Bemidji Rally

My brother will be up there with the big green Dodge diesel truck. I don't know yet if I'll be going since a friend of mine from Spain is in town and she's going to the concerts out at FloatRite Saturday so she can't come up to Bemidji with me. If I can find someone else to take her around town for the weekend I'll be up there.

 

My friend and I will be up on Saturday. I in the black wingless WRX w/ giant SUBARU on the windshield and he with his black STI w/ giant Wing. Just flag me down or run me off the road, whatever works. Don't be shy.

 

I'll be there (again) with two others. It seems that we all sort of naturally bump into each other at the Northland Inn on Saturday morning.

If someone is interested in setting up a MNSubaru stand at one of the tables in the conference room (or in the parking lot?), contact the rallymaster, Bob Carter. They normally set up a table for the rally that sells stickers, etc; maybe MNSubaru can as well? Perhaps nobody has time to man the booth?

See you all up there!

Paul
'05 STi X-Tal Gray
'93 Legacy Turbo Wagon

 

I will be there in my blue Sti, and my fiance will be there in her white Rs,

 

I heard Russ say that we could all crash his hotel room if we went out and got drunk Saturday night. I'm feeling crazy, pass the Windsor. JK Russ.

 

Rumor has it that it may be looser this year to the tune of some pre-2003 rallies. I still encourage volunteering as it is a lot of fun and you do get pretty good seats if you're marshalling. If you're really lucky you can get into bannering.

I recommend the Peppercorn near the Super 8 for a good place to eat. I think they open for lunch if you wanted to hit that before heading out on the stages either day.

 

Who can tell me some good spots to watch? Will it be obvious where to go when I get up there or are there some corners/spots that are far better than the others. I've heard that voluteering is the way to go, but I'll be up with my gf so working the event is not an option.

Help an idiot out..

 

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Who can tell me some good spots to watch? Will it be obvious where to go when I get up there or are there some corners/spots that are far better than the others. I've heard that voluteering is the way to go, but I'll be up with my gf so working the event is not an option.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">I would suggest working as well. It is not obvious at all where the cars will be going and at what time. The distance covered is incredible - besides the travel up and back, I put an additional 300 miles on my car last year.

If you absolutely can't work, the NJK ranch is a great place to spectate. As Russ said, stop by the Northern Inn and pick up a map to the ranch as well as the other viewing spot(s). Also note that along with the parking lot of the Northern Inn, the service stops at NJK (Friday) and Osage (Saturday) are great places to see the cars and take pictures. Just stay out of their way and you will be welcome there.

I've attached the press release that has just gone out to the local area newspapers within 50-75 miles of the rally area:

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">****************************
19th Annual Ojibwe Forests ProRally Sports Car Race to Take Place August 27-28

This upcoming weekend in Bemidji the Sports Car Club of America’s Ojibwe Forests ProRally will again take place in the woods of the Paul Bunyan, White Earth and Two Inlets State Forests. This event is the seventh of a nine event series that spans the U.S. from California, to the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in Colorado, to Maine. The event not only has the top drivers and co-drivers from America, but also has attracted competitors from Canada, England, Ireland, Poland, and even New Zealand this year.

The top-running cars are high-performance turbocharged four-wheel drive vehicles with top speeds of over 130 miles per hour, but also there are classes for cars that have relatively few modifications that are two-wheel drive. The two-day event not only will have cars run by the professionals, but also vehicles run by newcomers to the sport in different classes. Approximately sixty cars will be starting the event.

Cars will be leaving the main headquarters, the Northern Inn in Bemidji, at 4:45 in the afternoon on Friday and drive at normal highway speeds before transiting to closed off sections of the forest called stages. Each stage ranges in length from ¾ of a mile to a grueling twenty-two mile section of high-speed gravel roads.

There will be spectator locations posted with maps available inside the programs on where and when to spectate the stages. These programs will be available at the event headquarters, the Northern Inn, and can also be obtained from event workers, drivers and their crews.

Friday’s stages will be held in the Paul Bunyan Forest just to the north of Akeley. A service stop, similar to a one hour pit stop and dinner break, will be at the NJK Ranch just two miles to the west of Akeley starting at 6PM and lasting until 11PM. A quick stage will also be run at the ranch for spectators at 4:30 <font color="red">(note that I think they really meant 6:30)</font id="red"> and then again at 9:45PM. Saturday’s stages, which will resume at three in the afternoon, will be held in the White Earth and Two Inlets State Forests between Zerkel (near the Mississippi headwaters) and Park Rapids. An hour-long service break will be held in downtown Osage at 6PM.

For more details about the event and its past history, check out the event website at www.ojibweforestrally.com .

