Posted Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 10:00pm
We have a nice little rally coming up on May 20th. Known as the daughter of the Ojibwe Forests Rally, it is set to take place on the Friday night roads north of Akeley in the Paul Bunyan State Forest. The roads are sandy and flowing, allowing the drivers to get into a nice rhythm.
This year, the top five entries are all Subarus, and it could end up being an all-out battle among the senior members of the local rally community. Leading the charge is Steve Gingras, who has been rallying since Pontius was a pilot. If my research is correct, he won the first Headwaters Rally back in 1994. Steve has experienced great success at this rally. Sure, he had that mishap in 1999 when he went straight off on the first corner, but let’s not dwell on the past. He has been victorious at this event six times. His current ride is a 1994 Impreza sporting a 3.0-liter normally aspirated H6 as the means of propulsion.
Next up is Mark Williams, who has been driving for a long time both here and in the UK. Mark did win the last Headwaters Rally held in 2019. Mark’s most recent claim to fame is establishing the Subaru Boat Landing on the Height ’O Land stage at last year’s Ojibwe Forests Rally. In between that group and I are a couple of other Subarus. I don’t know much about them other than they are seeded ahead of me.
And then there is me. I currently lead the Central Region Points totals, which gives me a thrill as I still identify as a co-driver after having done that for 20 years. I think that might keep Steve up at nights though. I am in a phase where I am still learning and am about halfway through a two-year progression that one takes from starting out to where you have significant speed.
