Of coarse im woken up super early to Ananda, Rally America’s Marketing Mastermind, letting me know we have to get to the Mustang Unleashed Stages where our Rally America hombre Mike Hurst would battle it out in 4 Stages against Current Unleashed Competitor Mark Utech. History states that there was an old mustang woopin’ on 2 wheelers for some time and the car belonged to first to Mike(#82) and then to Mark(#83).
Ananda and I both had planes to catch so not a hole lot of time was spent at Stages, just enough to support. Mike.
What does the inside of a Rally Equipped 2010 Ford Mustang look like you ask? BAM!
Like this:
Also interesting about this challenge is the Co Driver, Rob Bohn, has worked with both drivers so the is a pretty fair playing field.
Keep um calm Rob!
The crew of the #83 Mayhem Mustang getting down on some coloring during delays.
M.Hurst & the newly badged up Stang. #82 style. Go get um buddy!
Then we bounce back to Minneapolis. Well minus the 3 hour trek back while trying to dry my clothes off flapping in the wind the hole drive. It almost worked. Back in the city!
Later Ojibwe! Congrats Travis & Christian
Goodies from the Rally includes Mark Fox #54 Nat’l Guard Camo Hat, Exclusive WRS logo shirt, TerraFirma shirt showing off the rally necessities, and don’t forget the OFR crew shirt. Thanks everyone!!
Back at home Ross from Dead Pirate Prod. & Edrift drops by the casa for the ol’ office tour, only to be thrown out before bread was broken. Thanks for understanding. Nothing but love. Im digging your Drift threads but whatcha know bout 70 Duplessis?
Alrighty then. Day 3 of the Ojibwe Forest Rally starts off with Travis Pastrana taking an incredible lead, and with his open class teammate Ken Block down looked like he could be taking a Solo podium. Almost, times in the AM confirm that Dave Mirra in his Super Production SRT car are sitting 3rd overall.
My day starts off with a sweet Parc Expose at the Local Tech college along with 30+ rally cars, and a few hundred enthusiastic fans. It was actually the first time I started seeing some WRC euro feel to the Rally America Championship. Peter Fetela had a whole group pf family members and friends out to support him and the every polish driver we had.
Even Ken Block had euro love. Check out the ride of the KB “Support Squad”.
All custom work.
At first I thought @nadsynads was the driver but I turns out it was this guy.
Travis and Dave are bigger than wheat bread in case you didn’t know.
This man ends up on top of the Max Attack Podium. Way to getter done Mr. O’Sullivan.
The man behind the Mayhem at Rally America, JB.
After Mechanical setbacks yesterday, Chris Duplessis is “Rally King” today.
Super Awesome Spectator Captain for the weekend, Kenny Bartram.
It’s a little mind bogling that this 2010 Mustang was once a drag car. Now its all out in the woods.
Ken Parps, El Soundo Techi guru.
The White Oak Rally Crew. Mr. Jake Blattner
And Mark “The Animal” Fox. I just got word that Fox has added a press side rally action. Hopefully we can get some inside during Rally’s too. Hit my email guys willn2g@hotmail.com
Oh snap. Drivers meeting before we hit the stages.
Team O’Neil class graduate with me, Donny Conley.
And the whole Conley family. Unfortunately im still learning about proper Lighting when using the GoPro for a handy cam. The one thing I don’t like is the Sun dot. But I could have photoshopped that if I wasn’t so lazy. Ill take that into consideration next time.
This is Donny, Nate, and Pops.
Hey Its Frank from WRS.
A quick break down and Bob and I are out to the stage. I know its a little odd, but this is the first time ive ever encountered lilly pads.
Heres a lesson in “awesome” from WRS Andrew. Crash cam 101. This is why worldrallysport.com gets the ANGLES!
My marketing friends Ananda & Margaret.
The whole crowd and the Terra Firma Crew selling shirts ON STAGE…that’s gangster. Good work guys.
Emily(From RAstore) and I listening to Beryl Ann prepping the crowd.
After multiple cars make the pass through a quick Left into Right 3+ we saw some insane carnage flipping from Zach Babcock.
The aftermath is like this:
What better than aftermath footage? Well, vid of actual flip it self. Courtesy of the large balled WRS crew. Nice work Drew!
Livin’ to drive and Co-Drive another day
Next up Bob and I head back to the Curling Club to set up the Champaigne spray. On the way back we get word that the 40 of Dave Mirra is out with Electrical and Art Gruzka is out with a small fire and roll. This event will turn out to be an endurance battle of who could make it to the end.
As the Cars arrive HOURS later its Discovered that Pastrana Definitely won and has secured his 4 National Championship. 2nd place overall would go to Andi Mancin and 3rd wouild go to Adam Markut in a SuperProduction prepared Eagle talon…Adam was the first SP car to make overall podium. SP went Markut, Moro, and Kenney. 2wd went to O’Sullivan, Conley, & DVW.
