September 11-13,1998; Alma, Michigan

The 1998 running of the fabled Press On Regardless (POR) Rally was advertised as a “dress rehearsal” for the 50th anniversary running.  It turned out to be much more.

First run in 1949, the Detroit Region’s POR is the SCCA’s oldest continuous running event.  Thus 1998 marked the 50th running of the event (the 49th anniversary).  The previous years rally ran entirely at night - 9:00 pm to 7:00 am, for two consecutive nights.  Many competitors, myself included, complained that this took time away from the social aspects of the rally.  This years rally promised lots of social time.  840 miles of the dirtiest, nastiest roads in lower Michigan would now be spread over three days.

As has been the norm for the past few years, competitors would come from all across the country.  Team members would come from as far away as California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and even Alaska.  From the east would be crews from Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.  The remainder would be those from the mid-west; Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan.  All had come together in the center of Michigan’s lower peninsula in anticipation of a test of both man and machine.

The Press On Regardless tradition, as its name implies, is that of a long, tough endurance rally with no provision for the weak.  This years event would prove to be true to this tradition.

At around 10:00 am on Friday, September 11th, 28 teams began departing Alma, Michigan in search of the less traveled roads in the lower peninsula (and preferably the ones called for by the route instructions).  The first section saw most teams get through without too much trouble; with the exception of some pesky dead end roads complicating course following.  It wouldn’t be long after this that the first big problems would start.  Wittine and Talcott, in the “Police Caprice”, had their starter fail.  They made it to the end of the first days run with lots of points and decided to withdraw.  Ken Kovach and Mark Rinkel had problems with their PRO Rally prepped Escort GT and were seen by the side of the road on day one.  They too, made it to the first overnight stop but were able to continue on day two - only to run in to more bad luck and a DNF. 

The only all ladies team, of Lynn Dillon and Donna Rinkel, had a time allowance snafu which, in the end, cost them a very high finishing position.  At least 1000 extra points were added to their fine score because of it.  The rental Neon of Kleckner/Martinchick had the accessory belts come off in the deep sand of one section.  They were able to limp into Traverse City and buy some belts just five minutes before the shop closed for the night.  Somehow they rejoined the rally later on, but took maximum points for those controls.

The speeds and the tough going continued to take their toll.  Toward the end of the first day, Satch Carlson and Russ Kraushaar found a local in the middle of the road as they came around a blind right hander.  The local could not get his car off to the side in time and Satch had nowhere to go as there was a steep bank on the right.  As Satch says, there was “no time---or space---to get completely over before we investigating his rear wheel”.  No one was hurt, but both cars were damaged.  The “Bad Dog” was hurt too bad to continue.

Never - do you want anything of this sort to occur during a rally, or everyday travel for that matter.  Chairman, Gene Henderson did a good job of putting it into context.  “The POR course this year (’98) was over 800 miles long.  We scored 112 controls.  We lost 3 due to the unfortunate ‘incident’ between ‘Satch’ Carlson and another car.  This happened in broad daylight on a blind corner, the damage to Carlson’s car (left suspension) resulted in a DNF.  The other car, an 87 Subaru Wagon suffered damage to the left rear quarter, and was driven away from the scene.  Of the 50 odd cars that covered the ’98 POR course this was the only ‘incident’ reported.  When one considers the 40,000 + miles covered by the workers and competitors, this is high praise for the courtesy and skills exhibited by all the persons involved with the event”.

The POR tends to do a good job of rounding up the usual suspects.  Toward the foreground are (l to r) Ken Swarm, Dan Coughnour, Mark Henderson, Gary Webb and Satch Carlson (doing his best Tonto imitation - “We go left at T, Kemosabe”)

On a somewhat brighter note; Satch and I had a chance to chat briefly, before the start.  He observed the Team Harco Colt, which we have been using in the Vintage class for several years, and declared; “that really is an ugly car”.  This coming from an international motorsports journalist, of some repute, almost had me rattled.  Now let me tell you, this same IMJ has been seen driving, and seems to enjoy, various old Saabs.  So with this in mind, I was quick to offer my comeback.  So I said; “yeah”.  And almost as quickly, I added; “but it’s stronger than dirt” - referring, of course, to its ability to tackle any road, anywhere, in Michigan (maybe even some in Alaska, too).

