Internal Links:
External Links: |
Showdown at
Jim: The next three events were on the west coast and we frankly did not have the resources to compete there. Lon Peterson did a great job at those events: he won both the Washington state rallies but DNF'd at the Rim of the World rally near Los Angeles. Those events gave him a 24 point lead over us after the first 4 events.
Q: The next event was a big one - STPR in Pennsylvania. What were your thoughts going in? Jim: The STPR is the first national PRO Rally on the East coast. It was also our first chance to compete head-to-head with Lon (and the rest of the production-class contenders) in '96. It would give us a good indication of our chances for the rest of the year. I was also anxious to see how the new Quaife Limited Slip Differential would perform under rally conditions. This would be our first real test. Q: What things characterize the STPR from a competitor's point of view? Jim: The course is very fast, which gives the Prelude VTEC an advantage, and usually very dusty, which is to no one's advantage (unless you are the overall leader - first on the course means no dust!). Both these factors make it very easy to go off course at the STPR. The '96 rally was both fast and dusty, as the sun got lower during the afternoon, the dust turned into opaque brown walls that you just had to feel your way through. Fortunately we didn't go off, but we came close several times. In addition to Lon and his Sephia, two other strong production class teams were at the STPR in 1996. Greg Trepetin showed up with his Prelude VTEC and 1995's production class champion, Tad Ohtake, entered his Ford Escort GT. Fresh from winning the Ski-Sawmill divisional rally, newcomer Jay Kowalik was also entered in an Acura Integra GS-R. This was gonna be exciting! Q: Well, was it? Jim: The first stage went well including the traditional ending where the cars splash through Stony Fork Creek. The first stage was only 6 miles long but we came out 6 seconds ahead of everyone else - that gave me a lot of confidence. A minor disaster occurred on the second stage though - we were held up for more than 30 agonizing seconds while spectators helped clear an earlier accident. By the end of stage two, Peterson was leading by 9 seconds. The next two stages were long and relatively smooth - definitely horsepower stages where the VTEC should have shined. Unfortunately the snorkel we installed to prevent creek water from entering the engine started blocking the air intake and robbed us of about 40 horses. The unlikely result was that Peterson extended his lead to almost 14 seconds by the end of stage 4. Ohtake was 30 seconds behind us in third place. We discovered the snorkel problem during the next service and quickly corrected it. I was very glad that it was the only thing wrong with the car and the the fix was so simple! Q: Were you worried about losing the rally at that point? Jim: Not really. In PRO Rally any one of the approximately 1,000 corners in the rally can eliminate you, so you try put the competition out of your mind and focus of your driving. However I did know that we couldn't afford to lose any more time to Peterson. The STPR is a one-day rally with only 10 stages and the dust would be bad in the late afternoon - it was time for "Attack mode!" On the 11 mile long stage 5, we were quicker that the Kia by over 27 seconds putting us back in the lead, this time to stay. Stage 6 was 15 miles long and we increased our lead to almost 2 minutes. Lon is a great competitor however and whittled 20 seconds off of our lead on stage 7. By the start of the last stage, I was dealing with good news and bad news. The good news was that we had a 1.5 minute lead with only 7 miles to go. The bad news was that my trusty co-driver, Martin, had a severe case of motion sickness! Constantly charging through walls of dust with the Hellas on can play havoc with one's inner ears. Rally rules prevent changing co-drivers (or leaving them behind!) so I told Martin to hang on as best he could. Eleven and a half minutes later we had won the rally! Martin recalls the experience differently: Martin: Thank goodness I hadn't eaten anything before the rally or it would have been in my lap or all over the route book! We would come up to the next instruction and I would try to tell Jim which way to go, but all I could do was just point or say "Left!" or "Right!" I was glad we had a big enough lead because it definitely slowed us down. But in the end everything turned out nicely.
|
[Next] | [Previous] | [1996 Season Recap] | [Home]
1996 JPIII Rally Sport Official Sponsors:
(Click on the logos below to visit them)
Feel free to send Jim email.
Copyright (c) 1997 by JPIII Rally Sport
Please read our copyright notice before copying
any content from this site.
Site designed by Chip Anderson
Report technical problems to our webmaster.
