Birmingham, Michigan

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July 13th, 2009

TIM gets down and dirty
but finishes on top

In surprisingly the first outing on dirt this year for TIM driver Paul Eddleston he came out on top this past weekend in the Modified all wheel drive class despite the presence of ace RallyCross exponent Scott Harvey. The event, the fifth of the Detroit Region's RallyCross championship, was held at the Crystal Motor Speedway on a grass surface that quickly turned to dirt. The trick seemed to be to stick to a tight line and use as much of the remaining grassy areas as possible as that's where the grip was. As usual, missing cones was key and unusually for him Eddleston only hit one all day.

Surprisingly, the M4 win was blown away by the times set by Nathan Usher in is Prepared all wheel drive WRX wagon who now threatens to move up to M4 later in the season. God help us when he does.

June 24th, 2009

SuperRally-X

After a quiet start to the season Team Illuminata driver and owner Paul Eddleston both promoted and competed in the recent season opener of the new for 2008 SuperRally-X series in Clio, Michigan. SuperRally-X is a relatively new form of motorsport which combines the thrills of Euro style RallyCross with the relative safety of US style RallyCross in a two car pursuit format similar to a WRC Super Special, Race of Champions or X-Games Rally. Conducted on a 25% dirt, 75% paved course, cars start of at half a lap apart and chase each other over the course of a lap or two. First car back to their start position wins. Often and event will consist of timed heats with the fastest 8 drivers going head to head in a knockout competition to determine the overall winner.

The timed heats went off without much trouble, proving the timing system we had come up with and producing eight qualifiers for the final knockout rounds. Eddleston, running on R compound autocross tires, essentially very soft slicks, managed to make the finals much to the surprise of the other, non-R compound shop competitors. "In Europe, where they do this sort of thing a lot" explained Eddleston "they set up the car for the predominant tarmac and take it easy on the dirt. I was actually surprised how much grip I had on the dirt section. The car was surprisingly driveable and I probably could have gone faster if I'd had more confidence in them."

Eddleston survived the first round but was knocked out in the semi final by Jon Armstrong in his Honda Civic who went on to finish second to Justin Kollien in his STi. Full results can be found at the event web site along with photos and videos. A great start to the series the next event is on August 9th.

Paul Eddleston
TIM Team Illuminata Motorsport
BRAID competition wheels
paul@...
www.TeamIlluminata.com