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)

Round four of the Rally America National Championship series has come and gone and with it a new winner and record; the NOS Energy Mitsubishi team of Andrew Comrie-Picard took first place. It was an all Mitsubishi podium finish as Bacon Motorsports very own Bill Bacon finished second and Monster’s L’Estage finished third. This was the first ever all Mitsubishi finish in Rally America history. The event had 61 teams entered and of them only 47 teams remained at the start of the last day. A whopping 24 teams did not finish; included in that was Dave Mirra and Ken Block. Travis Pastrana was racing in Australia for this event and did not enter.

The terrain Oregon offered these drivers was everything that the Northwest has to offer; miles of hills and straight stretches and treacherous mountain roads littered with obstacles. The weather for the event was perfect; besides all of the dust. At times there was a dust window for the drivers. From the results you can tell that the drivers were put to the test and only the best finished.

The next rally in the Northwest is July 15-17 which is the Idaho Rally down in Boise. For more information: Idaho Rally. We will be sure to report back with pictures and results.