If there’s one thing that Northwest Rally Association isn’t, it’s complacent. It organizes the biggest and best rallycross events in the Pacific Northwest – and last week’s meet at DirtFish already featured high enough stakes: the champions of the Winter Series would be decided in the season finale.
But Katie Lobkovich and Kito Brielmaier, co-founders of NWRA, wanted to up the stakes a bit. This was not going to be a standard meeting. It was time to try something new: rallycross meets stage rallying.
“The morning was exciting,” Lobkovich enthuses. “Today we ran a dual-stage course…”
And then Brielmaier picks up the story: “A dual-stage course, where we run a course, a transit [section] and then another course.”
It’s not a revolution in the rallying world – but it’s an intriguing new way to spice up the action in a club motorsport event.
Not that it needed much spicing up; the conditions did plenty of that. It’s the PNW after all; a deluge of rain was pretty much a guarantee.
The DirtFish tractor was hard at work – but it meant a new experience for competitors every time they went out on another course. It might look like a field of cones at first glance but every stage, it transpired, was very different.
DirtFish instructor Kip Tischer, who scored victory in the Modified AWD Turbo category, was one of the drivers taking on the season finale: “Kito set up an awesome course today,” said Tischer.
“Super technical, but definitely a lot of fun. Some flowy spots, but very challenging. Conditions changed. We got rain; tractor work got done. So every lap was a brand new experience, but really fun event. And shout out to Northwest Rally Association as usual. Kickin’ ass!”
The rain and the cold has another upside for competitors: unlike the main summer series, they get to stay in their cars from start to finish.
“We do something different with the Winter Series,” said Lobkovich, “where we hire a staff to work the course.
“A normal part of rallycross is you race half the day and you work half the day, but for the Winter Series, we hire staff so people don’t have to stand in the rain. So, another challenge is just getting a really good group of folks out here to work the events. And luckily, we just have a bank of excellent people who’ve worked with us before.”
After sliding their way through a somewhat muddy DirtFish course, it was time for the podiums. Not for the day but for the championships – from November to February, all four rounds counted towards a final championship.
So close is the NWRA series that Stock AWD ended with a tie for the title, James Slingerland and Gregory Waggoner ending on 66 points apiece. At the opposite end of the scale was Carlos Angeles and his Modified 2WD Toyota MR2: 80 points, a perfect score. And it was mostly thanks to the unique character of the Winter Series.
“The rain kept me competitive with the other guys, so it was fun for me,” said Angeles. “It’s really nice that it’s always at DirtFish. I mean, DirtFish course is just so much fun, and leagues better than anywhere else.
“We got snow and ice last race, and now it’s unlike anything I’ve ever raced in.”
You might look at the cones in a vast space and think it’s all a bit simple. But speak to the competitors and you’ll understand that Winter Series rallycross is a tough challenge. There’s no room for complacency here.