At the end of the Champaign sprays JB walks out with the Ford Unleashed guys and announces tha Mark Utech will run 4 stages heads up against RA’s own Mike Hurst. . .
I also got bruised up on this night from an unforgettable pool tile.
Id check those pics on the Facebook.
“Will, whats up with the sweet FishEye angles”
Response: Yeah? I got this sweet Go Pro Hero cam from D1 Chitown. I thought Id test it out a little bit. I love the camera cause im a little abusive and the case saves my arse daily. I think a Mix of it and the Rebel live been using will make a great combo on this blog.
The Ojibwe Forest began at the Bemidji Speedway near the heart of Rally HQ in Bemidji. It was a dirt ovel conveted to a mile long Road coarse for a SuperSpecialStage.
First on the scene was the kids from Colorado, the Keenys and the Conleys. Jimmy’s car had some major battle damage from XGames but the car was almost completly back to its RA state.
Nate Conley making an apperiance for the first time in a RA event this year in that sweet Copper Xgames car.
Donny Conley in the wagon fresh out of Team O’Niels.
And Pops Conley in the Neon who trying to Catch DVW in 2wd points battle for the championship.
And Dillon Van Way in the Focus.
Pat Moro and with some Bandit stylin’ on his wrx
Inside the 59 coach Worm gets some Z’s and on the couch.
Mark Utech, usually the driver of a 1987 Mustang Fox body showed up in a 2010 mustang as part of the Mustang Unleashed Program from ford. The stang sounded Mean!
The car was pretty amazingly prepped up by Utech’s Mayhem Racing.
I like that it had a stock dash and even door panels.
Bob Olsen and Conrad Kettlesons Open Class wrx
Paul Koll and the Monster repping the Terra Firma colors
The Parc Expose getting set up infront of the Speedway.
Great shot of DVW show his ltd. Slocum the Pirate shirt.
When the actual stage began Pat Moro and Piotr Wiktorczyk came in to the booth to do some smack talk and piit $1 on the stage. Well I gave that dollar bill to the #61 crew chief Gary Grahn and replaced with a Ha Suckers bill this one here. As you can Tell Piotr won.
Next Bob and I headed off to a couple spectator areas in the Paul Bunyan National Forest.
And another at night that I got absolutely no pictures at the we called it a night. Day 2 would be another sweet day of chasing rally cars till the champaign spray.
First day had LOTS of casualties including a disastrous crash from Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino. I jacked these shots from the Rally America website.
We also saw Piotr’s engine seize and threw him out of the comp. Must be given the rest of the SuperProduction guys time to catch up. Greg Dorman, his Co-Driver, blogged the hole weekend on WorldRallySport.com.
Approaching with a quickness just 3 weeks after XGames is the Ojibwe Forest Rally in Bemidji, MN. Having an event so close to eachother is a little interesting. XGames Rally Car is an awesome event to watch, participate, and be involved but its by no means a real stage Rally. It was going to be awesome to get back in to some real race stages
My trek to Ojibwe starts in Cali where I jump on a plane to Phoenix, then Denver, & then Minnesota. & why not study up a little mid flight.
But once we load the plane up in Denver the ultimate downer voice jumps on the radio, “Well guys, looks like the number 2 engine is out and well have to get a new aircraft.”
This gave me a great opportunity to snag a tall falcon red ale
After an Hour or so delay the new plane arrives and were off again just in time for a nice sunset shot.
I arrive in Minnesota late Wednesday night. The great thing about having a rally in MN is it also happens to be the home of Rally America so Mr. Niday hooked up a ride and a place to sleep for the night. Cowboy Kenny Bartram also stayed with us at the Niday house hold. Unfortunately for Kenny I got to the house first locking down the JB’s son’s room and he had to nap in the pretty pink princess room of JB’s daughter. Goodthing the kids were off to college. (David I promise your pillows are slobber free)
In the AM Kenny, JB, and myself hit the road to meet up with the rest of the RA crew and head down to Bemidji.
The Stig from Top Gear was also Identified. Turns out it was Al Kintah the hole time.
I feel like I gain weight at every rally we hit. OFR is no different. These are a favorite of mine. Cheeseburger dog aka TerdDog.
And what’s up with $3.99 pies. Phenomenal deal!
We finally arrive at Registration and all the rally homies are spotted.
This is the crew for SuperProduction points leader Piotr Wiktorczyk . (R2L)
Greg Dorman (Codriver/WRS Blogger), Margarite Parker (ultimate chic subie tech), & Gary Grahn (CrewChief).
The WorldRallySport crew Frank & Andrew. (Check out worldrallysport.com for some awesome RA event coverage)
This is Chris Duplessis. They call him the man because is car has like 48hp yet he still finishes top10 overall at every event he attends. Talk about killing it.
