This year marked my ninth consecutive trip to the Salem, MO area for Rally America Rally in the 100 Acre Wood. Next year will mark a full decade of attending rally in the forests surrounding Salem, Steeleville, Potosi, and all the other towns that surround the event, so I guess I’ll save most of my reminiscing until then. However I will say that there is a new adventure every trip. More…
featured, Ford, Mitsubishi, rally, Rally America, rally car, Subaru
It was an exciting year for rally. 2017 marked the creation of a new rally sanctioning body, the American Rally Association. It also marked the return of a few events that had been absent for some time and the creation of a few new ones. More…
100 Acre Wood, American Rally Association, David Higgins, featured, LSPR, Ojibwe Forest Rally, Oregon Trail Rally, rally, Rally America, Subaru, Travis Pastrana
The 2017 U.S. rally season had been shaping up to be an interesting one with the introduction of the ARA (American Rally Association) and with it the division of events and the splitting of ties between Rally America and the factory Subaru Rally Team. Many of the old Rally America events decided to jump over to the new sanctioning body, but they did retain the first two events on the schedule Sno*Drift and Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, as well as adding some new events that should be exciting. More…
100 Acre Wood, featured, Ford, Mitsubishi, rally, Rally America, Subaru, Toyota
Some interesting news in from the world of rally in the US. Oregon Trail Rally organizers just announced they will be jumping to the newly formed American Rally Association (ARA) for next year’s event. Meanwhile the organizers at Rally in the 100 Acre Wood announced that the event will be the second in the Rally America Championship series and will be held on March 17-18 in 2017. I’m guessing that means Sno*Drift is on board with the Rally America Championship series and will remain the first event of the 2017 season, though no official announcement has been made.
100 Acre Wood, American Rally Association, featured, Ojibwe Forest Rally, Oregon Trail Rally, rally, Rally America
My first trip to Minnesota and the Ojibwe Forest Rally was filled with a little bit of everything, except snow for once. It is a challenging rally to cover with narrow fast roads and not a lot of safe places to be on stage, but there is some beauty to capture. Lakes and trees line the roads making for a perfect backdrop as cars rip full speed down them. It was nearly perfect, except for that freak hail storm that delayed the start of stage 10 and caused me to run for cover and the mosquitos, millions of them, everywhere.
David Higgins, featured, Ojibwe, rally, Rally America, SRTUSA, Subaru
There is only one thing you can count on in rally, the unexpected. Last year’s Rally in the 100 Acre Wood was bitter cold and cut short by a snow storm on the final day of the rally. This year, well, with the event moved back a month to March instead of February the weather was bound to be better. And it was, but only slightly. The day before the rally was to begin was sunny and right near 70 degrees, but that quickly changed. Clouds rolled in and a cold wind kicked up on Friday, with a chance of rain and/or snow that night into Saturday morning as the temps plummeted into the lower 30s. This year’s event turned out to be a dusty, rocky, treacherous, car eating, nasty one. Even a light rain on Friday night was not enough to keep the dust down, trust me, I inhaled a full meal of dust over the course of the weekend. More…
100 Acre Wood, David Higgins, featured, Fetela Rally Team, rally, Rally America, Subaru, Travis Patrana
Rally is a crazy sport with a million variables and sometimes those variables conspire against you. Fetela Rally Team experienced just this, in what I can say is the craziest crash I’ve witnessed first hand. They came flying over the cattle guard in the familiar fashion I’ve seen many times, but it didn’t end how anyone wanted or expected. More…
100 Acre Wood, crash, featured, Fetela Rally Team, rally, Rally America, Subaru
It looks like we aren’t going to have wait much longer for Ken Block’s Gymkhana 8! The popular YouTube video series will release it’s 8th installment on February 29th, but that wasn’t the only news from the Hoonigan Racing Team. Also revealed today was a new “Ultra-Reflective” livery, that LITerally changes color depending on how and what light hits it. I’m not sure we should be surprised that Block would try to one up his crazy/fun liveries, but this does look pretty crazy. Finally, it appears that Block has a new tire sponsor in Toyo Tires. He will be running Toyo Proxes R1R, I would presume all year, but at least for the Gymkhana video.
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featured, Ford, GRC, gymkhana, Hoonigan, Ken Block, rally, Rally America, Rallycross, Toyo
A couple year’s ago, Ken Block set out to build a car that he could use for rally, rallycross and Gymkhana and boy did he ever. He drove the Ford Fiesta HFHV to victory’s in the Global Rallycross series, Rally America and more. Oh yah, he also made one of those Gymkhana YouTube series videos (it only has 33 million views) that he does from time to time. Now it’s for sale and you can hoon just like Ken Block for the low, low price of $362,000 USD. That might seem kind of steep but it’s really not that bad considering that it comes complete with the full rally, rallycross and Gymkhana set ups from the Hoonigan Racing Division.
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featured, Ford, gymkhana, Ken Block, rally, Rally America, Rallycross
Oregon Trail is always one of the most beautiful rally locations of the Rally America National Championship season. This year was no different, with Mt. Hood as the backdrop and wide open flowing gravel roads creating the perfect scenery.
With no Ken Block, Travis Pastrana or other factory sponsored driver, the 2015 Rally America Championship is Subaru Rally Team’s David Higgins and Craig Drew’s to lose. And lose, they have not. SRTUSA has been dominant all year, taking victories at Sno*Drift, 100 Acre Wood and now Oregon Trail. It’s gonna be a steep road for anyone trying to make a run at them the rest of the season.
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David Higgins, featured, Oregon Trail Rally, rally, Rally America, SRTUSA, Subaru