But now, here we were only one third of the way into the rally; and already two teams were out of the running.  The first overnight stay in Boyne City was full of stories and anticipation of what still lay ahead.  Many were making plans for maintenance and repair of their rally vehicles.

Saturday morning arrived early for most but there was a lot of work to be done. The parking lot of the Wolverine Dilworth looked more like the set of “Shadetree Mechanic”, multiplied 20 times over.  Lynn Dillon needed to replace a radiator hose on her Sunbird Turbo (another PRO Rally prepped car), Chuck Fortino was working on the clutch/shifter of his vintage Valiant, the guys in the Midget were messing with their exhaust system.  The old Colt spent most of the first day hopping around on three wheels.  The right rear shock was gone.  Left hand turns, especially on bumpy pavement, became very exciting on that first day.  After more than two hours of looking through shock application catalogs, the guy at CarQuest found a shock that would fit.  He even took a bushing from another shock to make it fit better.  A few washers, a little torque on the fasteners and a liberal application of silicone sealer had us ready to go on day two.

With just a few minutes to spare we fueled up the car and headed to the marina for the parc expose.  Absent from the start were R. Dale Kraushaar and Larry Richardson, in their beautiful Subaru Impreza.  Add to this the Talon of Cochran and Novatne.  It turned-out they broke the crankshaft pulley on day one and needed another one badly.  Cochran/Novatne have endured some of the worst luck of any the past few years, at POR.  Last year they had to withdraw from the rally when Steve Novatne was taken to the hospital complaining of chest pains.  The year before their Talon made intimate contact with a truck loaded with sugar beets.  This year they were recognized for their trials by the presentation of the “Spirit of POR” award.

Off we went on day two.  This would be the longest and toughest day of the three.  The roads got tougher, the dust didn’t let up and the locals seemed to be more prevalent.  Many competitors have stories of their run-ins with locals and some even had their progress impeded by locals blocking the road.  Road rallies must, by the rules, have their speeds set below the speed limit of the road.  But the speeds also need to be brisk enough to make the rally interesting to the competitors, this year they were quite brisk.  Perhaps even more so than last year.  There were a number of areas where speeds should have been a little lower and pauses should have been in place at many stop signs.  It was decided at the mid-day break, of day two, that CASTs (average speeds) would be reduced by 4 mph.  This worked and made most competitors happy.  Whether it did the same for the locals is not known.  Though there seemed to be less talk of local contact after that.

The daytime format adopted for this years running had its drawbacks.  The most obvious one is the additional non-rally traffic.  The year before, running late into the night eliminated this problem.  Another thing working against the rally was the exceptionally nice weather.  Had it been cold or rainy, the number of “civilians” out on the roads would have been greatly reduced.  It is always difficult, when laying out a rally, to determine the best compromise of many factors.  For the most part things were done well, and have always been done well at POR.  The decision to lower speeds, slightly, was the right thing to do.

Back on the roads the mechanical carnage continued.  Mark Henderson and Dave Fuss ran out of road in their Subaru and ended up nuzzling a tree.  The damage was not severe but the time spent getting back on the road helped them make the decision to withdraw.  A decision which Mark later regretted.  Fisher and Bell had things come apart for them about the same time.  Their Mazda 323 GTX let them down and they were the sixth car to be classified as DNF.  The rest of the crews continued on, some with troubles, others with none.

The Alma crew of Clements/Wieferich had all kinds of problems with their Jeep.  Carb problems slowed them on day one.  Water pump problems plagued them all day on day two.  They went off course several times in search of parts to make repairs.  Somehow they managed to make it to the finish of the first two days and even made it to the finish back in their home town.  For their perseverance, they would be presented the “Dead Last But Finished” award.

The crews relax for a few minutes before proceeding down the widest, smoothest road to be seen on the POR.  Somewhere in Michigan, on day 2.  (Photo by Mark Kleckner)

The second day ended back in Boyne City a little after 10:00 pm.  The crews enjoyed another fine meal, more rally lies and video tape.  The half way awards were presented.  The E class had been decimated with 5 cars already out.  Holding a solid lead in the class, and overall, were Dan Coughnour (pronounced Coke-an-hour) and Greg Lester in a Jeep Cherokee.  Leading L, and second overall, were Johnstonbaugh and Swarm in their Mazda 323 GTX.  Stock was held by Fred Mapplebeck and Rene Ruel in an Audi 4000 Quattro.  Vintage was led by Harvey/Murphy in their Colt, with Jones/Potvin just behind in the MGB.  Novice was held by Achterhof and Essenburg in a Ford Ranger.

