Carolina RallySport prepares a new car for ProRally competition
Former TRI Rally team set to attack Michigan in October

Matthew Johnson

Recycling. It's the watchword of every environmentalist and its uses are far-reaching, from plastics, paper and metals to... rally teams? In this case, yes. Matthew Johnson was ready to take his racing career to the next level and make the jump to a faster car and stronger competition but without significant sponsor support it would be a difficult transition to create an entire team from scratch. Johnson already had many of the necessary team components in place, left over from a 3 year stint as driver and team owner of the Group 2 TRI Rally team VW in Apex, NC. It was an easy decision to reuse and recycle as much of his previous tools and talent as possible to piece together his newest effort, Carolina RallySport (Carolina RS). We had the chance to sit down with Johnson recently to discuss his goals for this team and the direction he is headed in the sport.

Q. What prompted this change in cars to a much more competitive class?

A. Good question! I absolutely love 2-wheel-drive and always had a blast driving the Volkswagen. However, I'm committed to reaching my full potential as a driver and moving up to a all-wheel-drive turbo car is the best way of doing that at present in this country.

Q. How do you expect to compare at this new level?

A. I hope to go well, it's not clear what class we'll run the car in yet. My goal currently is to build it to Group N specification where I'll be competing with some of the country's best rally drivers. However my primary concern is to be out competing again, so I may run the car in a more affordable class for that reason. Everyone is full of advice for the transition, they say I should go out and drive at my own speed and learn how to drive the new, heavier car progressively. You know, the whole "don't worry about your competition" and "just drive your own event". I can tell you that it's probably not going to happen like that - when I'm belted in the car and on stage, taking it easy and feeling it out is likely going to be the last thing on my mind.

Q. What makes this a different team than TRI rally?

A. A new name, a new car and lots of new people. A couple of factors contributed to the new name, the primary one being that it's easy to remember. Secondly it provides more background about me and where I'm from and where the team is based. We're going to be campaigning a 2003 Subaru WRX in a new class of competition and it's going to take a lot more upkeep and management to stay reliable compared to the Volkswagen. That means a lot more assistance and professionalism from the people who help do the maintenance. Most of the same folks helping out before are still contributing their time but we'll have the new car and have a lot of new people contributing time to help it all turn out well. Some will help in advisory/consulting roles, some contributing parts and bits needed on the car, some others contributing their services.

Q. Lastly, how much experience did you get with TRI Rally to prepare you for this transition?

A lot! I learned plenty about the driving but that really isn't the biggest part for me, I'd say the biggest part is to learn so many of the other ins and outs of running a rally. All sorts of stuff gets thrown at you during a rally, if it's not the travel to the event it's something else unexpected before or during the event, many small things can pop up and totally de-rail your intentions to be performing at your best on stage. So to be able to maintain yourself mentally and not get stressed out no matter what is one of the biggest lessons I've learned so far. Obviously I have learned a lot about driving but that's not what sticks out to me. Sure this new car will have it's differences but I'm going to drive the same; strap in, get focused and let it rip.

Q. You said with your new team comes a new level of professionalism, a new level of competition and a new level of commitment to success. What is success to you? Winning a championship? How will you know that you and your team are succeeding?

A. I think it's pretty simple really, success is enjoying what we do without breaking the bank. We're going to be going for some serious speed and competition, however, the real success of the endeavor is based on everyone who is helping enjoying their involvement and having a great time. I have personal goals of a certain level of competition that I'd like everyone aligned on and my biggest goal currently is that I'd like to be driving for a manufacturer.

Q. Anything else you'd like to mention?

A. An exciting side note is that my cousin, Josh Johnson, is producing a documentary on the team's birth, the car's construction and development all the way through to competition in October. I've seen some of his work and I know it'll turn out really well. I'm sure it'll serve as a great memento to those helping out showing what they've done.

Here are some of the people CarolinaRS would like to recognize thus far:

Dave Blum from Krause and England (www.krauseandengland.com) is doing the roll cage work. They build and maintain historic race cars as well as maintain other exotic sports cars. I couldn't be more confident of the quality of work which comes from Krause and England and am very grateful to have their support.

Marc Bowes of Pixeleyes Media (www.pixeleyesmedia.com), whose graphic design firm specializes in motorsports projects, has volunteered their services to design the CarolinaRS logo, website and the forthcoming graphics for the team's 2003 Subaru WRX. Marc brings a lot of valuable graphic design and marketing experience in the motorsports industry to the team.

Larry and Matt at Carbotech (www.carbotecheng.com) are back on board to provide top quality brakes for the new team. They've been developing new compounds for the pad material in the past few months and I'm excited to feel the work they've done at the next event.

The new car and new team around Johnson should prove to make a very interesting match for some of the established teams in the ProRally Series. Stay tuned to the website, CarolinaRS.com for updates!