Team Hyundai: Round Three

I'm nervous. And I have every right to be. I'm driving someone else's racecar. And, although they'd never admit it, they want me to win. Plus, I've got a virgin co-driver (engineering editor Dave Coleman) reading notes, which look like a cross between Hebrew and bad shorthand.The new car? It's Hyundai's Production Class Tiburon. Restrictive class rules keep upgrades very basic. The only real changes from stock, with the exception of the safety equipment, are the heavily damped suspension and some indestructible brake pads. The 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine is completely stock, as is the gearbox.

SS1
Driving hard has a way of making the nerves disappear. By the time we hit the first real turn of the rally, I feel better. The car is good. It handles and brakes well, and feels more solid than last year's car. Coleman is screaming something about the notes being wrong and, for the first time, I understand what it's like to be completely indifferent to the guy in the right seat.By mid-stage, however, something clicks and he begins barking instructions like Nicky Grist on speed. Luckily, he's too busy to notice my many attempts to wad up the shiny Tiburon. However, we both notice Robert Olsen and Conrad Ketelsen's Production Class Celica on its roof, and see John Teeter's Mitsubishi Galant spread into pieces across the road.

SS3
By the middle of this five-minute, 42-second stage, it sounds like a WRC recording inside the little Hyundai. The notes are working. With confidence increasing, I make several more attempts to drive us into the trees.Then it happens. I intentionally ditch hook the right front wheel just like the 61 cars in front of us, and blamo, the steering wheel is ripped from my hands. Apparently, there's something hard in there. I'm convinced we have a flat, a broken wheel or at least a bent tie rod. Nope, nothing. The rally gods shine on us and we continue without issue.

First Service
We inspect the tire and find a chunk missing from the sidewall. Team Boss John Buffum rotates the tires front to rear. He also takes a look at the worn front tires and gives me an abbreviated lesson in right foot anxiety. I promise to use less of it.We're leading the class by more than a minute, so I can stop trying to crash and start trying to finish. But, with more than nine stages to go, the rally is far from over. Stages four and five are repeats so this should be easy, right?SS5 and SS6We get through stage five without incident after passing Mike Mailman's mangled Audi Quattro upside down in the road. The old Audi is still smoldering yet Mailman and his co-driver give us the full-moon rally salute. I love this sport.Stage six is a different story. Halfway through the 15-mile stage, with all the stubborn ignorance of Paul Tracy on an ego trip, I drive the Tiburon into the exact same hidden rock that nearly ended our rally on stage three. Coleman mutters something about my impeccable consistency. Miraculously, the car holds together and we're seven seconds quicker through the stage. Yeah, sure, I'll slow down.

SS7 and SS8
Driving a rally car at night is a combination of faith, luck and reliance in High Intensity Discharge. We're lucky and our times are competitive with the Group 2 cars, despite stopping to be sure the drivers of a ditched Lancer are OK.Stage eight ends with a long descent into the finish control, which is a good distance from the finish itself. After crossing the finish line, I immediately go into a paranoid delusion that I've mistakenly passed the finish control and must reverse to get back. Coleman hunts through the notes in futility as the car begins to fill with smoke. Smoke? Holy crap. We're on fire.Several inebriated spectators carry on about the flaming brake pads as the eerie orange glow they're casting on the ground gains intensity. We find the finish control just as the flames dissipate much to the amusement of the control workers.

Day Two
With five stages remaining, we head into day two planning to go only quick enough to keep our lead. We start the day 23rd on the road--nearly 40 slots up from our original position.We pick our way through stages eight and nine before heading for the much-anticipated stage 10, which includes a section of road with a 600 foot drop on one side. Plus, thanks to recent clear cutting, there are no trees to stop an errant rally car. I drive like a sissy.We rerun the roads of stages eight and nine as stages 11 and 12. I ignore Coleman's warnings about my driving in spectator areas and nearly pay for it with a costly slide only a mile from the end. We do finish, however, and return to the headquarters hotel just in time to see the Higgins brothers and Rhys Millen pop the champagne.We don't get any champagne. But we manage the Production Class victory, thanks to an indestructible car and a co-driver who prefers a steering wheel to a route book. More importantly, for the first time in many rallies, we don't learn any rally lessons the hard way.