It kind of crops up on you as you head south on the five, but when you get there it’s unmistakably 1986 all over again. With a little bit of 1987 and 1988 thrown in for good measure.
In terms of sporting and conference venues, the Tacoma Dome has long been cast into the shadow by the likes of Lumen Field, home of the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks, or the very swish LeMay Museum, which sits next door. But it doesn’t matter; there’s still something deeply fever about the white roof against the big blue sky.
And it was the perfect scene-setter as we headed down the road towards the Olympus Rally last week. Arriving a couple of days before the start of the latest ARA National Championship counter, the plan was to visit some of the key venues from the final round of the 1986 World Rally Championship season for a film marking the end of Group B 40 years on, which will drop later this year.
Talking to people who were part of the story four decades ago, it was clear that much of the off-stage tale was played out in Tumwater’s Tyee Motor Inn, in the suburbs of Olympia, Washington’s state capital. Research unearthed a typical American roadside hotel from the 1960s, ’70s and, of course, ’80s. Rally HQ was housed within its walls, as was the press office, which housed local tech worker Jim Culp.
Jim’s prowess in working a telex machine made him the obvious candidate to assist more than 200 journalists in their intentions to tell the world of a Markku Alén win.
Jim Culp didn't only help journalists 40 years ago - he hooked us up with this gorgeous photo too
Sadly, after a couple of fires, the hotel was pulled down in 1999. Robbed of our opportunity to stand in the car park and reminisce about the Monday morning after the Sunday night which brought the curtain down on Group B, DirtFish’s head of video Eliot Barnard and I still made the story work.
Just being in and around the place, and listening to the voices, gave you goosebumps.
The drama, the power, glory, tragedy and triumph all ended here. In the drizzle of a damp fall morning.
To many, the Olympus was something of a forgotten chapter. After the controversies of Portugal, Corsica and Sanremo, many a mind had played a trick or two and skipped the Stateside visit to consider the RAC Rally as the end of the road.
But that 1986 Olympus had a significant Finnish flavor with Alén and Juha Kankkunen chasing the title and it seemed entirely fitting that Toyota’s first factory return to America came with no shortage of Finns – Jari-Matti Latvala, his co-driver Tukka Shemeikka, Topi Luhtinen, Seth Quintero’s co-driver and two-time world champion-turned Toyota Gazoo Racing project leader Jonne Halttunen.
Rallying is like a religion in their part of the world, and Olympus stories have clearly been handed down through the generations. Listening to Latvala talking of his conversations with the main players from ’86 was spellbinding.
The Toyotas provided the perfect bridge across the decades, with folk packing out Friday’s parc exposé, partly to tell war stories and partly to snatch a selfie with an 18-time World Rally winner. If the show was to be stolen, however, it was to be stolen by DirtFish owner Steve Rimmer’s collection.
Sanderson Airfield, service park for the rally on Saturday morning, and the sun was rising to burn a slight chill off the breeze. Two trucks towed two trailers in and parked up. There was a sense something was coming. The trailers opened and revealed three pieces of Group B greatness in the shape of an Audi quattro S1 E2, a Peugeot 205 T16 E2 and a Lancia Delta S4.
The Delta was first to fire, fizzing and popping as fuel was injected into a 40-year-old motor which sounded just as purposeful as the moment Alén had switched it off for the final time in 1986. The gathering crowd stood and stared as history rolled out before their very eyes.
Save for a stellar first stage from Brandon Semenuk in a soon-to-falter Ford Fiesta Rally2, the Olympus provided the predicted Toyota whitewash, with Latvala leading Quintero home in a one-two for the GR Corolla Rally RC2s.
An extended route to mark the ’86 anniversary did little for the close competition, but that didn’t matter (let’s face it, big gaps were always part of the Group B story), there were stories throughout the field. Breath was held when Tom Williams’ Škoda took to the trees at 100mph on Sunday afternoon. The Standard Motorsports machine demonstrated just how far safety has come on across the last four decades as both Williams and co-driver Ross Whittock walked away.
DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver Aoife Raftery showed her progression since making her US debut at Olympus 2025
There was an unexpected eastbound, mid-Atlantic catch up with Ross as he popped his head over the row in front of me on a particularly packed BA flight home. I’d rarely been happier to see the Bath man – mainly to check-in on him and Tom, but also because it provided welcome relief from an unexpected conversation with my elderly neighbor, who seemed intent on talking me through the cheese content of her fridge most of the way home.
Talking of the slightly irreverent, it was good to meet Big Foot last week. And talking of the slightly brilliant, it was great to see the pace DirtFish Women in Motorsport driver Aoife Raftery is bringing – running fifth and trading times with Travis Pastrana just a year after her maiden event in a four-wheel drive car.
What progress. What a week. What a rally.
