TEAM HONDA RESEARCH

• 45 rally cars entered the National rally. 23~25 rally cars entered the Divisional rallies.
• Buffum/Shepherd came to show us how to drive a ... rally car.
• The Civic CVT started 20th overall. Only the Moen/Moen Neon and the McIvor/Bohan Nissan SE-R made the trek to Bemidji to run Prod.
• The Civic Rallywagon was taking Pete and Mike on their maiden voyage with The Hourt at the Helm. U2 Division drew a crowd with 10 entries, with several cars running National classes also.
• Many fast and fun to watch cars showed. Peruse the Ojibwe results and other rally stuff at http://www.ebtec.com/racenews/.
• The rally started Friday at 7:01p.m. Scott defied Murphy & all his laws by arriving in Bemidji at 5:25p.m. after tending to "real work" in LA.
• The roads were conducive to quick and fun CVT runs. The Civic CVT hummed at 6800 r.p.m. up to 11th overall after the five stages run Friday night.
• Scott experienced another version of work hard/play hard when after 3 stages he was feeding the trees covertly at service, then rebuilding his stomach lining with Gatorade and all the while not missing a co-driver beat.
• Pete ran the 10,000 Lakes Divisional on Friday night. He had a lot of fun and didn't get Hourt. They finished 8th overall, 4th in U2.
• Ojibweeeeeeeeee restarted on Saturday at 12:01p.m. after an expose for the fans. Saturday's 1st stage included a wooden staircase embedded into the exit of a right sweeper that converted our rear left lower lateral link into a boomerang. We rallied 2-1/2 more stages until our crew could pull off the boomerang and install a lower lateral link.
• The Civic, Scott, the Crew and Jay were in unison all day. Little rally gremlins did not discourage our Ojibwe experience.
• Mike ran the Paul Bunyun's Ride Divisional on Saturday, co-driving with Bryan Hourt. After building enough engines for THR and HART to blast Paul Bunyun's Rallywagon through the woods, Mike Dunn finally got the experience of putting Dunn Power to the ground.
• The rally roads varied from narrow to wide, twisty to hilly and fast, sandy to hard pack to loose gravel, with scattered chunks of rock. Boulders hid in the brush, lurking and waiting for the ditchookers.

The CVT ran quick and consistent all day. We finished 8th overall (our 1st National top 10) with only the Group 2 winning Malik/Edstrom Volvo ahead of us, winning the fastest 2wd prize. We won Production by 6 minutes. Our consistency placed us ahead of all the top Group 5 competitors (Supra, RX-7, Prelude) overall. The CVT has won Production Class in all 3 National events entered in 1998.

The Rallywagon with Hourt at the wheel also accomplished its mission. They finished the Divisionals 8th overall out of 23 and 25 starting, 4th in under 2 liters with 2 different 1st time co-drivers in a virtually new car, and Hourt's first rally after an intense incident at STPR. Pete and Mike are the 10th and 11th THR team members to experience rally from the cockpit. The Civic 3dr Rallywagon ran without incident all weekend. Well Done.

The THR Showroom Stock Civic went to Road America this same weekend and finished 2nd in class, with Brian Shanfeld driving in his first National event! Mechanical problems forced retirement before running the second National.

THR needs to thank the following for their continued support:

E-Mail: Team Honda Research