Frazier Park, CA. Katianna Pihakari (Anaheim Hills, CA) and John Dillon (Thousand Oaks, CA) teamed up again to race, this time for the 2010 Gorman Ridge Rally on the 28th of August. They established a simple goal before the start: finish the rally and, along the way, focus on clean lines and car control. However, when their competition drove too hard and got stuck on a berm, the Widget/Pikasports duo passed them on the final stage to win the Production All Wheel Drive class in the NASA-sanctioned event. As an added bonus, the team is now tied for the lead in the Pacific Division of the U.S. Rally Championship series.

Doug Nagy, crew chief for Pikasports and owner of Streetwise Motorsports, explained: “Katianna attended a rally driving school last May, but otherwise has had very little seat time in the car. We chose Gorman Ridge as a perfect place for her to apply all the new skills she learned. In rally, there’s a lot to process all at once—road conditions, engine performance, handling characteristics, and listening to the pace notes—so we all encouraged her to slow down and focus on the essentials, especially because Gorman has a reputation as a tough rally.”

Steve McNaughton, who works with Doug on the car, added that “Kati learned first-hand a valuable rally lesson today. It’s a cliché in our sport, but it’s true: To finish first, you first must finish.”

The team experienced only one real “moment” when the Subaru turned in too early on the Maxie Counterclock stage. They rode up along a berm, then bicycled the car before the road turned the other way and threw them back onto all four wheels.

As for the driver, she was enthusiastic about her result. “To claim a victory in this, my second rally as a driver, is awesome. With the help of the crew, we exceeded all our goals and expectations. I knew our stage times would be slow but that wasn’t our focus for the weekend. In fact, I wanted John to slow me down when he thought it would help. On the flip side, at one point he suggested I go faster on an open section of Maxie Clock, but I forcefully replied ‘No!’ For me it was all about learning the car’s behavior and maintaining control.”

“I’ve ridden with some drivers in the past who try to drive faster when they get flustered or reach beyond their abilities, which amplifies the problem until they get completely out of control and stuff the car into a bank,” noted Dillon. “Instead, Katianna backs off until she’s comfortable that the car is stable, then pushes again.”

The Gorman Ridge Rally, which ran on time throughout the event, included several night stages. “I’ve never driven a rally car at night before,” said Pihakari. “We were fortunate to have awesome lights from Anzo USA, but I admit I was still tentative on the roads, even with the brightness of the HIDs. I’ve enjoyed night racing when I’m codriving, but now that I’m in the driver’s seat I realize that it’s harder than it looks!”

She’ll get plenty more practice at the upcoming Prescott Rally on Oct 1st and 2nd. She’ll have a different codriver because Dillon will hook up with long-time rally partner Brian Scott. Scott and Dillon won Prescott in 2008 on their way to a U.S. national championship, and hope to claim another victory this year.

“I had an absolute blast at Gorman Ridge!” gushed Pihakari. “I can’t wait for the next rally!”

The PikaSports car is a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX built and prepared by Streetwise Motorsports (www.streetwiseparts.com) Lights are provided by Anzo USA (www.anzousa.com) while stopping power is provided by brakes from Porterfield Enterprises (www.porterfield-brakes.com) who have sponsored the team since 1999. For over a decade Widget has utilized the web services of Shults Dot Com (www.shults.com) for its internet needs.

Linden, TN. Brad Morris (Charlotte, NC) and co-driver Doug Nagy (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), in only their second rally together, won their class at Rally Tennessee on 23rd and 24th of May 2009 in soggy conditions. As in years past, the NASA-sanctioned tarmac event took place on the lovely and sweeping roads in and around the town of Linden in Perry County. Along the way they set or tied fastest-in-class stage times on 7 of the 28 stages. The victory lists them as the M1 winners in the Atlantic Rally Championship and first in 2 Wheel Drive in the United States Rally Championship. The result moves them up to Second in USRC points for the season.

“This makes it two for two!” said Nagy. “We won our class at the Mad March Stages Rally in Florida a couple of months ago, our first time racing together.” They used the Floridian event as a warm-up for Tennessee in order to learn how they could best work together and get up to speed with pace notes.

The driver reported that “This was our first real tarmac rally. Our goal was to get up to speed on Saturday without giving up too much time to the competition, then see what Sunday brought.” Clearly the strategy proved successful. Morris added: “We had a good run from the very beginning and finished the first day third in class, less than 30 seconds behind the leader.”

Saturday was not without incident however. Explained the driver, “We had a ‘moment’ with a high speed spin on Owl Hollow, then a low speed spin in the same place going the other way on Owl Hollow Reverse.” The codriver pointed out that it happened in a “loose section” of pavement in the middle of the stage where the asphalt was “marbly.”

He continued, saying “Sunday was great racing. We were able to lay down some fast times early before the weather changed. Racing in the pouring rain was a first for me. It made the stages very exciting!”

“Brad did an excellent job of driving and really made up the difference as our car is down on power to the other cars, which are mostly turbocharged, in our class,” observed the codriver. (Due to multiplication factors, the Mitsubishi Lancer with its 2.4 liter four valve engine is classified in M1 in NASA, but it’s a Group 2 car under Rally America’s rulebook.) “Neither of us have much wet weather rally experience, but the car had a surprising amount of grip on the wet roads. The rain really ended up being no drama at all. As a matter of fact stages 19 and 20 were the wet ones and they were two of the ones we won.”

It was their first time at Rally Tennessee. “The roads were fantastic: all you could ask for, and more. They featured smooth, fast, rolling terrain, and the host community really made us feel welcome.”

On Stage 22 (Treefarm) the team felt like it was their best run yet on the repeated stage, but when they came up on the rolled Subaru of Patrick Brennan/Eamon Sweeney, they stopped to render assistance. Fortunately, the rules grants a time adjustment under just such an emergency situation, so it didn’t affect their final results.

“Doug was ‘on the money’ all weekend with the notes,” praised Morris. “I’m looking forward to our next rally together, Rally West Virginia in August.”

Morris thanked his sponsors, pointing out “We couldn’t compete without the valuable support from Promotional Management Group, Streetwiseparts.com, Larry Jay Mitsubishi in Charlotte, and Carquest Auto Parts. In addition, we received some great brake pads from Performance Friction that really made a difference in the changing conditions.”

The 2002 Lancer is prepared by the Morris Motorsports Group in North Carolina, with engineering support, performance parts, and west coast preparation by Streetwise ® Motorsports.