Tests of Motoring Skill and Route Written by: Bill Wood Los Angeles, Calif. – 6/9/2004 Jon Woodner at the ’82 Big Bend Bash on the Terlingua Ranch where he finished second to Rod Millen (Bill Wood photo). I’ve talked to hundreds of people in the world of motorsports but none of the conversations made more sense than the ones I had with Jon Woodner. I still miss them. Woodner raced everything from British sports cars in SCCA club events to Formula 5000 open-wheel cars at Long Beach. We met indirectly at the first Long Beach Grand Prix in 1975, when I was standing at the bottom of Linden Avenue using a telephoto lens to shoot cars grabbing air as they turned right off of Ocean Boulevard. I looked down when I felt a presence around my legs. It turned out to be Woodner, who had coasted to a stop, his engine silent. We laughed about it many years later after we met directly. He couldn’t believe a jerk would put himself in such a position and the corner workers would let him remain there. Looking back, neither do I! Jon Woodner eventually graduated to what I believe to be the ultimate in motorsports, performance rallying. He came along at a time when the U.S. discipline was controlled by John Buffum, Rod Millen and their four-wheel-drive Audi and Mazda monsters. Few remember that Jon’s skills were better than nearly everyone else who’s ever done it in America, because he competed in the shadows of the two greatest. It’s why the two-wheel-drive championship in the SCCA ProRally Series is named for Jon. He was that good. Jon once modified Millen’s ex-Open Class Datsun 510 so far it was nearly all Ford Escort RS1800 underneath. The sound of that Ford BDA motor launching into the forest was inspiring. Even now the memory brings a smile. There’s a special place in my mental minidisk for those cuts. It was Jon’s conversation, though, that was special. I once stuck a microphone in his face outside a motor lodge in Tumwater, Wash., and heard the most inspired definition of rallying ever: “Rallying, at its base, is an automobile tour through a very interesting country – to a schedule – with tests of motoring skill and route.” That was off the cuff and he smiled proudly. To me, it could have been read from a stone tablet. He also once told me that the charm he found in rallying came from the fact that the World Driving Champion might live in Monte Carlo while the World Rally Champion might live on a farm in Finland. I admit to the same attraction. I find it refreshing that the current World Rally Champion, Petter Solberg , not only lives on a farm in Spydeberg, Norway with his wife and son, but he also has a resumé that includes a Norwegian disco dance championship. Michael Schumacher? Disco? Tough picture! While knowing Woodner I did a series of magazine articles on why drivers drive, and what makes a rally driver. Included in the definitive characteristics was this from then San Jose State psychologist Dr. Keith Johnsgard: “The novice driver has unusually high achievement needs, high exhibitionist needs and a high degree of self-sufficiency.” He told me these traits were generally in contrast to the overall adult male population and implied that I could refer to the latter as a healthy arrogance. Woodner agreed when I told him he was my personification of the trait. “I share with my fellows in rallying and in road racing an over-developed ego,” he said. “It’s a need to achieve. One can channel one’s need for achievement various ways. I chose motorsports. I kept falling off motorcycles. I couldn’t afford circuit racing, so here I am in rallying.” Did Woodner’s need to excel mean that he would do anything to win even at the expense of someone else? “The need to excel, the ambition and the arrogance – some of it is universal in rally drivers. I’m not going to tell you it’s necessary, but it’s universally true.” Petter Solberg makes a splash in and out of the car (LAT photo). I started this piece planning to look at Solberg, a brilliant driver who thoroughly dominated the Acropolis Rally last weekend in Greece, his second win of the season. During the off-season, Solberg told me his slow start last year was the result of trying too hard. He said this year he’d concentrate on getting points in the early part of the season before he had to “push like a maniac to win towards the end of the year.” Last year he had three points in the first three events of the season. This year, he had 13. After last weekend’s Acropolis, the sixth of 16 events on the 2004 WRC schedule, Petter is second in the championship, five points out of first. He’s the only driver in the championship to score in every event thus far. Isn’t it great when a plan works and he hasn’t reached the “push like a maniac” stage of the season yet! Included in the piece was going to be some mention of Colin McRae, the 1995 WRC champion, who doesn’t have a rally ride this year. He’s entered in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Prodrive Ferrari. Not only is he finding his road racing legs at Le Mans but he’s ripping off times that are the equal of his veteran road racing teammates Rickard Rydell and Darren Turner. McRae’s transition isn’t unprecedented. Consider Walter Rohrl, the 1980 (Fiat) and 1982 (Opel) WRC champion who raced in IMSA, the Trans-Am and up Pikes Peak in America. In 1980 Rohrl won the WRC title with four wins and two seconds in 12 events. That same year he helped Lancia earn the FIA sports car World Championship of Makes by taking one overall and four class wins in the 12 events of that series. His latest triumph is the Porsche Cayenne SUV he helped develop. If you own one and like it, you have a rally driver to thank! But this piece, instead, spins around Jon Woodner, who was killed in a plane crash in April, 1988. At the time of his death, he’d recently finished third in class in a Spice Pontiac Fiero GTP Camel Lights car with Terry Visger and Paul Lewis at the 24 Hours of Daytona, another illustration of his versatility behind the wheel. Dr. Johnsgard’s study showed that high-end drivers able to compete for true, international world championships are among the top five percent in innate intelligence when compared to the overall adult male population. I certainly found that in Jon, but it’s missing in so many current drivers who parrot their way through a conversation and are satisfied that represents who they are. That said, intelligence and candor might be my attraction to the Sport Compact universe and the rally world in particular. At its core, racing is about people and good racing is about the overcoming efforts of interesting, experienced people. There’s something about an individual’s experiences that make that individual worth experiencing. Watching someone with a savant’s ability to do one thing, no matter how valuable that thing is, eventually gets old. Jon Woodner would have loved turbocharged, 300hp, 4WD sedans available in retail stores at a fraction of what he was spending to turn a 510 into an Escort. If you like how Canadian Patrick Richard is winning rallies with a Group N Subaru WRX, you would have salivated watching Jon Woodner test his motoring skills on a given route. I miss Jon.