**************************************************************
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

 

Well I won't be up there. Apparently this pain I've had in my heel the last few days is really bad Achilles tendonitis. I can barely walk on that leg now. I'll be resting the rest of the this week and the weekend to try to at least be able to get around next week. What really sucks is I already scheduled vacation Thursday and Friday so I can't use sick time for it now !

Have fun up at the rally, I want to see some good pictures. If someone films some footage on MiniDV I'd like a copy for something I'm working on.

 

Awesome Event!

We started out at 9am on Friday bannering and finally left our marshall point on stage 6 at nearly 1am. After 4 hours of sleep, we returned to start bannering again Saturday morning at 8am until early afternoon. We then spectated on stage 3 and stage 8 on Saturday and came in very late again! We are completely exhausted but have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Several comments:

(1) We could have used more help bannering on Saturday. Most people were still trying to recover from Friday night and we only had a few groups out there. Next year, if you want to be part of the fun, consider this job. You get to drive the stages before the race and the organizers greatly appreciate the help.

(2) Congratulations to the winners Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam. Their winning time of 2:09:08.3 is incredible and they won in a GC8! In fact, four of the top five finishers were in Subarus. Check out the results page at http://www.rally-america.com/Archives/2004/Ojibwe_Forests/scores/OFPR.html for the complete list.

(3) If you want to get more involved in rallying in MN, I suggest you join the group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rally-mn/.

(4) We ran into several local folks who absolutely believed that their 4x4 pickups could easily outrun any of those ------ foreign cars. Since we are always looking for more involvement, I simply invited them to enter next year. We will see if they show.

(5) This year we put on roughly 400 miles working the event - many of those miles on twisty gravel! and The stock tires on my STi are better in gravel than one would expect.

All the best,

Paul

 

Paul, thanks for the great details. I'm glad everyone had fun. Did you guys met up with them Canadian guys who were coming as well?

 

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by midlifecrisis

Their winning time of 2:09:08.3 is incredible and they won in a GC8! In fact, four of the top five finishers were in Subarus. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">



Hmmmm......that means one day My GC8 "ahem GC6" will be there one day

 

Paul:
My pictures should come back from Snyders either Tuesday or Wednesday. Perhaps I should scan all 54 of them? Then you and others could seem them a lot quicker than in the past.

15 miles of bannering by ourselves was quite tiring.

BTW, I can vouch for the STi handling well in the dirt on stock tires

Congrats to Putnam and O'Sullivan!

 

I'm not trying to flame in any way but I'd like to give some impressions from the perspective of many of the spectators at the event. The only reason I'm commenting is because I'd like the sport to become bigger in the states but don't see how it can unless some things change.

I can't comment on how other events (in the U.S.) are run but this forest rally was less than accesible and exciting from the perspective of the spectators. The spectating areas were few and very small and set up so that it was difficult to see more than the flash of a car from time to time. There weren't that many spectators (less than I expected) and of those that showed up at each spectating point, only about five could really see much of anything.

I don't see how this is going to help the sport catch on because few of the new spectators are going to have a chance to experience the excitement. Everyone says that if you want the best spectating, work the event. But, that only appeals to rally fanatics and won't help the sport here in the states.

Also, the people in charge at the spectating points need to relax a little and let people have a little fun. It's so restrictive as to take the fun right out of it.

 

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I'm not trying to flame in any way ... The spectating areas were few and very small and set up so that it was difficult to see more than the flash of a car from time to time. There weren't that many spectators (less than I expected) and of those that showed up at each spectating point, only about five could really see much of anything.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
No worries about flames here. You are absolutely right about spectating at the Ojibwe Rally; if you are not working, it is very difficult to see much of anything. I agree that there should be more available to the spectators. Perhaps a set of bleachers set up at specific locations where some trees are cleared (re: Saturday stage 3, Spectator Spot, Chad's Yump), or more stages at the NJK ranch setup for easier viewing? As is, this rally is designed to entertain the racers and the workers.

So do you really have to be a fanatic to work?
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Everyone says that if you want the best spectating, work the event. But, that only appeals to rally fanatics and won't help the sport here in the states.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I don't agree that you have to be a fanatic to work the event. Consider that you don't need to work the "entire" event to sign the waivers and gain access to great locations.

Also, I am not so sure that pushing people to work won't help the sport here in the states. We had more workers this year than in any year I can remember.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Also, the people in charge at the spectating points need to relax a little and let people have a little fun. It's so restrictive as to take the fun right out of it.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I hope everyone understands that this kind of event in the US (should I say lawsuit land?) requires incredible restrictions in order to be allowed to race on public roads. In fact, I'm surprised that we can get away with this sort of thing at all. I understand your frustration with the Marshalls, but please understand that they are responsible for others' safety, and they are not getting paid for any of their work. I'm sorry if some marshalls take this past the point of fun. Personally, I never made people leave; I simply asked them to stay behind the second banner (perhaps other Marshalls were different?). BTW, I think that most of the people I asked to stay back were very understanding, and we had some great discussions about rally! Too bad most of them were completely plastered.

