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features :: stories
Still lots of stage miles left for the Lucas Oil Super Production WRX STi as it heads to Pennsylvania and the fastest rally in North America
 “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” We’re not sure who said that, or when. But the statement certainly resonates with Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam. It’s a nice reminder as they excitedly take their Lucas Oil Super Production Subaru WRX STi to Pennsylvania this week, while thinking about the last rally.
“Coming into the rally event in Oregon both Scott and I commented we had a good feeling about the race,” recounted O’Sullivan. ”We had a new motor in the car, we were second in the Rally America SP Championship standings, and we were really ready for a great result.” Read entire article>>>
Both mental – and mechanical – challenges face the competitors at the Oregon Trail Rally
 When Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam bring their Lucas Oil-sponsored Subaru WRX STi rally car to the Portland area for this weekend’s Oregon Trail Rally, they’ll be looking forward to improving on their second-place standings in the Super Production class. But they’ll also be thinking about the last event that saw the death of a fellow competitor. Read entire article>>>
Primitive Enterprises’ Paul Eklund is one of the locals who hopes to show the tourists the way around the rally roads of Washington state at this weekend’s Olympus Rally
 Tigard, Oregon’s Paul Eklund is one of the “locals” who knows the roads out west well. He first started competing as a rally driver in the California Rally Series all the way back in 1985. In fact, he considers himself the longest continuously running rally driver in the United States.
For his day job, Eklund runs Primitive Enterprises, an Internet-based supplier of style/performance upgrade modifications and parts for Subaru enthusiasts. He was one of the first to build out a 2008 Subaru WRX STi for rally competition, and we had the chance to speak to him before Olympus. Read entire article>>>
Over 60 cars are entered for this weekend’s Olympus Rally in Washington
 Ocean Shores, Washington, is a six-mile long peninsula bordered by the Pacific Ocean on one side and Grays Harbor on the other. There are two freshwater lakes, 23 miles of canals and old growth rain forest surrounds the city. When over 60 rally teams converge on the community for this weekend’s Olympus Rally, the next round in the Rally America National Championship, the beach won’t be of much interest, but the forest roads will be. Read entire article>>>
The podium was a bonus for Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam
 Down but not out. That’s the best way to describe the rally of 100 Acre Wood for the Lucas Oil Super Production Subaru driven by Lauchlin O’Sullivan and co-piloted by Scott Putnam.
The pair had to overcome a kick to the cajones (actually a rock to the radiator in car speak), as well as transmission and tire troubles before flying to the finish line in Salem, Missouri.
Read entire article>>>
Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam hope their stage wins at Sno*Drift propel them to the podium at
100 Acre Wood
 SALEM, MO. -- It’s a fool’s game to make predictions when it comes to rally results. After all, there are simply too many variables with the weather, road conditions, cars, drivers, tires and on and on. Still, it’s safe to say the 2011 “Rally in the 100 Acre Wood” will see a new champion.
“The five-time winner of this event, Ken Block, isn’t here this year, so there will be a spot for some new faces on top of the podium,” says Lauchlin O’Sullivan, who will bring co-driver Scott Putnam and their Lucas Oil-sponsored Subaru along for a fast ride through 122 miles of competitive stages in the Ozarks of Missouri. “Last time I was there it was an epic battle in the Open class between Block, Travis Pastrana, Andrew Comrie- Picard, and myself, and we were separated by a mere 38 seconds after 131 miles of rallying. It’s great fun and I know I can do well there.”
Read entire article>>>
 To say that Lauchlin O’Sullivan grew up around rallying is no exaggeration. After he and his dad saw a rally in Africa, they decided to try it for themselves, and Lauchlin became a co-driver for his dad for several years. At the age of 16, he then started driving himself and has been at it basically ever since. In 2003 the San Francisco-based driver had a factory ride with Mitsubishi, and they captured the Manufacturer’s Championship. O’Sullivan finished second in the overall championship standings and was the highest placed American. For the 2011 RallyCar season, he is teaming with co-driver Scott Putnam in the Lucas Oil-sponsored Super Production Subaru WRX STi. What follows is Lauchlin, in his own words, talking about the start of the season at Michigan’s snowy Sno*Drift rally, and then looking ahead to Missouri’s 100 Acre Wood rally later this month.
Read entire article>>>
Problems? No Problem. See you on the Podium.
Lauchlin O’Sullivan overcomes a series of mechanical maladies to win his second straight MaxAttack! Rally Series Championship
By David Gee
Images by Jerry Winker 
A busted steering column. A flat tire. No brakes. Not exactly how Lauchlin O’Sullivan intended to begin the third and final round of the 2010 MaxAttack! Series at the Lake Superior Performance Rally on Michigan’s scenic Upper Peninsula. Although those challenges (all coming in the event’s first four stages) conspired to keep the Lucas Oil-sponsored Dodge Neon SRT-4 out of the winner’s circle for the event, the second-place finish was still good enough to score the coveted Jake Himes Cup signifying the MaxAttack! Series Championship for 2010 (see sidebar).
“I started rallying just as soon as I got my driver’s permit and I began at a very grassroots level,” stated O’Sullivan, a former factory driver for Mitsubishi, who finished as the top American driver, and second overall, in his last fully funded season in an Open class car in the national rally championship. “I always want to do my best at every level of the sport, so I can represent ‘the little guy.’ There is a real camaraderie that is very apparent at the grassroots level, and that is one of the most fun things for me in the MaxAttack! series.”
