This morning around the NW the “old school” community started up their engines and cruised out to Marymoor Park in Redmond Washington. Over the course of the day over 300 people showed up to check out the action. Any car newer then 1987 was not allowed to park inside to show and was a nice change of pace! The reunion brings old  European and Nostalgic Japanese cars together to hang out and share ideas.

The turn out was impressive for the last minute changes in location. Originally the event was to be help at DirtFish. Unfortunately Dirtfish is battling King County over zoning violations and has been forced to cancel several planned events.

Anyways, a big Shout out to the Old School Crew and Meister Auto Werks
for putting on such a great event!! I know I will be looking forward to next year.

We had the pleasure of networking with My Life at Speed over the recent RallyCar events in the Pacific Northwest, they seem to show up at anything involving speed. You can find their post on how this video came about on their website. We look forward to working with them in the future and seeing them at upcoming events such as Formula Drift, Xtreme Drift Circuit, and possibly the Idaho Rally.

This is a guest post by Benjamin Graybill.

Anyone driving within a mile of the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington, would have known something was different than a usual Friday night. Loud music and engines rumbling filled the air on a rather surprisingly nice evening in the Pacific Northwest, as car after car rolled up the parking garage ramp to the show. The event, put on by NWMotiv.com and NOS Energy Drinks was to accompany the premiere of Fast Five as well as a VIP show/meet for local automotive clubs and forums. More than 100 of these VIP cars were on display for all to see including a 700 hp Genaddi Ford GSX1, a RB26DET swapped AE86, NSXs, and Andrew Coomes’ LS240 Formula Drift Car. This was an amazing show with free NOS Energy drinks everywhere, NOS girls, gorgeous cars, and great music. Hopefully, the success of the show this year will lead to many more down the road.

Rally racing is an extreme sport with many obstacles ranging from mechanical failure, driver mistakes, weather conditions, stage conditions, all the way to intoxicated spectators. One thing that really hit home after the Olympus Rally was realizing how close knit the community surrounding it is; the drivers, their families, the communities where these events take place, the fans who drive for hundreds of miles. The drivers who compete come from all over the United States, and Canada with one thing in common; to compete against the conditions for the best time. With this determination and adrenaline we can sometimes forget about the danger involved. The Olympus Rally takes place on the Washington coast in the hills, mountains and valleys that line it. It is such a gorgeous place to experience. However, these roads are filled with large gravel and rock, mud, and stumps, and even creeks and are extremely treacherous. During the event on Smith Creek Road (Stage 6), Matthew Marker “#65″ of Elk Rapids, MI and his co-driver went off the course. Matthew was taken from the rally community during that stage. This is the first fatality in rally in the United States since 2003 when a driver and co-driver died. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Matthew’s family and friends and those who were close to him. NWTuner.com has made a donation to his family and we encourage you to purchase a bracelet and/or vinyl decal in his remembrance. Amanda Skelly is organizing this and you can see the event and contact her through Facebook or via email.

Matthew Marker coming down Smith Creek Road into the sun.

Saturday was a full house at the Parc Expose which was located at the Ocean Shores Convention Center for the Olympus Rally, with over 50 cars entered, drivers and fans gathered. David Higgins and Dave Mirra seemed to be of the most crowded around drivers (Who finished first and fourth overall at the conclusion of the rally at Stage 6).

Stage 6 uphill/downhill was full of 3-4 inch gravel. Leaving the few spectators in these areas ducking for cover after cars sprayed them.

Antoine L’Estage has no fear down the mountain and into the sun.

Fans at the Parc Expose.

Dave and Richard Hintz and their 1999 BMW M3.

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The second day of the Global RallyCross: Twin Peaks event sponsored by BestBuy was wet, the clouds squeezed out their last drop before mid-day as the weather turned for the better. The track was wet and muddy for the heats to start running as spectators filled the stands and lined the fences of the entire facility. The fans proved the Northwest has a passion for motorsports no matter the weather or venue. The stands had over 1000 fans not including however many were walking around the pits or inside the Old Mill watching cars fly through the only dry part of the track.

You can see the starting conditions of the corner out of the Old Mill on Day 2 at Twin Peaks.

The Dirt Fish guys took their car for a fun run on the track with the media, they took a couple of laps before more practice commenced.

Dave Mirra signs some posters for young fans.

Tanner Foust signs some posters at the autograph session in the Cooper Tires trailer.

Inside view of the Old Mill, they told us this building was close to or over 100 years old.

Stephan Verdier washes the dirt off of his Subaru.

We had the chance to catch Dave Mirra skipping out on the autograph session and walked the corner out of the Old Mill with him. He was worried that it was extremely slick because of the weather but after closer inspection felt that he could really take the corner sideways and take off out of the corner, which later that day left him with another damaged car as he had to be towed back to the pits.

While walking the track with Mirra he had some comments on Foust’s words after he overshot the jump the previous day while jumping over the blue Ford Fiesta, from Mirra’s own experience he says that you never blame the builder of the jump if you take the jump too fast and launch your own car 120 feet instead of 70 feet, the problem isn’t with the jump he said. Mirra felt very confident on the part of the course that we walked with him.

Richard Burton takes the joker with a car approaching underneath him.

Michael Jernberg takes the corner hard in his Skoda Fabia in “The Link” as 2 cars trail him.

Andi Mancin loses boost as he attempts to go over the joker and flips his car.

Andi Mancin appears from the rubble unharmed and waves to the crowd as they cheer him on.

Ultimately, Tanner Foust came away with the first place win on Day 2. We hope to see this event continue to come back to the Northwest for years to come and we have a feeling this track will be a hit with the folks in the Pacific Northwest. Until next time.

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