TEAM HONDA RESEARCH

After a disappointing performance in the spring running of the Swift Rapids Rally, the THR team of Robinson and Lindquist prove that Americans can keep it out of the woods.

There were 19 cars entered and 7 cars in Group 2, with three other seed 4 drivers in the class. For this event one 12.5 km section of road (with 176 turns) is run 4 times. The road conditions were rougher than this spring, but less loose gravel. The Civic three door was set up perfectly for the tight twisty road.

At the end of stage 2 we were leading the rally overall, due to a puncture on the winning open class Audi of Jon Kemp/Dan Sprongl. They were running 30 - 40 seconds faster than we were able.

Half way through stage 2 the rear right lower arm buckled on a miscalculated trackout point. We were able to fix the lower arm, but ran out of time to fix the rear left damper. At some point in stage 2 the nut on the top of the stantion came loose and we lost the damper body fixing point. We ran the last 2 stages of the day without the damper attached.

The supplemental regulations indicated the record average speed of 62 kph was set in 1995 by an open class Eagle Talon. We had an average speed of 61.94 kph! We are very pleased with our performance.

We ended up with the class win (1 minute over 2nd Group 2) and a 2nd overall (1 minute behind 1st).

We want to thank Honda R&D Americas for their continued support of the THR team.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

E-Mail: Team Honda Research