2015 New England Forest Rally – OpenPaddock’s Ones to Watch

Many have called this weekend’s 25th Anniversary New England Forest Rally the “Super Bowl” for rallying in America or even an All-Star event.  And the big stars are what is drawing the initial attention to this event, however there is a lot going down at NEFR that goes well beyond the big names we all know so well.   Okay, let’s start with those big names and get it out of the way.  Yes indeed we have the return of Ken Block in his HFHV (Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle) Ford Fiesta…

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100 Acre Wood Rally Gets Boost With Last Minute Entries

  I’ve been watching the entry list for the 100 Acre Wood Rally pretty closely, especially after the low car count that came to Sno*Drift last weekend.  Although as I said in my review of that event here, Sno*Drift is a unique rally and isn’t probably the best test of what the season will look like going forward.  Sno*Drift had only 36 entries of which 13 were national entries.  As of this writing 100 Acre Wood has almost double at 60 cars on their entry list and 19 of those are…

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Seed 9 Rally – Live Streaming Today

The Seed 9 Rally in Jean, Nevada represents Round 7 of the Bilstein Southwest Rally Cup Series presented by Lucas Oil.  Similar to the Mt. Hood Rally last month, Seed 9 is a 1 day event encompassing multiple runs down the same 7 mile stage with a turn around to run it in both directions.   Live streaming of the event beginning at 12:00 PM Pacific Time via SurfRatTV. Links: http://www.seed9rally.com/ or http://surfrat.tv/    List of entrants: Car # Driver / Co-Driver Car Speed Ranking Class 14 David Sterckx / John Reed…

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Rally – David Sterckx Rallysport Moves Up to Open Class for Ojibwe

CONFIRMED! – David Sterckx & Karen Jankowski are moving up to Open Class for the Ojibwe Forests Rallly! If you listened to this week’s podcast we recorded on Tuesday evening, I assumed wrongly that Sterckx’s entry showing as open class must have been in error.  In reality while David & Karen missed the STPR & NEFR rounds of the Rally America National Championship, they were upgrading the car from Super Production to the Open Class specification.  Unfortunately no details have yet emerged of the upgrades to Sterckx Always Evolving 2011 WRX STi, but David…

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Rally – Oregon Trail on NBC Sports This Weekend!

PORTLAND, OREGON (May 28, 2014) – The spectacular scenery of The Columbia River George, Mt.Hood and surrounding areas will be on display this weekend as The Oregon Trail Rally, held May 2-4, airs on NBC Sports Network this Sunday, June 1 at 3 pm PT.   Round 3 of the Rally America National Championship will feature rally racing from Portland International Raceway (PIR) and on the challenging gravel roads of Dufur and Hood River.   The one-hour show is jointly produced by Rally America and Rage Productions (Bend, OR) and will…

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Rally – Cascadia IRC Launches at Oregon Trail

First of all, I must admit that I’m not the best at following the local/regional rally competitors here in the Pacific Northwest.  That will change this year though with the new Cascadia International Rally Championship having their first event at the Oregon Trail Rally.  As Dave Henderson of Suspect Motorsports told us in our interview a few weeks ago in podcast Episode 226  , the Cascadia IRC is a new “Championship within Championships” designed for regional teams in the Pacific Northwest to compete beyond just single events.  This means some…

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Rally – Oregon Trail 2014 Preview

Round three of the Rally America National Championship gets underway this week with the Oregon Trail Rally.  The only event on the calendar in the western United States, Oregon Trail is also the longest event spanning 3 days.   The Weather: Over the last week the Pacific Northwest has had some fairly heavy rain, however drying conditions are in the forecast with temperatures in the 70’s for Friday and Saturday with only a slight possibility of a few scattered showers on Sunday.  Their could be some dusty conditions on Saturday…

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Rally America Returns to TV Tomorrow …and it Looks Good!

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/k_51JVOg1uo”]

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Up close and personal: Experiencing my first rally

Having been a rally fan for some time, I always felt a slight sense of inauthenticity when I told people rally is my favorite motorsport. Although I’d followed Rally America, WRC and other series from the comfort of home, and attended and photographed rallycross events (GRC and SCCA), I had never been to a stage rally. Last year, I was planning on going to the 2013 Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, but got snowed in, here in Kansas City. I had been looking forward to the event for months…

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Rally America – Serious Opportunity Ahead

A month ago I stated that Rally America had some serious issues with so many of last years’ champions or championship contenders not returning for 2014.  I received many comments, some in support of my statements and some thinking I was nothing but a Rally America hater which couldn’t be farther from the truth.  A few others said “just wait good things are coming,” and those were the people that were right.  Maybe I should have been more patient.  I will say that based on the information available at the time,…

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