Oregon Trail Rally airs on NBC Sports June 1

The one-hour show is jointly produced by Rally America and Rage Productions of Bend and will showcase top quality action sports coverage, including personal stories of national and regional competitors as they battle to overcome obstacles in their race to the podium. This is rally racing action as you’ve never seen it before.

David Higgins and Craig Drew of Subaru Rally Team USA won this year’s Oregon Trail Rally, for the fourth consecutive year. They were challenged all the way to the finish line by Subaru team mates Travis Pastrana and Chrissie Beavis. Pastrana was delighted to be back in Oregon, one of his favorite events on the Rally America Championship calendar, after a four-year rally hiatus.

Local teams claimed wins in the Regional Rally events that took place in conjunction with the Oregon Trail Rally. Dave Henderson and Terrence McDowell, both from Hood River, took first place in the Trails End Rally. Mike Goodwin and Adam Kneipp from Aurora, OR took first place in the Shunpiker Stages Rally. The final regional event, Wagons Ho! Rally was won by Carl Decker and Adam Craig from Bend.

Rally racing is one of the world’s most challenging and popular motorsports. It is considered by many as the extreme sport of automobile racing and it’s often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” Unlike any other type of car racing, rally teams compete in any weather, on challenging forest, mountain or desert roads.

Racing takes place only on “special stages,” using demanding back roads temporarily closed by local authorities for the event. “Transits,” driven at normal highway speeds with teams fully subject to all traffic laws, connect the “special stage” sections together speeds. Vehicles can only be serviced and repaired at designated “service” locations and for set periods of time.

Rally vehicles are production-based cars and trucks from manufacturers around the world. All competition vehicles are installed with mandatory safety features to protect the competitors. They compete both for the overall victory and wins within a class structure that groups together vehicles with similar performance.

Each vehicle carries a driver and a co-driver/navigator. Using a detailed route book and a sophisticated rally computer, the co-driver keeps the team on-course and advises the driver of any hazards ahead. This role is as critical as the driver’s skill, since the team is traveling at full racing speeds over roads they have never before seen, in any type of weather.

Melodrama

auditions tonight

Fort Dalles Floozies and Friends are holding auditions for a melodrama, “Double Crossed in The Dalles,” by local author Linda Beiter, at The Dalles Civic Auditorium theater.

Audition dates are Friday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, May 31, at 10 a.m. and Sunday, June 1, at 1 p.m. Parts are available for men and women. Actors must be available for rehearsals leading up to performances July 18, 19 and 20. For more information, contact May Ann Pauline at 509-767-4301.