Twenty-five years ago the world came to Grays Harbor for the Olympus Rally, the final race in the 1986 World Rally Championship. On Saturday April 30, the Olympus Rally returns to the harbor as a round in the American championship.

More than 60 teams, including top drivers from Europe, Canada and the US, will battle it out over the forest roads from South Bend to Taholah. Leading drivers include 2010 North American champion Antoine L’Estage, former British and US champion David Higgins and Vancouver B.C.’s Pat Richard, a former North American champ.

The rally starts and finishes in Ocean Shores. On Saturday, April 30, the racing will take place on the Oakville-Brooklyn Road. Sunday, May 1, the rally heads north the Quinault Nation for stages near Taholah.

Rally is different from other racing. First, there’s no track, rally racing takes place on “special stages,” unpaved roads that have been closed to traffic. There aren’t any grandstands or concessions, but there’s also no admission charge.

Inside the car you’ll see two helmets. One is the driver who slides the car through the corners, accelerating and braking at the edge of control. That’s not a passenger sitting next to the driver, that’s the co-driver. Rally co-drivers are part of wakes rally unique. While the driver races through the forest, the co-driver calmly provides instructions about the road ahead.

The cars look familiar; they’re all street legal small sedans that have been specially prepared for safety. Take a look inside a rally car and you’ll see a web of steel tubes to make the car stronger and protect the crew. 300 horsepower, all-wheel-drive Mitsubishis and Subarus will compete for the overall title, but you’ll also see Hondas, VWs, Mazdas and Fords battling in the two-wheel drive class.

The top two-wheel drive teams include the BMW M3 driven by Enumclaw’s Dave Hintz with his brother Rick Hintz co-driving; Lynnwood’s Tom Burress and his co-driver brother Don Burress in their turbocharged Volkswagen Golf; and 19-year old supermoto racer Dillon Van Way and his co-driver Jake Blattner in a new Ford Fiesta turbo.

World Rally co-driver Alex Gelsomino will be participating in one of the course opening cars.

Spectator guides are available online at www.olympusrally.com. Printed copies are available at Five Star Ford in Aberdeen and Hanson’s Motors in Olympia. Come out for a race in the woods, the rally takes place rain or shine.

Jim Culp (www.olympusrally.com)

NOS Energy Drink’s Fast Five Premiere IMAX showing at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila is on April 29th, 2011 at 6:30 pm. The event will include a car show and meet before the first showing of Fast Five. NOS Energy Drink, NWMotiv.com and NWAutoEvents will be raffling off over 200 FREE tickets!

The winners selected to participate in representing NWTuner.com at the VIP car show are:

Ellen’s black 2001 BMW 330i Sedan that is lightly modded with a slight drop and Drag 45 deep dish gold rims with a polished lip. Craig’s 2006 Subaru WRX STI that is the flagship STI Blue, with mud guards, and Axis racing wheels. Tomas’ 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX SE that is heavily modified and Brad’s clean 2008 Nissan 350Z.

Be sure to check the original post for more details.

For additional information visit NWMotiv.com and be sure to RSVP on Facebook.

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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That’s right, you could be the lucky winner representing NWTuner.com at NOS Energy Drink’s Fast Five Premiere IMAX showing at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila on April 29th, 2011 at 6:30 pm. The event will include a car show and meet before the first showing of Fast Five. NOS Energy Drink, NWMotiv.com and NWAutoEvents will be raffling off over 200 FREE tickets, so if you don’t win our contest (or know someone who won our contest) you still have a chance at FREE tickets! There will be plenty of FREE NOS Energy Drink beverages throughout the event to keep you pumped.

There are two ways to enter your car for the VIP Parking in the car show and 2 FREE Fast Five tickets either follow us on Twitter and tweet: “Free FAST FIVE @nwtuner @nwmotiv #VIP http://bit.ly/eyEuhh”

or

Fan us on Facebook and post a link to this article (http://www.nwtuner.com/2011/04/fast-five-imax-contest-free-tickets-vip-parking) in your Facebook News Feed.

You will be contacted by NWTuner.com staff and required to submit photos of your car. Please remember, YOU are representing us at this event so being early to the event is crucial. You are welcomed to bring as many of your friends to the event as possible, if you need NWTuner decals hit us up at nwtuner[at]gmail.com and we will ship them to you for FREE!

WINNERS will be announced and notified on April 27th! If you win you will be required to display a vinyl decal on your car, and email us details your details (First Name, Last Name, Car Make, Model). While your in the movie you can rest assured your car will not be tampered with as the event will have 2 Mall Security Guards and 2 Tukwila Police Officers.

For additional information visit NWMotiv.com and be sure to RSVP on Facebook.

The Twin Peaks Global RallyCross event in Snoqualmie, Washington this past Friday saw great attendance on Day 1 despite the thirty percent chance of rain that realistically turned into a day with thirty percent of no precipitation. The rain showers made for slick conditions as the drivers forged through mud that formed in the dirt areas of the course. The part of the course known as “The Link” quickly turned into a slew of cement like mud as the 2WD and 4WD cars struggled through to cross the finish line and complete laps. The 70-foot jump was the centerpiece for fans who showed up as the 4WD cars took their joker laps, sometimes even two cars jumping at once which made for some intense action. Andreas Eriksson took first place for Ford Racing in the 4WD class, beating out Tanner Foust on an action packed last lap where Foust ultimately injured his shoulder putting him out of the race in what is known as “The Boneyard.” The Boneyard is a high speed dirt corner that drivers take after the jump. For the 2WD class Mikael Eriksson won in his Porsche beating out Cody Crane in his Honda CRX by seconds.

Andreas Eriksson jumps his Best Buy Ford Fiesta.

Tanner Foust lands the jump in his Ford Fiesta at Old Mill Adventure Park.

Stephen Verdier takes the corner wide into “The Boneyard.”

Safety official watches the action closely, awaits to alert drivers with yellow caution flags.

Dave Mirra takes the 70-foot jump and loses his back bumper.

The slew of mud the drivers had to navigate through.

Dave Mirra takes the corner in the switch-back by-passing the joker. Earlier in the day he had some back luck going around the jump and rolled his car and landed back on the wheels.

Mirra leaves the course for the Subaru Rally Team to repair the car.

Foust flies through The Boneyard in his Rockstar Ford Fiesta.

Cody Crane catches some air screaming around the jump in his Honda CRX.

Dylan Van Way powers through laps with smoke barreling out of the back.

Marcus Dodd powering through flinging up mud and rocks.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we post coverage from Day 2 action at Global RallyCross Twin Peaks, you won’t want to miss the photos and commentary.

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