Out side, Mark Fox is unloading his new ride for 09 from Vermont sports car. Its Ken Blocks old ride and now officially in the hands of the “the Animal”. I like this graphic package better than anyone so far. (I know, its just a spy shot)
Jan & Jody Zedril also showing up early in their Canadian Lancer.
My indoor fingerboard alley over table gap
I had read online that the TerraFirma Clothing line would be launching this weekend and sure enough the were even repping a registration
3rd round of the D1GP took place place in Chicago on the same weekend as Xgames in LA. So as all my rally friends arrive in Cali on Thursday I headed down to the Home Depot center X Games central to say whats up and grab my badge then hit LAX for my red eye flight to Chi town.
Got in town just late enough to have a beer and meet up Brian Norris and new judge Rob Fleming then hit the hay for Friday morning practice.
The D1 track @ soldier field seemed to resemble the FD track from years prior. But how could you not resist the view.
First up was the un seeded practice.
Rally style s14.
Close friend @ Spec clutchster Gary Land with the LSWHATTness.
Drift Alliance Ace John Wagner
DMCC round 1 and 2 Winner Pat Cyr
Tania “Spooky” Bourbonnais and the RMR championship goat.
While I was walking around the pits I heard and extremely loud smash and new someone had thumped the wall.It was all around cool guy Quoc Ly and he had rolled the Mary Kay Pink Drift Speed S14….Check out the D1 Teaser Vid for live action of the crash.
And the aftermath.
Oh, broken rotor even
1 driftspeed car left for the weekend. That would be the GunMetal S15 Driven by Mr. Yoshioka. All Smiles!
Back in the Pits: Juha’s ride was sounding like an F14 upon acceleration. Awesome.
Yeah, Second ProAm Nat’s Sticker spotted. Awesome event Naoki! We should do that again.
Mark Manansala piloting the Eshift/Nos Nissan
Always a pleasure running into Chelsea (Seek and Destroy in Jersey)
On track, Drift King was concerned about everyone’s comfortability factor of the track so he held a drivers meeting with cars strategically placed on the proper drift line.
Tres Amigos the Finnish
Id be intrigued too
And Back to some Driving.
To bad Kumakubo and the Orange guys would be fined $17,500 in Penalties after this event. Everyone was getting along so well.
Rated D Guys and the ricer drop top.
Potential Event Winner Nomuken
Whats alittle practice with out some body panels. The Zoltan Car may be done.
Sammy Tiger in for a last min. entry. Pretty epic but he didn’t qualify. See you soon sammy.
Juha Killing it.
After the dirty 30 are decited for tomorrows event these guys pile into the back of someones dually and we head back to the hotel checking out the scenic route.
First up the Buckingham Memorial Fountain from the “Married With Children” Theme.
Pirate Display at the Field Museum.
Please don’t kill me or get me arrested….thanks
Down Town CHiTown
Chrome Bean and My nights Over.
Saturday is Game day. Everyone gets to the track early. As we arrive the Roadstar Car Show was just beginning. This WRX shaggin’ wagon with a Flat Burgandy paint job was tight.
The Airforce Stealth Challenger is also intense in person.
FWD Corolla.. These things are great for Rally…but who’d want to to that to a classic.
Into the night!
Super Mario on track all day. Good work Man.
Rob Fleming snappin away. Shouldn’t you be judging?
Ueno losing it to Harri
Kumakubo moving on from Yoshioka
And after the event is all said and done. 3 men would have giant checks.
Harri in 3rd
Forest in 2nd
And Nomuken in 1st
Interesting event but at I didn’t have time to stay I had to get back to LA for XGames. This was the conclusion of my D1 Tour. For Jersey Im handing the Reigns to Ernie from NOS. Kill it Brother!
After mad delays at the Airport, a broken plane, and a discruntal taxi driver with no legs. My little homies from the 1706 DJracing crew swooped into LAX and got me to X at the perfect time.
Once there I hooked up with Homie Jarod DeAnda (The Voice of Formula D) for some Home Depot Center X Games Announcing.
The View of the pits from the Tower.
Zoom ZOOM ZOOOOOM!!
SRTUSA getting prepped
The Fiesta’s about to walk away with 2 medals. Not bad for the first time out.
Jimmy Keeney, Matt Johnson, and Piotr Prepping
And now to the JUMP.
TP getting some! But I think this is the only time he took the jump the whole event.
After Brack beats Tanner in this round he will face Pastrana for Gold.
They were extremely close on the first lap and a small miscalculation by Travis gives the Xgame 15 Rally Car gold to Kenny Brack a virtual Rookie to Rally America and XGames….woah!
Next stop Rally America Round 7: The Ojibwe Forest Rally