Halfway scores did not include the later sections from day two.  When the competitors awoke on day three they were able to view the latest scores which were completely updated.  The class leaders had not changed overnight, but some interesting overall placements were evident.  Not the least of which was the car in second overall.  It was a car from the Vintage class!  Third was a car from the Stock class, just a handful of points out of second!

The last day would be relatively easy.  The shortest of the three days, it had only three sections and only 14 controls.  There would be little chance to make improvements, only chances to make mistakes.  Most of the damage had been done the night before.  For Johnstonbaugh and Swarm it was being blocked by locals, then a flat tire that knocked them out of second overall.  They had, however, overcome a cracked distributor cap, discovered on Saturday morning, by taping and zip-tying it together.

Most of the Vintage contingent including all of the British cars.  Fortino/Kloosterman’s Valiant, Kirby/DePentu’s Midget and the Bs of Smith/Smith and Jones/Potvin

We had our share of troubles as well, but nothing that cost us any serious time.  The shock problem on Friday was cured on Saturday morning.  The next gremlin to rear its ugly head would be a weak battery.  Many times we were unable to restart the car after shutting down.  One time Bryan had to push the car, up hill, as our out time had come and gone.  After this, we arrived 70 late at the first control and 38 late at the next one.  From then on I looked for a parking spot near the top of a grade to give us a little gravity assist, if we needed it.  Many times we had to enlist the help of our fellow competitors.  It is really great to run with people like this.  Rally people are always willing to help if they can.  Whether it is the loaning of a tool, a piece of duct tape or a push; rally folks always seem to be willing to help their fellow competitor.

The last few legs were completed on Sunday and it was time for the long, boring, transit back into Alma.  Still ahead was the POR RallyCross.  Though not scored as a part of the rally, it was a nice option to those who wished to compete.  The RallyCross was open to non-POR competitors as well.  Most of their runs had been taken by the time we arrived.  It turned out that many of the POR competitors and workers decided not to take all their runs or, worse yet, were unable to.  Many were just happy to get some rest or get a head start on the food and drink.

When the RallyCross was completed the stragglers made their way into Alma for the awards ceremony.  The RallyCross awards were given out first.  Following that the POR class awards were presented, followed by the special awards and the overall awards.

Coughnour and Lester took home the gold and the class E win with a score of 216 points.  With the attrition and various problems plaguing much of the field, second place came from the Vintage class!  Second overall, and first in V, would be Harvey/Murphy with 898.  Third overall was taken by Foster and Secrest with 919.  These last two had planned to compete in the Vintage class, in a ’72 240Z.  Instead they had to use Bill’s GMC pick-up, in class E.  They were handicapped somewhat, in that there was no time to replace the nearly bald tires.  Fourth overall and first in Stock would be Mapplebeck and Ruel.  L was taken by Johnstonbaugh and Swarm with 1394.  Novice was taken by Achterhof and Essenburg, who seemed to have as much fun as anyone.

Fun has always been the name of the game.  I can’t hope to capture the excitement, enjoyment and camaraderie of such an event.  My story is only a small slice of the pie when it comes to describing what the Press On Regardless Rally is all about.  Ask anyone who has been there.

A lot of controversy surrounded this years POR, most of it seemed to come from those who were not there; but had heard stories of it.  To those, I say come to POR next year and see for yourself.  In a note written by Greg Lester, he quotes Ken Swarm, who ran POR for the first time this year: “you know, the POR is sort of like Las Vegas - you really need to experience it to believe it.  Step right up and see the elephants…”

That pretty well sums it up.  The organizers have always done a great job on this rally and deserve a great deal of credit.  Over 100 controls, more than 800 miles and three days of great fun!  Gene Henderson has decided the fun has gone out of organizing the POR and has stepped down from that position for 1999.  For the past few years, he has stated that he wanted to make the 50th POR his last as chairman, and that now, he’s not going to make it.  Well I’ve got news for you, Gene.  You already did.  This years POR was the 50th!

