Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR) Elects New Chairmen and Host City

Open Paddock has learned that the Lake Superior Performance Rally has elected Steve Gingras and Eric Carlson as their new co-chairmen. Steve told Open Paddock “It’s going to be a big challenge but we want to build an event that is going to be strong for several years.” This is yet another ‘changing of the guard’ we’ve been seeing over the past several years as a younger generation begins to run events. “Only somewhat younger” as Steve jokingly put it. This is quite the change for the former Production GT…

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RallyCast Episode 42 with Al Dantes Jr. and Michael Hooper

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFrom Tuesday October 30th 2018.  In this show we had our Lake Superior Performance Rally review with Al Dantes Jr. of Tower City Race Team and Michael Hooper the 2WD winner of LSPR and now the Rally America 2WD overall champion!  We chatted about the event and the crazy changing conditions, something called the Sisu Challenge, and other bits of rally news.   

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2015 Lake Superior Performance Rally – Driver Previews Open

Welcome to the final installment of Open Paddock’s Lake Superior Performance Rally Driver Previews. Today we are talking about the top tomatos – Open Class. In case you missed our 2WD class preview click here, or if you missed the Super Production preview click here. You need to ask yourself one question before you start to actively follow LSPR today. Do you know who the guys in those pretty painted cars are? If you answered no to that question please keep reading. If you answered yes keep reading anyway, hubris…

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2015 Lake Superior Performance Rally – Driver Previews 2WD and B-Spec

It’s October and that means one thing in sports. Football season heating up? Call me back in February. Rugby World Cup? America isn’t making it out of Group play, so who cares? MLB Playoffs? What’s a Chase Utley, some kind of dog with a glandular problem? No my friends, it is once again time for the best sport of them all, rally. Specifically, the Lake Superior Performance Rally, the final Rally America National event of the year. And what a rally it is shaping up to be. With the class…

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BREAKING NEWS – Brendan Reeves Takes 2wd Rally America Championship!

After what has to have been one of the best championship battles in Rally America history, Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Gelsomino pulled off the win and with it the 2013 2wd Rally America National Championship crown!     At the end of Day 1, Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Gelsomino piloted their Team O’Neil Ford Fiesta R2 into 13.4 second lead over Andrew Comrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpy’s Scion XD.  Both drivers pushed as hard as possible in Saturday’s drier conditions.  Reeves’ lead didn’t last though as ACP clawed back to a…

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BREAKING NEWS – David Higgins 2013 Rally America Champion

BREAKING NEWS – Confirmed reports are saying that Hoonigan Racing Division’s Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino rolled their HFHV Fiesta on Special Stage 12 about a mile from the finish.  That means Subaru Rally Team USA’s David Higgins and Craig Drew are the 2013 Rally America champions.   It was a great battle while it lasted with Ken Block clawing back about 5 seconds from a 13 second deficit.  I think the visiting former British Rally Champion – Guy Wilks – said it best “…Better to go going hard than…

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LSPR Day 1 – Rally America Championship Still Too Close To Call

If you don’t follow rally racing, then this would be a good time to start.  These are the events that rally fans dream about.  A final championship battle that wages between great competitors who are willing to go flat out and not conserve anything to be crowned champion.  Mother nature threw a bit of a curve ball preventing top speeds, but the battle continues with leaders barely ahead of their rivals.   Hoonigan Racing Division’s Ken Block and Craig Drew started first on the road in wet slippery, or as he put…

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Rally America Season Finale – Champions To Be Crowned

It all comes down to this weekend.  The final race of the 7 round Rally America Championship season.  There is nothing left to conserve.  It will be win it or bin it at the Lake Superior Forest Rally on the forest roads outside Houghton, Michigan.     Thanks to the Federal Government shutdown taking so long to be resolved, the originally scheduled stages for Friday that were on federal forest lands are no longer available.  Instead Saturday’s scheduled stages on private lands are going to be repeated on Friday as well.…

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Rally – Rally America Returns to Lake Superior in 2013

Henry and Cynthia Krolikowski take a high speed jump at LSPR Rally.

Well, it looks like I might actually make it to a couple of rallies next year! Every year, I make it to the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood that takes place in Salem, MO in late February, but the rest of the Rally America National Championship events all happen either near the East or West coasts. Ok, yes, there’s the Sno*Drift Rally in northern Michigan, but in addition to the fact that I’m a total wimp when it comes to cold weather, Sno*Drift also takes place right as the…

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