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Old 08-30-2007, 01:19 PM   #1
ricochet
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Default 2007 Ojibwe Forest Rally Report

Ojibwe Forest Rally
Round 7 of the Rally America 2007 Championship
By Jeff Zurschmeide, Subiesport Magazine | Photos: Lars Gange, rally.subaru.com

It's said in Rally that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes everything just turns to crap. The last option seems to have been a common result at this year's Ojibwe Forest rally in Bemidji, Minnesota. Round seven of the 2007 Rally America National Championship - and the first round following the X Games - was mainly notable for the carnage visited on several of the top teams in the series.

Where 2006 was a Subaru Rally Team USA juggernaut, 2007 has been a year of challenges for Travis Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom and their teammates Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino. After 7 rounds, Australian Andrew Pinker and co-driver Robbie Durant remain in the points lead by one slim point. Pastrana/Edstrom remain close behind, and the championship will likely remain in doubt all the way to the end of the season.

Ojibwe's roads are known for fast driving, but as speeds increase, so do the consequences of your mistakes. Several teams discovered their limits in the course of the weekend. The teams of "Cowboy" Kenny Bartram and Dennis Hotson and reigning Production GT champions Matthew Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey both ended their rallies upside down, and several other teams came in on the hook as well.

But the biggest disappointment went to Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis, who crashed on the last stage and traded a spot on the podium for a 14th place finish.

In the end, Pastrana and Edstrom stood atop the podium for the third time this year. After previous victories at Sno*Drift in January and at New England Forest in July. The team has also claimed one second place and a third place finish at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and Susquehannock Trail events. But it was the Northwest events that kept the champs down - Pastrana/Edstrom failed to finish both the Oregon Trail and Olympus Rallies in the Spring.



Thus, the championship lead still belongs to Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant by one point, but the SRTUSA cars seem to be finishing the season in strong form. Pinker/Durant have only two wins, but have finished well in every rally except 100 Acre Wood, which they did not attend.

The stage breakdown at Ojbiwe shows that Pastrana and Edstrom earned this victory the old fashioned way. Of a total of 15 stages, the intrepid boys in blue won seven stages outright, and finished second in three more, and third in four stages. That leaves just one stage - number 7 - where they finished outside the top 3, and that was due to the stage being canceled. When that happens, all teams who do not complete the stage at speed receive the same score.

The biggest competition for the win came from the high-powered team of Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis. Foust/Beavis were on Pastrana's tail after a flat tire cost the Champ about 30 seconds. Foust won five stages outright, finished second in four more, and third in three stages. But on the last stage of the rally, Foust crashed the car and limped it home to the end over 38 minutes late, dashing their hopes of a win and relegating the team to 14th place.

SRTUSA teammates Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino won two stages, took second in six stages, and third four times. Finally, season points leader Andrew Pinker was consistently in the hunt but rarely in podium form, claiming the fourth position a whopping ten times, third place twice, second place twice, and winning only one stage outright.

This rally was a four-way race for the podium, and in the end, it was Foust's crash that decided the issue and the rally concluded with Pastrana/Edstrom first, Block/Gelsomino second, and Pinker/Durant in third.

But the news from the Production GT field should not be ignored. Stephan Verdier and co-driver Scott Crouch finished first in class and fifth place overall on eight of the fifteen stages before a crash took them out of contention. The PGT crown ultimately went to Heath and Heidi Nunnemacher in a 2002 WRX, followed by Piotr Wiktorczyk and Martin Brady in a 2007 WRX.

Two more rounds remain in the 2007 Rally America championship rally series. Rally Colorado will take place outside Steamboat Springs on September 22-23, followed by the Lake Superior Rally near Houghton, Michigan on October 26-27.

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Last edited by ricochet; 10-02-2007 at 02:39 AM. Reason: Updated - error in previous revision.
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Old 08-31-2007, 01:30 AM   #2
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Thanks for posting this up Ryan.(and by the way Happy Birthday! )As usual a great recap from Jeff! My kudos to you.

Garner Thomas
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Old 09-01-2007, 04:05 AM   #3
whwrbwrx
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wtg TP!
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Old 09-02-2007, 01:47 PM   #4
not12listen
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wow... thanks for posting this.

as an avid WRC fan, its great to see rally happening here in the US... just wish that it was a bit more local to me, or if there was some video coverage...

regardless... many thanks!
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Old 09-17-2007, 11:40 AM   #5
Supercheech
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Go TP. Win it all, in memory of Colin!
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Old 09-21-2007, 12:22 AM   #6
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Looks like fun.
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