Gravel Crew

2002 Phoenix RallyCross

The Car Audio & Electronics Magazine / Gravel Crew packed up and headed out to Phoenix, AZ for round two of the California Rally Series / Phoenix RallyCross event – March 2, 2002.

Team members Scott G., Marvin Ronquillo, Rodney Wills and Anthony Burciaga along with new member Mike Jones made the six hour drive, but not without misfortune for Mike Jones and his pre-runner style rally spec Civic just as we passed the halfway point. Some three hours into the drive, Jones found his Civic with an axle failure with no parts store in sight so the rest of the team headed on without Jones. Sorry dude!

We arrive early before anyone to find the track location near the motorcross track with lots of available space for the Phoenix RallyCross to expand and build several course layouts. It’s very windy and cold but everyone is ready to get down to business.

With Scott G. ’02WRX donor transmission in Marvin Ronquillo’s ‘02WRX recipient chassis – both have invested interest in one car in which both will drive again. The dual of the day came down to a Mazda 323 (light weight with serious boost) vs. our rather stock ‘02WRX (heavier and lacking boost beyond stock). Course design and consistency was in favor of the Mazda 323 but not with out a very close fight of only three tenth’s of a second over-all for Scott G’s second place in CRS GT Class and second place over-all. Marvin Ronquillo was nipping the heels of teammate Scoot G for third place in CRS GT Class and fourth over-all. Rodney Wills drove the bone stock Mazda 2WD MP3 Protégé in the 2SS class to a second place win, but not until the creative and crafty Wills made some rally spec protective mud flaps from duct tape. All three Gravel Crew members delivered very impressive wins for the California based crew to bring home.