ADMINISTRATOR WEEKEND CAR-RACING PRO.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

John Dillon of Thousand Oaks knew he was truly head over heels for Rally Cup auto racing when he and his partner won the first professional event they entered.

In their second race they were heels over head when their car spun out of control on a sharp turn, rolled over three times and landed on its roof.

Dillon, who served as the team's navigator, and Agoura Hills resident Fred Ronn, the driver, crawled out unscathed from the demolished mid-1990s Toyota Celica and began planning for this season.

``It's like the best roller coaster you could have at Magic Mountain, but without the roller coaster tracks,'' Dillon said about racing. ``We're weekend warriors, doing it because we love the sport and the camaraderie of the competition. And we love the speed. The adrenaline rush is what I imagine an incredible high to be. It's a thrill I can't describe.''

Dillon, 42, supports his racing habit as a computer network administrator for Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks.

Rally Cup competition, immensely popular in Europe, is building upon its cult status in America as the poor person's version of stock car racing.

ESPN2 and Speedvision offer regular coverage of Rally Cup races, which now draw up to 2,000 spectators.

Driven in increments of at least two days, races are about 200 miles long in segments of 10 to 20 miles that are from 200 feet to 120 miles apart.

In each race, as many as 60 cars compete in five different classes based on horsepower, whether the engine is modified or unmodified and whether the car has two-wheel or four-wheel drive.

The drivers may be tested on desert paths, forest trails, snow-covered streets rugged logging trails or other challenges.

Navigators are given a route book, designating the roads and their defects, only an hour before the race.

The odometers measure distances by one-hundredth of a mile, serving as a vital tool for driving teams, who are not allowed to examine the course before the race.

``You're integrating three different sources of information: the route book, the odometer and the actual road you're racing down,'' said Paula Gibeault, a board member of the Denver-based Sports Car Club of America, the nation's largest sanctioning body for Rally Cup racing.

``You're riding in a car at a high speed, bouncing around, very often at night with a small amount of light, and you're responsible for conveying the information in the route book accurately to your driver.''

Growing up on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Dillon idolized Richard Petty, a legend in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and the lesser-known Glenn ``Fireball'' Roberts, who died in a NASCAR racing crash in 1964.

Dillon's connection to the sport was mainly through televised races and short stories about stock car racing that he wrote in school.

Although there has been Rally Cup racing in the United States for three decades, Dillon knew about it only through the magazine he gets along with his 11-year membership in the Sports Car Club.

``The only thing I knew is what I'd seen in pictures,'' Dillon said. ``It looked like a lot of fun.''

He began racing as an amateur after his stint as the course timer for the 1994 Rim of the World Pro Rally in Palmdale.

In Group 2 competition for unmodified engines, Dillon and Ronn won a first place in the Rim last May in their first professional race. Their take-home prizes: $200 each, tires, driving lights, racing magazine subscriptions and Michelin jackets.

``We're still a long way from the European kind of (big money) prizes,'' said Dillon, who turned his prize money over to Ronn, who owns the car they race. ``He carries the bulk of the expense. My only expenses were hotel and transportation.''

Ronn could have used a lot more cash last October at the Prescott Forest Rally in Arizona, where his car was wrecked.

He has been using the engine's spare parts to upgrade his other Celica for competition on the national circuit this year.

Meanwhile, Dillon plans to navigate a car driven by Knoxville, Tenn., resident Kendall Russell for an upcoming race in Olympia, Wash. - one of about 14 regional and national races he expects to enter this year at a cost of about $10,000 in entry fees and transportation expenses.

While most competitors ride as navigator only until they can earn enough money to buy and maintain a car, Dillon said he is more than content to stay in the passenger's seat.

``I like being part of a team,'' he said. ``I don't feel like I have to be a star.''

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) John Dillon of Thousand Oaks, a weekend racer in auto rallies, shows off a first-place plaque he won as navigator in the first professional competition that he and driver Fred Ronn of Agoura Hills ever entered.

Tina Gerson/Daily News