Tag Archive for Oregon Trail Rally

Oregon Trail Rally 2014

Oregon Trail Rally is this week, Friday through Sunday.  Everything you want to know is in the Spectator Guide.

Suspect 541 Gravel

Friday night at PIR (Portland International Raceway – a Portland park), starting at 6:00pm.

Saturday in Dufur the cars will be on display at Dufur City Park, beginning at 9:00am.  Dufur City Park is scheduled to be the location for all services.  That means that as the car finish stages, there will be time for them to work on the cars.  That will be happening at a central, easy to find location.  This is an excellent spectating opportunity.  Kids love this stuff!

Saturday night at 7:30 – a party with cars at Double Mountain Brewery

Sunday the cars will be running stages near Hood River, and servicing down in the Port Area – Again, beginning at 9:00am

Who to look for?

I’ll be rooting for McDowell and Henderson (notice how I put the co-driver’s name first…?) – Hood River boys and hell-a-fast!!! Number 541, Subaru WRX (photo above).  Great insights on their Facebook page.

Carl Decker is a bicycle racer from Bend who also spends some time in Hood River.  He’s stupid-quick on a bike – expect that to carry over.  Like Henderson, if you think race driver’s ain’t athletes… you ain’t thinkin’ very hard.  Number 693, and it’s probably still a Subaru.

Anybody named Tabor has done a lot for Rallying in the Northwest, and there are a bunch of them.

Paul Eklund is another Portland guy with a family history in the sport.

Any car running as a “Regional” entry is likely somebody from not too far away.  And bring your kids – even the girls will be excited to see that there are women involved in this sport.  It’s super cool stuff.  Check it out.

Oregon Trail Rally Spectator Guide

Rally America has come to the northwest for the Oregon Trail Rally.  That means rally cars in Portland and in The Gorge!!!

I am a big fan of Rally – before my sense of self-preservation became somewhat developed, I spent some time as a Pro Rally co-driver.  Rally is hard – it’s fast, it’s pure, it rewards good preparation, and penalizes poor judgement and carelessness.  You should check it out.

One thing that is difficult about rally (from a spectators point of view) is seeing the action, but the promoters of Oregon Trail have ably addressed this. Friday, they will be at PIR (Portland International Raceway – a Portland City Park) for a series of what we used to call “Super Specials” – Special stages that purposely take place in a public area. It’s pretty cool.

On Saturday the cars will come out to Hood River, and then Dufur, for another group of special stages (in the woods) and some great opportunities to view the cars in service at both Odell and Dufur.

Link to the spectator guide – my favorites:

  • At PIR you can see the cars at speed with some great viewing opportunities.
  • At the Hood River Fairgrounds in Odell, the teams will have settled in and you will be able to look at cars and talk to crews.