The forest roads may be off limits this year, but that’s not going to stop the Rim of the World organizers from putting on a great show in less then a week. The center of the action will be the Lancaster Fairgrounds for a unique format called ‘Rally Challenge.’ This event, which is part rally super special, part rallycross, all with a spectacular Rim of the World flavor, looks to be quite a show. Spectators will get to watch the action all day up close from the grandstands along with tons of other activities from an autocross to a car show. For more information on the event held this Saturday April 28th, go to http://rimoftheworldrally.com.
The team is pumped up to show off its skills. Just like the super stage at Laughlin last year, the competition is going to be fast and close. The Dodge Rally Neon is in great shape for an attack on the USRC Stock classes. “We excel at the super specials, usually with the fastest production car times. It’s a pumped up rallycross – and that’s what we do when we’re not running stage rallies,” said Driver Kristopher Marciniak. The team recently finished 2nd overall in a CRS rallycross at Glen Helen organized by formularallyx.com.
The team is going to benefit from their outstanding performance last year. Not just through experience, but financially as well. “For Rim, I’m really excited about the USRC Rookie of the Year Scholarship, which was so generously retro-acted for the 2006 season. This scholarship has made the 2007 USRC season, which was going to be hard to budget with our upcoming wedding, a lot easier to participate in,” exclaimed Co-Driver Christine Wittish. For more details on the URSC check out their website at: http://www.unitedstatesrallychampionship.com
We hope to see you at Rim!
This makes taking the spring off very difficult to say the least. I managed to hammer a spring compressor on and grab at least 2 coils on each side. Even with the compressor maxed out, the top hat was still mashed on there pretty good. I took a shop census of what I should do about it and the final vote was “take it outside – stand on it – and torque off the nut… It’s going to kick!” Safety goggles and gloves would at least be a good idea here – maybe a face shield. 
Saturday was overcast drizzle all the way out to Glen Helen. We arrived and were excited to see our sister team – 
Once I took a long look at how they setup the “crossover / wall” to reverse the course I was still anxious about having more then 1 car run at the same time. With a regular course – if communications goes to hell – you don’t have a dangerous crossover situation. With a crossover course – if you tell the starter “hold the start” and he hears “go ahead and start” – you have the potential for cars to go into each other. Matchbox racing style.
The rally 2WD group had the top times of the day. 1st overall was Mark Anton in his uncatchable 250HP Sentra SE-R Vspec. 2nd was myself in the 130HP overweight Rally Neon. Third was Bill Holmes, 12 seconds back in his monster open class desert truck. 
“It was a bummer – but we drove the car out and over to spectate the Harquahalla stage before being picked up by the crew. We could have done some heroics in service, but I knew we needed at least an hour to repair the rear suspension – tough to do in 20 minutes, so we decided to ‘call it’ right after the stage,” remarked Driver Kristopher Marciniak. As a consolation prize, the team scored a second place in CRS P-Stock on Friday, earning valuable points for this year’s championship.
Author: USRC Media
It was a little harder then expected. Maybe it was the mixed up answers or the fact that the pressure was on. I got socked with two questions on the 6 meter band. The first was something like – “Identify the 6 meter band frequency.” and the second was – “Which of these frequencies could you use to transmit if you wanted to use 6 meter.” I had spaced what the range was and if I got it wrong, I would get 2 wrong and dip into my passing safely margin.
With only 3 women in the room, the odds were high that it could have been Christine.