OJIBWE FORESTS continued from page 9
Gingras’ Eclipse. Group 5 was lead by Mark Utecht, after his class win in Maine, over Bryan Hourt’s Honda Civic, and Ralph Kosmides’ Toyota Supra. Group 2 was all Bob Neilsen, the organizer of the first Ojibwe Forests ProRally, with a healthy lead over his competition. Dennis Chizma lead Production in his 1974 Porsche 911 over Jouni Pohjolainen’s Nissan NX2000 and Brian Vinson’s VW GTI. Day two saw three special stages to keep the crowd happy. The first was at the Bemidji Speedway just on the outskirts of town. The course wound around the backside, through the infield, and reverse oval across the finish line in front of the stands. Both drivers and crowd enjoyed this stage while a Parc Expose was held in conjunction with the running of it. After a few more stages in the Paul Bunyan National Forest, the cars had a stage held at a ranch just on the outskirts of Akeley. The crowd enjoyed themselves while food and pop were sold at a nearby food wagon. Almost the entire stage could be watched from a hillside. The competitors had mixed emotions as the stage was a bit bumpy. Before the stage is run next year there is a proposal to smooth things out. Stage 7 became an Evo eater as Cunningham came to a stop with engine management problems, Paterson rolled, and Burke had his engine quit while chasing down Scheible for the Group N
LOLers Jouni Pohjolsinen and John Matikainen were first in Production at the Ojibwe Forests ProRally. Jerry Winker photochampionship. Scheible acheived that goal of winning the championship for the class in only the first two-thirds of the season. Also, on stage seven was the ever popular yump at the spectator point. The first cars through made a nice line on the road for the mid pack cars and it was like watching a World Rally Championship event. Utecht, Richard, and Gingras looked like they were trying to set records for air-time. The longest jump was yet to come and was done by Mark Sarnecki in a Subaru. He flat-footed it all the way to the yump and after "breaking the record" the crowd went wild. Mark was seen smiling in a big way while changing his front suspension at the next service. At dusk, the ranch stage was run a second time and the crowd was loving the light show as the extra lights were added for the final two stages. Even nasty Minnesota mosquitos couldn’t deter the crowd. One quick stage back in the woods remained after that stage. It would change things in several classes of cars. In the end the Hyundai’s stayed in the same positions they finished the previous night. Champagne was sprayed among all three teams. Late in the event Doug Shepherd was able to sqeak past Garen Schrader for the fourth spot. Steve Gingras wound up beating out Pat Richard by less than five seconds for the win in Production GT, and Bryan Hourt just barely held off Mark Utecht after Hourt changed both drive axles at the previous service. The amazing thing is that Utecht had the fastest time OVERALL on the final stage. Hourt had second fastest and together they impressed the open class drivers at the post-race awards ceremony with their scores. Bob Neilsen won Group 2 in his VW Golf by over four minutes beating out Eric Burmeister for the win. Jouni Pohjolainen beat out Dennis Chizma for Production honors. In ClubRally competition Seamus Burke beat out Mark Utecht for the win of the 10,000 Lakes rally held the first night followed by Todd Jarvey (Mitsubishi Galant VR-4) in third. the second day’s Paul Bunyan’s Ride was won by Utecht after Burke blew his engine. Celsus Donnelly made repairs to his rolled car and took second in the event with Jarvey taking another third. The final three events on the ProRally calendar will be held during September and October and the championship will be up for grabs. Rhys Millen (son of rally legend Rod Millen) will debut a factory-backed Evo at Prescott Forests at the end of September, which could help garner points for Mitsubishi. Subaru has a lot of West coast drivers that could also play into the championship game. At any rate, Libra Racing with its Hyundais will have its hands full in the final few weeks. It will be interesting at any rate.
Tonneau On-Line October 2000
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Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
