The beautiful southwest flowing landscapes, scenery, and sunsets are the backdrop for the team’s most anticipated rally of the year; The Prescott Rally in Prescott, AZ. The roads are wide and fast with a lot more speed than California rallies. An expanded spectator stage has been built at the Yavapai County Fairgrounds and will give fans a close look at the action.
The rally will be held on October 6th & 7th and the team is pumped up and ready to go! “I can’t wait to get out on the roads here. They have combined two of the popular stages to make a twenty mile test called ‘Perkins View.’ It equates to driving flat out for about a half hour. I’ll be saving my adrenaline for that one,” remarked Driver Kristopher Marciniak.
The Dodge Rally Neon is in great shape and ready for the win. A fresh set of Bilstein performance shock absorbers have returned from testing and will compliment a new set of Hankook Rally Tires over the one hundred plus stage miles. The team will be in excellent hands as eight crew members have signed up for the event. Some new faces as well as returning crew from an Arizona based car club (AZ2GNT.net) last year.
Among the fans watching the rally will be Kris and Christine’s parents. They have flown out to see the team in action for the first time. “I’m really excited that our parents are coming from the east coast – I’ve been telling everyone! Neither set has even been to a rally, and I really want them to see what we have been so excited about for the last couple years,” said Co-Driver Christine Wittish.
Over the weekend I connected my OBD2 laptop up to the Neon. All the sensors are operating normally, the car is not retarding timing or doing anything out of the ordinary. Next, I did a compression test while replacing the spark plugs. With the Neon, you pull the auto shut-down fuse or the coil pack and the fuel injectors. This stops fuel and spark from going into the cylinders. Then, one by one, you remove the spark plug and screw in the pressure gauge into each spark plug hole, crank the motor over for a few seconds (until the pressure peaks) then record the result. Wait a minute and see if the pressure drops (this would indicate a leaky valve or piston ring). This test will tell you very quickly if you have a serious engine problem. I was very pleased with the results: 1 = 200psi, 2 = 200psi, 3 = 198psi, 4 = 205psi. This means I still have a strong motor after five rallies and a season of rallycross events. Should these numbers differ more than 10% you have issues to resolve.
Check it out if you’re bored. 
I think I’m going to go so far as to separate the O2 sensors off with in-line fuses. Last time I tried to fix this problem by building an in-car override for the circuit when it popped. I see now that all I was doing is plugging the Christmas Tree into a different outlet to fix the shorted out bulbs. 
Ten miles into stage seven, with three stages to go, the team was holding onto a second place in class when the Dodge Rally Neon’s computer failed. At that point an overwhelming five out of the six P-Stock competitors had dropped out of the Gorman Ridge Rally. The problem was related to an oxygen sensor that ground out, stalling the car on the transit between stages two and three.
The rear Bilstein struts are back together and on the car. Fresh seals and grease for all four dampers. The skidplate fought me a little bit – as when I took it off the subrame was less then straight. 
We’ll need to do the front brakes when we get up there. (I’m starting a tradition. That’s when we installed the Porterfield pads last year. Yes, they’re THAT good. Four rallies!)