Speedway, IN ~ The ARA action hasn’t been only at Oregon Trail this weekend, Saturday also saw 17 cars competing at the Headwaters Rally hosted by the Woodshed, sponsored by Classic Collision & O'Reilly Auto Parts for the central regional championship.
Meanwhile, in LaPorte, Minnesota the Central Region Headwaters Rally hosted by the Woodshed, sponsored by Classic Collision & O'Reilly Auto Parts saw 17 cars take on almost 40 miles of stage rally action through the Minnesota woods.
Sharing many of the same roads as the Ojibwe Forests Rally, Headwaters served as a fantastic, compact-schedule way for many of the region's competitors to get stage time before the summer hit in full force.
Right from the get-go the duo of John and Michael Farrow powered their way into the lead in their NA4WD 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX. With a 30-second lead over the second-place Matthew Nykanen and Lars Anderson, the Farrows were already able to start taking things easy to hold the lead.
Over the next five stages, the Farrows kept their noses clean for a near-perfect rally as the duo powered into a three-minute lead by the end of the event, taking the overall and NA4WD win.
NA4WD was the most popular class at Headwaters with eight entries and had a fair bit of competition.
Most notably, the team of Aidan and John Hicks battled hard against the pair of Travis Makkonen and Anikka Nykanen. After tying on the first stage of the rally, the two stayed close in times with Makkonen pulling ahead first, and Hicks coming back to take the lead on SS4, which he would hold until the end to take second place in NA4WD, while Makkonen finished third.
Nykanen made the impressive move of putting his O2WD BMW 325i in second place overall on the first stage. As the Central Region Championship leader coming into Headwaters, he fought hard to maintain his points advantage, but an issue on SS5 meant he had to retire from the rally.
With Matthew Nykanen out, Josh Nykanen was able to take the O2WD win as the sole finisher in the class.
Though they started third, the father-daughter team of Silas and Charlotte Himes moved into second on the second stage of the day and also held their position for the rest of the rally, holding off the rest of the field to stand second place on the podium and first in their L4WD class.
“We had an incredible time this weekend!” said Charlotte Himes. “Super fun technical roads, made for some busy reading for me but so cool getting to be in the car with my dad.”
“I’m feeling very fortunate that we didn’t have mechanical issues and made it to the finish. One of the highlights is always catching up with drivers and codrivers at events, and I am so happy to be part of such an incredible community.”
“Overall it was a super fantastic event, very well done by the organizers and so cool to see so many volunteers helping out. I can’t wait to rip around in the woods here again! 10/10 would recommend!”
Just behind them finishing off the podium, James Randall and Andrew Rausch worked their way up from sixth to third throughout the event, managing a second place in the L4WD class behind the Himes’ as well.
To finish the L4WD top three, Peter Farrow and Ian Nelson put their 2002 WRX through its paces and came out on top.
L2WD entrants Brent Lucio and Besty Nguyen finished the rally first in class as the lone entrants, as well as 11th overall.
Final Classification
J. Farrow/M. Farrow (Subaru) 43m05s
S. Himes/Charlotte. Himes (Subaru) +3m09s
Randall/Rausch (Subaru) +4m27s
A. Hicks/J. Hicks (Subaru) +4m58s
Mattonen/A. Nykanen (Subaru) +5m21s
Matalas/Sword (Subaru) +5m39s
J. Nykanen/Connor Himes (Volkswagen) +7m39s
P. Farrow/Ian Nelson (Subaru) +8m01s
K. Rue/M. Rue (Subaru) +10m14s
Cook/Tu (Subaru) +10m50s
~ Mason Runkel for ARA.
For more information about the American Rally Association, and to get involved, visit our
website at https://www.americanrallyassociation.org/