Jon Rood’s Rally
Car #306
Racing in Jon’s words
I started helping out, servicing for various
competitors in rallying, in the fall of 2000, I was hooked! Finally started spending a lot of time
with one team, who was running a Mazda GTX (4wd 323). I was doing research for that car, the Festiva kept popping up on the web, so we got the idea to
see how well a Festiva could do. That was the fall of 2001.
Humble
beginning: A $100, non-running shell, purchased from an insurance/impound
auction.
I purchased the car back in summer of 2002 and took
until the fall of 2003 to build and get it running with it's
first drive train, a B6 engine.
2004 was my Rookie year, as a car builder and as a
driver. That year I won
"Rookie Driver of the Year" for California Rally Series (CRS), I got
3rd place in Open2wd for the CRS Rally Championship, I got 3rd place for SCCA SoPac division, club rally in Group 2, and won 2nd place in
the CRS Open2wd Rally Sprint Championship, loosing out in a four lap,
head-to-head Super Special to a '72 Porsche 911.
Jon in action
at his first rally race as a driver
This year has been a different story; the engine
swap has worked great, but has made the car harder to drive. So I've
spent a lot of time relearning the car, and now finding new weak links, more
power needs a stronger design. I've also upgraded the rear suspension,
the brakes, and my driving skills. I've also had less money to race this
year, and have only entered 3 races in 2005. My final race of the year
will be at the Ramada Express International Rally, Dec. 9-11th. I'm
currently in 9th place in Open2wd (CRS), but am hopeful to be able to at least
move up to 7th place by the end of the season.
Showing off for the spectators at Rim of the World
Rally '05
\
Super Special
stage jump
All in a day’s work. When I
get home, Jon’s going to give me a bath
The car
Jon’s car includes a BP engine, Aspire brake
swap, a roll cage and other upgrades that makes the car
go fast and stay in control on a demanding rally course. Click here for Jon’s complete car
specification sheet #306 car
specs
The most significant upgrade to the car, a BP (1.8L
DOHC) engine and Aspire tranny w/ a Phantom Grip LSD
install
Isn’t
that a pretty engine.
The main safety cage has lots of points of contact,
around 18 points to the body. His second co-driver asked for door bars on the
very same day Jon had just purchased the material to add them …
Main Safety
Cage& door bars
Gotta protect that
pretty engine…
Skid plate
mount that protects the underside of the engine
Jon would like to thank Tokico
Shocks, for helping him out with his suspension and semi-sponsorship, they made
last year more do-able, not having to pay for struts every other race,
especially the rears that he kept breaking.
A couple of links
http://www.californiarallyseries.com/
(CRS)
http://www.rallyusa.com/ (Ramada Express Internation Rally).
Article by Claire a.k.a HapyMom