GINGRAS/WESTRICK
FOURTH OVERALL AT
OJIBWEWhen Steve Gingras and Bill Westrick brought their Act II Popcorn Subaru home in fourth place at the recent Ojibwe Forests ProRally in Minnesota, they considered it as good as a victory. It was the first time they had finished a rally since joining the Knight Racing team this season. In addition, it was the best finish for any of the Knight Racing Subarus this year, and shows that they do have the potential to run at the front of the pack.
Knight Racing was formed only a little over a year ago, with a pair of Subaru Impreza 2.5RS’s, one for rally veterans Lon Peterson and Bill Gutzmann, the other for Jonathan Ryther and Janice Damitio. Gutzmann, an experienced car builder, built and maintained the Subarus at his shop in Fontana, California. Funding came from Tom Ryther, Jonathan’s father and the president of Knight Steel.
But these Subarus are a little different. Instead of buying pieces developed for rallying by Prodrive and other firms, the Rythers have looked to off road racing for inspiration. Their All-American effort draws on the expertise of several companies that have become well known in providing bullet-proof products for off-road competition.
The conventional wisdom said the turbocharged Subaru 2.0-litre engine was the powerplant for rallying. The Knight team took a different track, building up the 2.5-litre
engine from the 2.5RS and adding a turbocharger, the package developing nearly 400 HP. The engines are built by Leading Edge, who developed their reputation on Subaru engines used in sandrails. Since stock Subaru manual gearboxes are notoriously fragile behind that kind of torque and power, the team chose to work with the Subaru 4-speed automatic, modified by Rancho Transmissions much like those that are the norm in off-road racing trucks. The transmissions are manually shifted, but have the advantage of shifting quicker than with a clutch.
"The automatic is definitely the way to go," says Gingras. "It takes less time to downshift and upshift. I can plant my right foot on the accelerator and use my left foot for braking and balance."
This year Knight Racing added a third Subaru Impreza for former Production GT champions Gingras and Westrick. The duo has had sponsorship from Act II microwave popcorn for several seasons and that sponsorship continues on their new car.
The team skipped the first two events of the season, and has battled a series of mechanical development ills that have left the cars disabled on the stages. As a result, Knight Racing has had to spend more time in developing their specialized rally components.
Only Gingras and Ryther were entered at the most recent event, the Ojibwe Forests rally in Minnesota. After the Friday stages, Gingras and Ryther were sixth and seventh
overall. Ryther rolled his car on the spectator stage at NJK Ranch, but the crew patched it back together and they went on to finish, though at the back of the pack. With a little help from attrition, Gingras moved up into fourth place - third in the Open class - and held it to the end, though over 10 minutes behind winner Mark Lovell. Even so, the team is ecstatic at the result, and believe there are other top five finishes, and maybe an overall victory, in the near future.
Fuber, continued from page 5
terrible Tuesday, I had gone back to the theater to catch the remake of "Apocalypse Now", which I still feel most accurately captures the absurdity of the Vietnam conflict. It is hard to believe that in only a few short hours America suffered a death toll more than 10% of what occurred over the S. E. Asia war which seemed to last forever. But in this case it wasn’t soldiers enlisting or being drafted into what they knew could be a deadly enterprise. These victims were just ordinary people doing their jobs, be it filing paperwork, making stock trades or rushing into a building to try and save lives. As Marlon Brando mumbled in his final words in the movie: "The horror, the horror...."
Deadline for the December
Tonneau is November 13th.
Please submit your material at the LOL Board Meeting that night or send it to Lois Bjelke.
Tonneau On-Line November 2001
Page 6
Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
