Perforce Software, known for its Fast SCM System, sponsors the Widget Rally Team, a high-performance racing team competing on the U.S. rally circuit, and a member of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).

The Latest News

Podium Finishes In Two Minnesota Regionals

Bemidji, MN - Dave Hintz (Enumclaw, WA, driver) and John Dillon (Thousand Oaks, CA, codriver) made the long trek to Bemidji for the 2007 Ojibwe Forest Rally, sanctioned by Rally America, Aug 24th and 25th. They had hoped to repeat thier Washington results in Minnesota, where each had won at the Olympus Rally in May, but turbo failure and brake problems slowed them down. Despite mechanical issues, Hintz and Dillon still finished second overall in each of the two regional rallies, earning them a first-in-class trophy.

Scott and Dillon at Rally Tennessee in 2006. Photo by Chrissie Beavis

"Although Dave thinks he may have been too cautious on the last stage, I think he drove brilliantly all weekend," explained Dillon. "I think Dave demonstrated intelligent driving despite tricky conditions. I'm completely satisfied with this weekend's finishing result."

Dillon will be competing next at the Prescott Rally in Arizona, and finally at the season-ending Laughlin International Rally in Nevada, his favorite rally of the year. "If we can duplicate the success we enjoyed at Ojibwe, it'll be a great way to end the season," concluded Dillon.

The Widget Rally Team

The Widget International Racing Team was formed in the mid 1980's by a group of southern California entrepreneurs who decided to road race at tracks like Laguna Seca and Riverside Raceway.

In 1997, John Dillon created the Rally Division of the Widget team to compete in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship. The Widget Rally Team has since partnered with other racers on the road to victory, including top national drivers like Leon Styles, Lauchlin O'Sullivan, Chris Havas, Ralph Kosmides, and now Brian Scott.

• Driver: Brian Scott, Phoenix, AZ
• Co-driver: John Dillon, Thousand Oaks, CA
• Crew Chief: Andy Brown
• Team Manager: Denise McMahon

The Car

Art Partyka

The Widget Rally Team drives a new Subaru WRX STi prepared by Andy Brown of Tech Sport Racing. The 2005 4-door model has 4-wheel drive and uses a 2.5 liter, 4 cylinder turbo-charged engine creating around 350 HP. Stopping power is controlled via 4-wheel disc brakes using Porterfield brake pads.

The Sport

You're probably wondering what rally car racing has to do with software development. We could wax poetic about their similarities: software development and rallying both involve teamwork, speed over rough terrain, and the ability to overcome technical challenges along the way. But the bottom line is much more simple. We teamed up with Widget Racing because it sounded like a lot of fun.

Last year proved to be challenging, yet the Widget Rally team managed to come away with overall wins in Washington, Arizona, and Nevada. They also had several additional finishes on the podium around the country and even one in Canada.

Past team highlights and awards include:

With the help of Perforce Software, the Widget Rally Team is stepping up its efforts for 2006, racing for two national championships. Join us as we follow the team's success on the course - logging roads, mud puddles, desert roads, and all.

A Brief Primer on Rally Racing

Combine the rough and tumble action of off-road racing with the glamour and excitement of international sports car racing and you have rally racing.

Mile after mile, for hundreds of miles, the driver and co-driver (navigator) roar over unfamiliar desert roads, guided only by written instructions. Each team is given a route book just prior to the start that describes the course in detail with diagrams of turns, notations of water crossing, jumps, and spectators, etc. The navigator uses this book as well as local maps, odometers, and even computers to keep the driver on course and on time.

Over all kinds of terrain, through anything Mother Nature can serve up, the teams race on. Rally is as much an adventure as a race, testing the competitors and vehicles' strength, stamina, and preparedness.

Rally vehicles are street licensed and modified for safety and strength to endure racing flat-out, against the clock over closed sections of real roadways -- usually unpaved -- known as stages. Teams are provided a bit of a breather as they negotiate transit zones on open public roads, at normal legal speeds, in modified production (street legal) vehicles. Transits provide true cross-country racing in its purest and most exciting form. Special stages are where the real competition takes place. The roads are usually unpaved, logging trails, mountain roads, desert tracks and in general, pretty rough roads.

The sport's appeal is real cars driving real fast on real roads. Whether sliding around tight, blind curves on a mountainside cliff, leaping through the air down a boulder-strewn, desert trail, or racing inches away from unyielding trees on a slippery forest road, rally racing provides action and thrills no other form of racing can equal.

Checkpoints and traffic controls close all "civilian" access to the stages. The cars arrive at the "Arrival Time Control" or "ATC" and leave in one minute intervals. Timing is to the second until the competitors reach the "Finish Time Control" or "FTC". A transit section takes them to the next ATC. At the end of the rally, all of the stage times are added up and the fastest car wins.

Source: American Rally Sport Group