Thousand Oaks, California -- Mark Tabor of West Linn, Oregon will be joining co-driver John Dillon of Thousand Oaks, California on the Widget International Rally Team for the Prescott Forest Rally on October 1st. "This is my first time racing with Mark," said Dillon, "however, I worked with him in Minnesota a month ago when I rode with Lauchlin O'Sullivan in Mark's car. Mark's a great guy to work with and I'm sure we'll be successful in Arizona." The Tabor Rally Team Mazda 323 GTX was raced by O'Sullivan at the Ojibwe Forest Rally in August. Despite racing with a damaged suspension and running on used Silverstone tires, O'Sullivan and Dillon finished 2nd in Production GT there. A week earlier Dillon co-drove for Anton Musev to an overall win at the Gorman Ridge Rally in Frazier Park, California.

This will be Tabor's first National event, but he has raced with great success in Oregon and Northwest Regional events. Indeed, he and sister Kristen finished ahead of the 2nd and 3rd place PGT cars at the Doo Wops National last March and he finished 10th overall at the Oregon Trail Rally in June with his brother Jon in the co-driver's seat. Dillon currently leads the Production GT co-driver championship points race, a position he's held since the Maine Summer Rally in July.

Rally is a form of motorsport where production automobiles are raced over closed sections of rural dirt roads, off road parks, and forest trails. Two people ride in the car, neither of whom are allowed to pre-run the course. The co-driver (sometimes called the navigator) feeds instructions to the driver regarding upcoming hazards, read from a route book provided by event organizers just prior to the start of the race. PGT is the ProRally category for unmodified, larger-displacement vehicles, such as the Dodge Shadow and the Mitsubishi Eclipse. The Tabor Rally Team Mazda 323 GTX falls into this category thanks to its four wheel drive and a turbocharged 1600 cc engine.

Tabor's car, sponsored by Pacific Foto/Supply, is shod with Silverstone Rallye Tyres. Dillon brings with him his sponsorship from Porterfield Enterprises, whose brake products will give the little Mazda better, more reliable stopping power. Shults Dot Com (www.shults.com) powers the soon-to-be-online www.WidgetRacing.com website.

"I was planning on racing in the National series next year," noted Tabor, "but when John called and asked if I'd like to run Prescott with him, I figured 'Why wait?' Our goal is to have fun and to finish the event, in that order." His co-driver added, "If we finish well up in the standings, that'll be a nice bonus." Naturally, Dillon hopes to hold onto his points lead; he thinks that riding with Tabor will help achieve that.

Because this is Tabor's first National, he's classified as Seed 6, meaning he'll be starting far back in the field. But keep your eyes on the Widget International Rally Team; you can expect to see them move up in position in quick time.