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
Sandblast rally takes place in early March every year in Cheraw, SC and although not the first event on the NASA Rallysport calendar, is the first non winter rally in the US every year. There is always a little extra excitement in the air around this event as everyone gets to shake off the cabin fever of a long cold winter and show off all their shiny new toys! Sandblast will always be special to me as I got my first rally experience at Sandblast 3 years ago and thanks to some amazing people in the rally community have been on one crazy adventure after another ever since! To that point, who am I?
Hello GotCone readers! My name is Brian Katz. I am an engineer out of Chattanooga, TN by day and amature race car driver and mechanic by night. My normal rally gig is crew for River City Rally Team. Our driver and fearless leader Michael Hooper introduced me to rally with a trip to Sandblast and since that first trip 4 years ago that ended with two broken e30’s, we have traveled all over the country, winning a NASA eastern 2WD championship in 2015, and a Rally America central region 2WD championship in 2016! Last season Hooper decided a new weapon was needed to chase national level trophies. Given his experience with Toyota products and our desire to build something unique, we decided to build the first Lexus IS350 rally car! Beverly debuted last season at Black River Stages and won the 2 wheel drive class! Rally in the 100 Acre Wood will be our first event of this season as a team and we are hard at work finishing preparing for another exciting season, join now and start playing online today!
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The inaugural American Rally Association season was an exciting one. Subaru Rally Team USA teammates David Higgins and Travis Pastrana had been waging quite the battle all season long and with just one event left, Ojibwe Forests Rally, it all came down to this. Higgins was holding on to a one victory advantage, if he and co-driver Craig Drew could hold off Pastrana and co-driver Robbie Durant and grab the victory in the forests of Minnesota they would be crowned the first ever ARA Champions. However Pastrana and Durant weren’t giving up just yet, with a victory at Ojibwe they could even up the series points and even overtake Higgins and Drew if they somehow slipped and finished worse than 2nd overall. More…
ARA, David Higgins, featured, Ojibwe, rally, Subaru, Travis Pastrana
The Oregon Trail Rally never fails to disappoint with it’s amazing stages and the backdrops to those stages. It’d been 3 years since the last time I had made the journey out for the event and I had been itching to go back, so I decided there’s no time like the present. And boy, it did not disappoint.
David Higgins and Craig Drew had won the event 6 years in a row and would be looking to keep their streak in tact. Challenging them would teammates Travis Pastrana and Robbie Durant, Jeff Seehorn and Karen Jankowski in their brand new Subaru and Barry McKenna and Leon Jordan in a WRC prepared Ford Fiesta. Little did Higgins and Drew know what sort of battle they were in for when their car started to break down. Even after an extensive auto repair, there were a few minor aspects left unfixed that led to the breakdown.
ARA, David Higgins, featured, Oregon Trail, Oregon Trail Rally, rally, 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
The early registration period for SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE ends tomorrow at noon. After that the late registration fee takes effect. However, if you haven’t registered yet, you might be out of luck as the cap of 1300 entrants (a new record number of entrants) has already been reached and a waiting list has begun. It’s hard to say if the cap will be raised to let a few more people in or not.
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The exciting series from Subaru Rally Team documenting the SRTUSA and Subaru Rallycross season returns with it’s first episode. The episode, ‘The Rivals Within’, showcases the first half of the battle between teammates David Higgins and Travis Pastrana at Rally America Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and the development of the all new Subaru Rallycross STi car. The battle between Higgins and Pastrana in the forests of Missouri at 100 Acre Wood was an epic one. Episode 2 will feature the conclusion to the 100 Acre Wood battle, hold on to your seats as you go along for the ride! The Chevy Dealership near Kingsville has great car options for you to choose !
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100 Acre Wood, David Higgins, featured, Global Rallycross, rally, Rallycross, Subaru, Travis Pastrana