I am sorry you were frustrated with the event; however, I do understand. I hope you consider working some of it next year. I will be glad to give you some pointers on the best ways to limit the workload and maximize the viewing. Email me if you like.

Paul

 

I didnt get to see much either, just about everyone that I talked to was dissapointed with the lack of viewing places. I only went to 1 spectator point, the rest of the time I spent at service.

 

Having "worked" the event for the past 3 years with Paul, I actually thought this was probably the best year. Good action at certain stages and I filled up two disposable cameras. Marshalling isn't working at all. I loved standing right at the yellow tape and taking lots of pictures. That should be the definition of that job

 

Nothing will ever be as bad as LSPR the last year Brockway was open to the public (2001?). That year I had a press pass shooting for the website and a client/sponsor of the rally. There were at least a hundred people at the peak for the big jump. Only a year before I was able to sit in a lawn chair 50 feet back from the road and have a plenty good view while eating a lukewarm pasty; only about 2 dozen people were up there not including the two marshalls. That year you couldn't even get close to the road, people were **** near standing on it when the cars came through. Speedvision was harrassing people to get out of the way of their cameras and getting the finger for their efforts mostly. I was completely out of luck dealing with anyone who got in my way. I think Dave was up there shooting that year too and getting pretty much the same treatment. The 4-5 marshalls there tried to keep people back but it was a lot of locals who said it was their right to be where they were. I think that year the first run was cancelled. The second run went OK, but then once the Pro cars had gone by people started leaving and the only way out was back up along the road toward the finish. The Club cars were trying to avoid people walking along the road as they were finishing their stage.

Because of this I have precious little sympathy for "spectators". These events are run mostly for the competitors who pay entry fees in order for the rally to even be run. Spectators aren't being charged to watch. I agree there should be more places to spectate to help the sport grow, but the only way we'll get that is for organizers to see more loyal volunteers to work more areas to allow more spectators the next year. The more volunteers we get the more likely they'll plan for that many workers the next year and open up new spectator areas. If what Paul said is true about having so many workers this year perhaps we'll see more areas to watch from next year.

I've been spectating/working/competing in rallies for just over 5 years now so I was getting started with it before the latest rise and fall of popularity. I've been an SCCA member for just as long. I have press passes from several rallies even. I don't agree with the very strict rules on spectating but I understand where they're coming from. One thing I would change is for marshalls to pull the stick out of their ass when it comes to hiking up the roads to spectate. There is not safe spots withing viewing distance of the competitors, but many rally regulars know the stage roads and know to stay back away from the road. There are some great berms to watch from but a couple years ago a marshall chased me off it threatening to cancel the stage. I've spectated from there for years, it's on the inside of a shallow turn, about 5 feet above and 20 feet inside of the corner with a steep drop to the road. If a car did go off toward us it would hit the embankment and pretty much stop right there. I like it because you have a good shot up and down the road with the little turn there and it's an elevated position so perfect for filming. I wasn't at all pleased with that ATV-riding marshall !

 

It's probably true that rallying will never be a big sport in the U.S. because of the nature of our legal system. I find that fact somewhat disappointing.

I'm not looking for sympathy as a spectator. I'm simply asking not to be harassed for no reason.

I was told that I couldn't have my dog outside my car, any where near the rally. I was specifically sitting back about 75 feet from the yellow tape with my dog when I was told that I had to either leave or remove my dog from the vacinity because
1. Other spectators felt threatened
2. The drivers requested all dogs be removed
3. Other spectators are allergic to my hypo-allergenic breed
4. The Grand Marshall requested that all dogs be removed

I told him me and my girlfriend would take turns watching from behind the tape without the dog while the other hold the dog back away from the crowd and tape (which is what we were doing anyway) and he responded that I needed to put the dog in my car. I asked how far he needed the dog to be away from the tape and he said no distance is o.k. as long as the dog is out of the car. Apparently, he was under the mistaken assumption that when there is a rally on state land, they own the entire forest.

My dog is about as small, cute and harmless as a dog can get. I wasn't about to walk all the way back to my car, put my dog in the car on a sunny day and open the windows with all the valuables we left in the car. Besides, you're not supposed to lock a dog in a car on a sunny day.

The same guy apologized to me on the next stage so maybe I shouldn't be mad but I felt it was really out of line.

 

dam! I have been pretty busy lately and I didn't know there was a rally last weekend. I was even in Bemidji moving a friend into the dorms at the Univ. I stopped in the gas station and I was wondering why all these suby's were driving around. I just thought Bemidji dudes know how to roll

 

I had an okay time at the rally. It was my 4th time at this rally, and this time I was quite frustrated with the spectator areas. It has been 2 years since I've been back and the last time I was down at Chad's Yump, we got to stand by the peak of the jump, no more this time.

