Frazier Park, California -- Leon Styles (Mission Viejo) and John Dillon (Thousand Oaks) of the Widget Rally Team, campaigning an Audi Quattro prepared by Tato Motorsports of Santa Clarita, won the Gorman Ridge Rally on Saturday night, 24 August 2002. Their Tato Motorsports teammates George Plsek and Alex Gelsomino drove a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI to a second place finish. Plsek and Gelsomino led the rally until the final stage when brake failure forced them to slow their attack on the twisty dirt roads of the Angeles Forest.

At the awards ceremony one of the rally's organizers, Harris Done, described the secret to the Widget success. "Leon and John maintained a conservatively aggressive pace during the day stages, then pressed harder when the rally moved into the forest. It was a very smart bit of driving."

"If George hadn't had problems on the last stage, we might not have caught him," reported Styles. "Our car is nose heavy making it hard to pivot in the tight twisty sections, while the Evo is better balanced. We decided to step step it up a notch for the last twenty miles, just in case."

The codriver elaborated, saying "We drove hard through the day to keep within striking distance. If you hang too far back you can't take advantage of any potential miscues by the competition. We were there when the time came, which gave us the win. We were just lucky we could capitalize on George's mechanical problems."

Plsek Jr reminds us that his car is still new and working out teething pains. "The car is still new to us so we haven't had a lot of time to prepare it the way we'd like. Our next rally won't happen for a while so we have plenty of time to get everything sorted out."

The team, currently sponsored by Tombstone Paintball Park, Porterfield Brakes, Shults Dot Com, and Sampson Communications, now leads the 2002 California Rally Series championship the Southern Pacific divisional championship. They hope to compete in the full 2003 SCCA national season.