I can’t say I blame him one bit.  Competing in the oldest, toughest, meanest rally in North America is too much fun.  Here’s to another fifty years of good rallying!

 

Written by Scott Harvey, Jr.  Photos by author, unless otherwise noted.

 

Results of:  Total POR 1998     Alma - Boyne City - Alma    September 11-13             112 controls scored

1/1E         Dan Coughnour/ Greg Lester - OH/OH                   216                          ’96 Jeep Cherokee                  #1

2/1V        Scott Harvey, Jr/ Bryan Murphy - MI/MI                  898          ’75 Dodge Colt GT                   #24

3/2E         Richard Foster/ William Secrest - KY/KY                919                          ’95 GMC Sonoma                     #20

4/1S         Fred Mapplebeck/ Rene Ruel - NH/NJ                     971          ’87 Audi 4000Q                       #27

5/3E         Earl Hutson/ Jim Hathcock - VA/NC                        1052        ’87 Audi 4000CSQ                   #9

6/2V        Eric Jones/ Bill Potvin - OH/OH                                1215        ’64 MBG                                   #15

7/3V        Phil Smith/ Dallas Smith - OH/OH                             1295                        ’66 MGB GT                             #25

8/1L         Ron Johnstonbaugh/ Ken Swarm - OH/OH             1394        ’88 Mazda 323 GTX                 #19

9/4E         Lynn Dillon/ Donna Rinkel - IN/OH                            1746        ’88 Pontiac Sunbird                 #10         

10/2L       James White/ Jerry White - MI/IL                             1792        ’90 Subaru Legacy                  #18

11/4V      Chuck Fortino/ Jim Kloosterman - MI/MI                   1818        ’65 Plymouth Valiant                #23

12/5E       Dennis Gunn/ Kevin Poirer - NV/NV                        1872        ’88 Audi 4000Q                       #12

13/6E       Jon Hamilton/ John Westhoven - OH/OH 2637        ’81 Volkswagen Rabbit           #17

14/7E       Herb Spencer/ Mark Hainen - OH/MI                       2525        ’88 BMW 325ix                        #8

15/1N       Todd Achterhof/ Kevin Essenburg - MI/MI              3349        ’97 Ford Ranger STX               #30

16/3L       Gary Webb/ Cat McKeen - ME/VT                           3971                        ’97 Toyota Tercel                    #5

17/2S       Mark Kleckner/ Matt Martinchick - MI/MI                   4925                        ’98 Plymouth Neon                   #28

18/5V      Dan Kirby/ Jon DePentu - VA/MI                             5460                        ’75 MG Midget                          #26

19/4L       Steve Phillips/ Paul Gilbert - IN/IN                             7203        ’89 Saab 900                           #11

20/2N       Matthew Bos/ Phillip Boer - MI/MI                            9748        ’90 Subaru Justy                     #29

21/3S       Fred Cochran/ Steve Novatne - NJ/PA                   14396      ’90 Eagle Talon                        #21

22/4S       Terry Clements/ Wayne Wieferich - MI/MI               15086      ‘73 Jeep CJ-5                          #22

DNF/E      Satch Carlson/ Russ Kraushaar - AK/WA                                              ’88 BMW 325ix                        #2

DNF/E      Mark Henderson/ David Fuss - MI/MN                                                     ’91 Subaru Legacy                  #3           

DNF/E      R Dale Kraushaar/ Larry Richardson - OR/CA                                       ’95 Subaru Impreza                 #4

DNF/E      Randy Wittine/ Les Talcott - MI/MI                                           ’91 Chevrolet (Police) Caprice #6

 

 

DNF/E      Ken Kovach/ Mark Rinkel - OH/OH                                          ’91 Ford Escort                        #7                           

DNF/L      Bruce Fisher/ Tom Bell - MI/MI                                                 ’89 Mazda 323 GTX                 #16

 

 

The vintage class winning Dodge Colt of Harvey/Murphy leaving the start of the 50th running of the Press On Regardless Rally.  Following close behind is the vintage Plymouth Valiant of Chuck Fortino and Jim Kloosterman.  (Photo by Mark Kleckner)

 

 

Dust was the name of the game at the POR RallyCross.  Bryan Murphy takes the Harco Colt for a ride.