Being forced to stand in a boxed area was quite frustrating. You couldn't even see anything and we were there early enough to get a good spot.

Tried looking for you WRX1 and your truck, but I had no idea who we were looking for. I didn't get a chance to take down your number Russ as you posted after I had already left for MN.

I do believe I saw RichWRX and his STi. He was ahead of me on Chad's Yump. The plate RICHWRX helped as well.

The road to the last stage on Saturday night leading up to Little Scenic was awesome. I had a great time. Even though it was my fourth time down, I'm sure I'll be back for more.

Myself and Mixed_Menace were down with our girlfriends. You couldn't miss us...we were decked out in Subaru gear complete with a SWRT flag. We had soo much Subie gear on that a Subaru of America asked if we were from Fuji (FHI industries).

Next year it would be great to sit down and spend some time with you guys.


Some of the pix

 

Oh yes..some pix:

http://public.fotki.com/grandmasterchan/minnesota_trip_2004/ojibwe_rally/

 

the u.s. will never have the level of spectator intamacy that is found in europe.
just to many sueing bastards....
[xx(]

 

I thought of a good idea for generating revenue both for the DNR and the Rally organizers. This might not work for all rallies as I don't think they are all held on state land like Ojibwe. The people wishing to attend the events and spectate would need to purchase a weekend pass for the park. The pass could be like $20 or something. When they purchase this pass, they would also have to sign a waiver. The catch is that just because you signed the waiver does not mean you can just go anywhere. There would still be designated areas to watch from, but organizers would have to create more spots. If you look at the course maps, you can see that there are plenty of junctions/crossroads/paths to watch from where people would not have to drive on the stage itself. Those of us who have actually driven on these roads when the rally is not taking place know that there are numerous spots that provide great spectating, they just require a short hike through the woods. There can be alot more leniency given to spectators while still making it a safe and managable rally. There are definitely extremes between European Rally (even Canadian Rally) and the anal US Rally. People here are paranoid/scared/uptight/rude and this goes for spectators and events planners alike. Anyhow, just an idea of how to get more people involved while generating revenue for all parties. Although you are right in saying that the race is mostly for the participants, in reality, as taxpayers the DNR is actually letting SCCA use our forrest. If a participant gets injured it is the same as a spectator getting injured in my eyes, they both knew there was a risk involved. Nobody wants an accident but everyone wants to have fun (workers, participants and spectators).

Again a recap-->event fee, waiver, more spectating spots, less uptightness, etc.

 

I think you have some great ideas. A growth in the sport benefits participants and spectators alike. Interest in the sport creates money in the sport in terms of promotions, etc... which, in turn, would create more opportunities for participants and spectators.

I think people would pay a spectating fee if there were good spectating opportunities. People pay money to watch all the little races in towns all over america and rallying has a lot to offer in comparison.

 

Want fair use from State land? Show up to the MN 4WD Association meetings Right now I'm fighting to get ORV trails designated in state forests during the inventory/redsignation project curretnly underway by the MN DNR. So far they have gave us NONE! Just crappy gravel roads and minimum maitanace roads.

Only way you are gonna get events like that on State land is by joining a club and an association and GETTING INVOLVED

 

Great pics Russ,

Here's some of mine:

The winning car:


Others:



Welding at service in Osage:


A dog at our marshall point:


Enjoy!

Looking forward to your pics Eric! Others as well.

Paul

 

I was sitting next to Fast eddy when the marshall told him to put his VICIOUS! dog in his car. I think he was out of line for trying to make him put his dog in the car.

 

Holy Crap! Russ and Paul, awesome pictures! My pictures looked fine until I saw yours. When I scan them they'll likely be low resolution and not look very good. Actually Paul, for some reason I got doubles. So I was thinking of just giving my second set to you. I have a cool picture of Putnam/Osullivan on the same stage as you Paul, but he's pointed towards us looking like he's out of control. I knew I should have took a pic of the puppy! Excellent service shot as well. Paul let me know if you will be around my work or something anytime, and I can give you my extra set of pictures.

Eric

 

You're right. Getting involved is critical. I guess people don't have much room to criticize when the only time they show interest in a activity is on the weekend it is held. Rally, like any other activity has a few individuals who are active and have the attitude like they own the thing. It's one thing to be active, it's another to think that you are more entitled to something (from an enthusiasts perspective) then others who are interested. The key concept here is cultivation. I know organizers want the sport to grow, but holding that attitude that they also want it to be some exclusive club is simply wrong. Most of the people 'I've met at rallys are friendly and generous. But you always have the megalomaniacs in there and they are the ones who take the fun out of it.