Read on>>>>>
The Summer X Games
and the sport of rallying share an exciting past
– and a promising – and possibly transforming future
By David Gee
4,690 feet of asphalt…2,160 feet of
ramps…1,000 feet of dirt.
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Photo By:
CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/Shazamm/ESPN Images |
That’s all it took to transform the
ancient sport of rallying into something a little more, shall we say, extreme.
Okay, the sport isn’t ancient. I mean,
the Romans weren’t doing stage races with their chariots through the
countryside, although their wheel banging laps around the dirt tracks
at their coliseums did bear some resemblance to what will take place
on Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
But that’s looking ahead. First, let’s
take a look back, specifically to when rallying became an X Games event
on August 4, 2006.
“X Games took this quirky little sport
out of the woods and gave it a bigger stage,” says J.B. Niday, managing
director for Rally America, the sanctioning body for rally racing in
the United States. “It tied us to the demographic we want to be tied
to and helped us get connected to other extreme sports.”
Read On>>>>>>
By David Gee
Paul Choiniere has had lots of success at the motorsports event known as the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally, or just plain STPR as most people refer to it as. And yes, we know what religion the Pope is and what bears do in the woods.
He won the event an astonishing FIVE TIMES IN A ROW! in three different makes of cars from 1992 – 1996. And then he added two more victories in 1999 and 2005. So the dude knows of what he speaks when the subject turns to rallying in general, and STPR, specifically.
Last year I had the pleasure of speaking to Choiniere on the eve of the 2008 running of STPR, and liked it so much, decided to run it again. For the latest updates on all the action at this year’s STPR, we invite you to go to www.rally-america.com. Enjoy the reprised interview and the rally!
 There's an old racer's axiom that answers the somewhat rhetorical question how fast do you want to go with how much money do you have. Though horsepower and dollars go together in rallying as well as in any other form of motorsport, the truth is the size of your cajones may be even more important than the size of your bank account at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally.
So climb in...strap yourself down...and pucker up...as we talk about the fastest event on the Rally America Championship Series with Paul Choiniere, a rally veteran who first contested it old-school style back in 1984, a time before pace notes and One-lap Reconnaissance actually gave drivers a clue about what lies beyond that next 80 miles an hour corner.
"It's not only fast, it's not just the speed, but it's the immovable objects...things such as the trees that actually grow right into the side of the road. As you're driving down the road at a very high speed, it makes you feel like you're on an edge with no room for error at all. The trees are big enough that you can't disregard them, or simply ignore them. Your eyes see them and the mind knows they're there, and that makes it even more difficult to keep your right foot down."
Read on>>>>>>>
 Drone On
Tanner Foust takes an imaginary friend – actually foe – along with him in his rally drives
By David Gee
Rallying and video games – and video gamers – have been good friends now for nearly a decade. The relationship began when Colin McRae Rally was released for the PC and PlayStation platforms in late 1998 in the United Kingdom and in early 2000 in the United States.
The original game featured real cars and drivers from the 1998 World Rally Championship, and the late, great rally champion Colin McRae's now familiar blue Subaru was featured on the game's cover.
There are plenty of gamers who have never been to a real rally in person, but who were nevertheless introduced to the sport via video. And there are plenty of people in the rally community – both fans and competitors – who satisfy their need for speed in-between events through their various rally games.
Read on to meet Tanner's imaginary foe..
03/04
“Pat the Parts Guy”
 Subaru Super Production rally driver and team owner Pat Moro knows his local Subaru parts dealer all too well
“We impacted the tree pretty good. It took the radiator and the front core support out. The hood, the grille, the lights, they all had to be replaced. That’s rallying for you though.”
Yes that is rallying. And as the 2008 Rally America Production GT champion Pat Moro knows, sometimes you have to keep writing checks well after a rally event has ended.
3/02/09
"I
Gotta Be Me"
Rally
driver Matt Johnson says this is who he is and what he
does
"What the #*%&…slow down dude!"
Rally
driver Matthew Johnson isn't talking to me, or his co-driver.
He is instead mostly talking to himself as I try to interview
him when he is hurtling down a steep, mountainous section
of I-70 outside of Denver in his race hauler with his rally
car behind him.
Of
course I can't see how he's handling his rig, but at least
on my end he is doing a pretty good coming up with quotes,
beginning with a debrief about Sno*Drift.
"Oh
man, I'll tell you what, Sno*Drift was probably the biggest
character-building motorsports event I have ever been involved
in," says Johnson in his native North Carolina and Georgia-infused
accent. "It was just major frustrating."
Particularly
given the fact he thought he was well prepared.
"I
made every effort to have the perfect car at that event this
year. I had the perfect tires, the perfect springs, the suspension
we had was set up the way I wanted it, I thought we were ready
to go."
Seize
the Joystick: CPD Racing Team Got on the
Rally Trail in Unorthodox Fashion
President Ronald Reagan
once famously said tomorrow's fighter pilots
might come from the ranks of video game
players, and maybe Doug Havir's life would
be different had he taken up a different
joystick.
As it was, Havir's tastes in PlayStation
video found him battling four wheeled opponents
in Gran Turismo -- and catching the Rally
bug...
Read
more...
What
is Rally?
Like soccer, it’s big in Europe. Unlike
soccer, it’s exciting.
It’s called Rally, a motorsport that
pits seasoned professional drivers against
garage mechanics, takes place in dirt, snow,
gravel and mud and places an emphasis on
driver skill over flat-out speed in ever-changing
conditions...
Read
more...
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