Tabor
Rally Team Successful at Rim of The World Rally
The
Tabor Rally Team Acura RSX Type S captured its’ second consecutive Production
Class victory at the 21st Annual Rim of The World Rally in Lancaster,
California on May 7th & 8th.
Known as ‘the toughest event on the ProRally Calendar’, the third
event in the SCCA ProRally Championship presented by Hot Wheels has unique road
characteristics with hazards such as waterbars, where the road has been cut to
allow water to run off of hillsides. These
features make for a grueling event with plenty of attrition and require a
special approach to avoid harming your car.
The
Tabor Rally Team has competed at Rim in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003, having mixed
results from destroying a car in 2000, to winning the class in 2003.
2004’s running of the Rim of the World Rally saw the first time at Rim
in the new car to the team.
Mark
Tabor (West Linn, OR) and Kevin Poirier (Rainier, OR) piloted the Acura through
the hills of the Angeles National Forest with little incident.
“We
came through fairly unscathed,” noted driver Mark Tabor, “just a couple of
broken motor and transmission mounts, along with some worn out suspension”.
Co-Driver
Kevin Poirier commented on competing in a Production car at such a grueling
event: “The car still has the stock air conditioning, which was a treat to
have down at this hot event”.
Tabor/Poirier
competed against the older Mazda RX-7 of Patrick Rodi and Jonathan Schiller,
ending up over 8 minutes ahead at the end of the event.
“Patrick
got stuck on the Super Special for 4 minutes Friday night.
We wanted to stay ahead of them by more than the 4 minutes, so we could
truly be the winner, even if the 4 minutes was not accounted for” commented
Tabor.
“With
such a grueling event, we kept our focus on the ProRally standings, as our goal
for 2004 is the ProRally Production Class Title” Kevin stated. “This second
win in a row moves us into the Production championship lead, and as a bonus into
third place for the Woodner Cup for 2-wheel-drive cars.”
In
the Sports Car Club of America’s ProRally, Production Class cars are basically
showroom stock cars with added safety gear and stronger suspensions: no
modifications are allowed to the engine or transmissions.
Underbody protection is allowed in the form of a ‘skid pan’ and
plastic lining.
Silverstone
High Performance Tyres, and Tabor Accounting Group sponsor the Tabor Rally Team
Acura RSX Type S. Driver Mark Tabor
and Co-Driver Kevin Poirier now lead the quest for the Donison Cup (SCCA
ProRally Production Championship) over Jon Hamilton/Ken Sabo.
The next event for the team is the world-renowned
Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb in Colorado Springs, CO June 23-26.
More
team information at www.taborrallyteam.com.
##
30 ##