95 season was a bit disappointing. We did well - finishing second in class in every event we entered (and finishing second in the Driver's championship points race) - but I wanted to do better. The '95 season taught me that finishing second all the time was not good enough - so the first part of our strategy was to not just finish, but to win! Another big part of our strategy was to really take advantage of the VTEC's horsepower. In November of 95 we learned that the SCCA was changing the rules for the '97 season in a way that would severely limit the Prelude's horsepower advantage. We felt that if we were to win the national championship, we had to do it in 1996. The final part of our preseason strategy was deciding which events to enter. Time and money constraints prevented us from attending every event, especially those on the west coast. Initially we committed to entering 6 of the 10 events we were eligible for, however we actually ended up competing in 7. Q: Why the additional event? Jim: We had hoped to have the championship wrapped up by the 10th event in Michigan, but that didn't happen so we made the long (3200 mile) journey from North Carolina to Washington state for the final rally of the season.  Event Name: Location:  Date: 1. Sandhills Sand Blast* Cheraw, SC March 15-16 2. Doo Wop* Shelton, WA March 23 3. Wild West Shelton, WA April 13-14 4. Rim of the World Palmdale ,CA May 4-5 5. Susquehannock Trail Wellsboro, PA June 1-2 6. Maine Forest Rumford, ME July 26-28 7. Ojibwe Forest Bemidji, MN August 23-25 8. Sunriser 400 Chillicothe, OH September 27-29 9. Prescott Forest* Prescott, AZ October 5-6 10. Lake Superior Houghton, MI October 18-20 11. Pacific Forest Shelton, WA November 8-10 Q: Going into the season, who did you think your main competition would be? Jim: The Production class is always competitive and anyone can win at any rally, but we knew from past experience that there were three other strong contenders for the championship: Lon Peterson in a factory-backed Kia Sephia, Tad Ohtake, last year's national champion, and Greg Trepetin, and Prelude VTEC driver. I've known Tad and Greg for quite sometime and they are both excellent rally drivers and great competitors. Lon's experience and reputation as a fast driver is well known in the PRO Rally community. With them in the hunt, we knew that winning the driving crown would not be easy.    Jim's "nemesis" throughout the 1996 season was Lon Peterson and his factory-backed Kia Sephia, shown here competing in California's Rim of the World PRO Rally.   Q: What did you do to the car between the 95 and 96 seasons? Jim: Not a whole lot. The biggest change came after the first race at Sandhills. When we returned home, we added a Quaife Limited Slip Differential which made a tremendous difference! Before, whenever one of the drive wheels started spinning, I had to lift off of the accelerator for a split second until both wheels had traction. With the Quaife installed, I can just keep on powering through! In terms of other modifications beyond what we had for '95, the Production class rules really prevented us from doing much more.

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