mndsm
I'M OFFENDED!
As many of you have recently discovered, I made a pilgrimage to stage rally in Houghton MI from 10-15-19 to 10-17-09. The pictures do most of the talking...
When we arrived at the Ramada, we were greeted by the race trailers of none other than Ken Block and Travis Pastrana. Both turned out to be cool guys, and seeing their cars up close was a thing of pure beauty. After a hearty meal, we decided to roll around and see what other cars were stashed at other hotels. Lots of evos and STi's, some cool old stuff, and then we stop at my hotel... and see a pre-production Ford Fiesta sitting in the lot.
The Next morning was Parc Expose, and another chance to check out all of the cars and their drivers up close and personal. All of the drivers were REALLY cool and totally approachable. LOTS of cars to see.
Then it was off to Stage one, which was in a gravel pit. Very muddy, VERY fast. The difference between the open class cars (Pastrana) and a lot of the other cars was insane. Ken Block was running Super Production due to totalling his car at Ojibwe or some other rally.... and he was 6 minutes slower than Pastrana after day 1.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/200910151#
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/200910171#
Later that night, we decided to go see a stage out in Kenton... Stage 6 I believe. It was dark, it was cold, my camera died. It was still awesome. First car came over the hill, and it was discovered that it was snowing. Thank you Mr. Pastrana- for shedding light on that subject. Apparently the stages that night were not kind to several cars, as several people blew engines, and there was more than one off. The most interesting has to go to Kenny Bartram, who rolled his car.... but he made it back to service and was able to fix the car to continue onto day 2.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/Rally1#
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/Rally2#
Day 2- Parc Expose 2, this time in Copper Harbor. Several cars didn't make the call, and the ones that did most definately showed wear from the night before. After Parc- was a short jaunt to Delaware, and the first of three runs at this stage. Nothing terribly eventful here, just some REALLY fast racing, and Pastrana putting another feather in his cap.
All in all, this was an amazing time. I encourage anyone to go.
When we arrived at the Ramada, we were greeted by the race trailers of none other than Ken Block and Travis Pastrana. Both turned out to be cool guys, and seeing their cars up close was a thing of pure beauty. After a hearty meal, we decided to roll around and see what other cars were stashed at other hotels. Lots of evos and STi's, some cool old stuff, and then we stop at my hotel... and see a pre-production Ford Fiesta sitting in the lot.
The Next morning was Parc Expose, and another chance to check out all of the cars and their drivers up close and personal. All of the drivers were REALLY cool and totally approachable. LOTS of cars to see.
Then it was off to Stage one, which was in a gravel pit. Very muddy, VERY fast. The difference between the open class cars (Pastrana) and a lot of the other cars was insane. Ken Block was running Super Production due to totalling his car at Ojibwe or some other rally.... and he was 6 minutes slower than Pastrana after day 1.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/200910151#
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/200910171#
Later that night, we decided to go see a stage out in Kenton... Stage 6 I believe. It was dark, it was cold, my camera died. It was still awesome. First car came over the hill, and it was discovered that it was snowing. Thank you Mr. Pastrana- for shedding light on that subject. Apparently the stages that night were not kind to several cars, as several people blew engines, and there was more than one off. The most interesting has to go to Kenny Bartram, who rolled his car.... but he made it back to service and was able to fix the car to continue onto day 2.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/Rally1#
http://picasaweb.google.com/mndsm79/Rally2#
Day 2- Parc Expose 2, this time in Copper Harbor. Several cars didn't make the call, and the ones that did most definately showed wear from the night before. After Parc- was a short jaunt to Delaware, and the first of three runs at this stage. Nothing terribly eventful here, just some REALLY fast racing, and Pastrana putting another feather in his cap.
All in all, this was an amazing time. I encourage anyone to go.
