Ojibwe Forests ProRally
by Jerry WinkerPaul Choinere won Round six of the SCCA ProRally Championship at the Ojibwe Forests ProRally held in Bemidji on August 25-26. The toughest part was that he held off his teammate and last year’s National Champion Noel Lawler as well as his stepfather John Buffum for the win. All three Libra Racing Hyundais finished to help regain ground in the Manufacturer’s Cup over Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Toyota. The win puts Choinere in first in the points chase over Karl Scheible, who is the only other winner in this year's series with wins at Rim of the World in California and STPR in Pennsylvania. Ojibwe was Paul’s fourth win as the others came at Sno*Drift in Michigan’s lower penninsula, Oregon Trail, and Maine Forest rally. Scheible only finished sixth overall at Ojibwe giving Lawler, Garen Schrader, and Doug Shepherd a better shot at the championship. A record 77 cars started this year’s rally. With light attrition among the front-runners during the first day the event was rather close. Pete Lahm’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV had immediate problems with engine management and limped to service. The newly-formed Rally Knight Team of Jonathan Ryther and Lon Peterson had problems, also. Ryther had engine woes and Peterson
Paul Choiniere and Jeff Becker were the overall winners of the Ojibwe Forests ProRally. Jerry Winker photo
The Libra Racing Hyundai's dominated the Ojibwe Forests ProRally taking the first three places overall. Jerry Winker photo
bad fuel. Alex Erisoty in an Audi 90 cracked a wheel and lost a lot of time. He retired early the second day with a blown engine. In Production GT Ireland’s Celsus Donnelly rolled his Eclipse as did Mark Larson. In Group 2 the three top contenders DNF’ed: Jay Streets blew his engine in a big way in his Toyota Corolla, Nicolas Robinson had a car fire in his Honda Civic, and Doug Davenport rolled his VW GTI. The rapid Volvo 740 of Group 5 contender Carl Jardevall had a number of suspension woes early on also, and lost time on the leaders. After the first night the leader board was Choinere (47.59) and Lawler (48.19) in their Tiburons with Buffum’s aging Elantra third (48.91). Just behind them were the Mitsubishi contingent of Garen Schrader (Evo IV), Doug Shepherd (Eclipse), Group N leader Karl Scheible (EvoIV), road-racer Peter Cunningham (EvoVI), Tim Paterson (Evo IV), and Seamus Burke (Evo IV- Gp.N). In the other classes Pat Richard’s Subaru Impreza led Production GT narrowly over Steve
OJIBWE FORESTS continued on page 10
LOLers Steve Gingras and Bill Westrick were first in Production GT at the Ojibwe Forests ProRally. Jerry Winker photo
Tonneau On-Line October 2000
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Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
