Wow, what an event! It is hard to even know where to start with all that went on this weekend. Once again the Oregon Trail Rally featured drama, danger, and hard fought victories. The weekend activities actually started Thursday morning with a fan appreciation show at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. This show and tell of the cars and drivers in the heart of the city draws in spectators that might not know that the Oregon Trail Rally is in town and entices them to come out to…
Read MoreAuthor: Mike Shaw
Oregon Trail Rally – Preview Part 2
In this part I’m going to discuss the drivers and teams gearing up for the Oregon Trail Rally, and are they ever plentiful. At last check there were 79 entrants on the start list. Sorry for the lack of images, but have been short for time. I’ll be taking plenty out on the stages though! The favorites are of course going to be David Higgins and Craig Drew in the Subaru Rally Team USA Impreza WRX STi. Team Subaru has a good lead in the points after getting second at…
Read MoreOregon Trail Rally – Preview Part 1
Considering all that is about to go down at the Oregon Trail Rally this year, I’m breaking this up into a couple of articles. To start off with I’ll discuss the event itself, and then I’ll go into the drivers and teams to watch, and I’ll finish with a little bit about what I’m going to be doing as a volunteer and why its great to get involved in rallies in your area. The Oregon Trail Rally is the only 3 day event on the Rally America calendar, and this…
Read MoreGRC X-Games – Brazil Review
The first round of the re-invigorated Global Rallycross Championship made its debut at the X-Games in Brazil last weekend. Quite a few drivers are committing to the full GRC season this year, as well as a number of one-off drives. Notably missing are Rhys-Millen and Hyundai after Hyundai pulled out of all motorsports in the USA at the end of last year. Also missing was the Subaru Puma team. It appears they are doing only the American events and skipping the more expensive long distance events. The…
Read MoreGrandAm – Southern Swing
Grand-Am Road Racing continues its march through the southern U.S. Following the season-opening 24 Hours At Daytona, and races in Elroy, Texas and Birmingham, Alabama, Grand-Am rolls into scenic Braselton, Georgia. As Open Paddock’s “southern photographer” I have foregone a cross-country trek to see the American Le Mans and IndyCar races in Long Beach, California in favor an easy drive to Road Atlanta Raceway in Braselton. I’ll share photographs of practice, qualifying, and racing of Grand-Am Road Racing’s Rolex Sports Car Series and Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge. This is…
Read MoreRally America Video – Oregon Trail Preview
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Read MoreSebastien Loeb’s 2013 Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak Monster
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Read MoreBreaking News – Aussies Return to Oregon Trail
Once again the Oregon Trail Rally gets the opportunity to host some of our friends from down under. Just announced this evening WRC Academy driver Brendan Reeves along with his co-driver sister Rhianon Smyth will get reunited with an R2 Ford Fiesta like the drove in the Academy. This time the young Australians will get to drive a Fiesta R2 courtesy of Team O’Neal, one of two top level rally schools in America. Back home Brendan and Rhianon have been competing in the ECB Australian Rally Championship in a RallySchool.com.au…
Read MoreVodafone Rally de Portugal – Preview
Beginning tomorrow is WRC event number two without Sebastien Loeb, however his legacy seems to live on with the success of the other French Sebastien. That of course would be VW Motorsports driver Sebastien Ogier, who has dominated the season so far. Of course Ogier hates being compared to Loeb but it is hard not to at least compare the results. It seems that the only thing that can slow down Ogier is illness. Ogier apparently caught a virus while down in Mexico (some bad tequila?), and missed out on the…
Read MoreAntoine L’Estage Brings WRC Spec Mitsubishi to Rally America
At the end of last year a YouTube clip emerged of Rockstar Energy’s Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard testing a British MML Sports prepared 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer WRC in the Czech Republic. L’Estage later confirmed that they were testing the car, but quickly downplayed any rumors that the car would ever come to North America due to the high cost to operate the machine. At that time L’Estage said that it was hard enough to find funding to compete in both Rally America and the Canadian Rally Championship with his…
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