Date: September 15-17, 2017
Rallymaster:Jim Breazeale.
Routemaster:Ron Sorem
The 2017 50th anniversary Nor'Wester will be a timed, Three-day tour of the crunchy bits of Eastern Washington, Oregon, and Central Idaho, with sustained hillclimbs, breathtaking vistas, meandering forest tracks, and a pine cone or two. Based in Clarkston Washington, the rally pursues the lesser traveled environs through ranches, farms, forests, and vineyards. Day One will be an afternoon warm-up with views north of the Clearwater River canyon, wheat fields, pastureland, and an overlook of Lewis & Clark's namesake cities. Day Two will explore the endurance aspect of Nor'Wester's past. It will be a long day. From our Clarkston base, we'll head south through Washington canyons into Oregon canyons. There will be lots of gravel. The bulk of Day Two will be in the forest. A little bit of rolling wheat fields in the morning and again in the evening. Day Three is all Idaho … lots of Idaho, mostly forest, but interspersed with rolling open spaces and some spectacular overlooks on the Lapwai Plateau. This will be an early start, with a comfortable finish.
I'd like to thank everyone for the memorable event. Especially the Route Master, Ron Sorem. His passion and experience are the bedrock of this event. Thanks to our sponsors Trackside Motorsports and Compass Micro, our friends the Damm Ralliers and Robert Gobright. Their contributions certainly added to the event. Star sportsware, McNamara Signs and the Quality Inn made it complete. The checkpoint crews are the best in the Northwest! Coming from near and far, always going the extra mile to support Rainier events. Our trophies were top notch creations by another Rainier member. Since 1967 Rainier has been making rally history. This Nor'Wester was a great way to celebrate the past 50 years and a great start the next 50 years. Thank you all.
| Car | Name | Class | Total | Rank Overall | Rank By Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Pablol Eklund & Yulia Smolyansky | UNL | 68 | 1 | 1 |
| 21 | Rebecca Ruston & Russ Kraushaar | UNL | 71 | 2 | 2 |
| 13 | John Alkema & Pete Schneider | UNL | 98 | 3 | 3 |
| 18 | Benjamin Thompson & Eric Hobbs | EQU | 100 | 4 | 1 |
| 6 | Curtis Thompson & Richard Thompson | UNL | 102 | 5 | 4 |
| 8 | Steve Richards & Ed Millman | UNL | 106 | 6 | 5 |
| 15 | Tom Kreger & Cynthia Bushell | UNL | 108 | 7 | 6 |
| 10 | Larry LeFebvre & Bill Colisch | EQU | 125 | 8 | 2 |
| 4 | Derek Mitchell & Pat Biggar | UNL | 136 | 9 | 7 |
| 11 | Don Gibson & Dave Weiman | UNL | 227 | 10 | 8 |
| 16 | Kevin Poirier & Chris Hale | UNL | 310 | 11 | 9 |
| 35 | Peng Du & Samrat Bhattacharya | SOP | 404 | 12 | 1 |
| 9 | Lee Sorenson & Norma Woods | SOP | 423 | 13 | 2 |
| 3 | Bob Chandler & Steve Boyle | UNL | 439 | 14 | 10 |
| 7 | Simon Levear & Bill Ferber | UNL | 570 | 15 | 11 |
| 14 | Alex Neely & Tiffany MacDonald | SOP | 585 | 16 | 3 |
| 19 | Mike Bond & Kevin Murray | UNL | 626 | 17 | 12 |
| 20 | Glyn Trafford & Tanya Trafford | UNL | 957 | 18 | 13 |
| 24 | Bill Walsh & Jessica Fleenor | EQU | 1032 | 19 | 3 |
| 5 | Teresa Davenport & Gail Wittenburg | VIN | 1106 | 20 | 1 |
| 23 | Ron Barker & Les Nelson | EQU | 1226 | 21 | 4 |
| 36 | Greg Ficker & Everett DeVlieg | NOV | 1555 | 22 | 1 |
| 30 | Derek M Johnson Love & Kate Love Johnson | NOV | 1765 | 23 | 2 |
| 33 | Marcus Gattman & David Gattman | SOP | 1803 | 24 | 4 |
| 29 | Keith Lueneburg & Annie Bragg | NOV | 1865 | 25 | 3 |
| 31 | Sam Ellis & Believe Ellis | SOP | 1890 | 26 | 5 |
| 34 | Steven Brantley & Ryan Rink | NOV | 1896 | 27 | 4 |
| 25 | Matt Flaisig & Ed Flaisig | NOV | 2169 | 28 | 5 |
| 1 | Jason Webster & Brandon Harer | UNL | 2486 | 29 | 14 |
| 28 | Stephen O'Leary & Ron Landaker | NOV | 2801 | 30 | 6 |
| 32 | Dennis Tell & Jo Anne Tell | NOV | 2966 | 31 | 7 |
| 27 | Carl E Anderson & Carolyn Anderson | SOP | 3683 | 32 | 6 |
| 37 | Nom_de_Plume & Nom_de_Plume_autre | SOP | 7099 | 33 | 7 |
The NWRC Friday Nighter Series winds up in October. The PCC Series finishes with Rally BC's Totem, Nov 18-19.
First run as an adventurous TSD event in 1967, Nor'Wester has a significant history in the Pacific Northwest. From 1967 until 1972, Nor'Wester was known as one of the foremost TSD rallies in the United States. In 1973, the format changed to a stage event for the new SCCA Pro Rally Series, on closed roads. This was the case through 1984, and Nor'Wester had become part of Rally Week Northwest, with Nor'Wester running one weekend, followed by Olympus the following weekend. With the advent of the WRC events coming to the forests (and streets!) of Washington, Nor'Wester fell off the calendar.
Nor'Wester' Pro Auto Rally days, either SCCA or NARRA, from 73 to 86 added to an unbroken string of 20 years for the event! Nor'Wester stage rallies took a year off here and there for the Tour de Forest name, including the predecessor of Oregon Trail ProRally in Tualatin Oregon.
In 1996, Jerry Hines (Alcan 5000 Rallymaster) put forth the idea of running a 30th anniversary event in the original TSD format. The task of duplicating the route of the 1967 three-day rally was handed to Roy Ward. Using the original R.I.s, Roy found that "progress" had impacted the course rather significantly. Freeways had been built, new roads intervened, and some roads had disappeared entirely. But with some rerouting, and a little creativity, a route was laid out and measured, and in 1997, the 30th Anniversary Nor'Wester ran from Bellevue, WA to Clarkston, WA, then to Coeur d'Alene, ID. The third day was dropped, since so much of the third day of the original route was no longer followable. But a good time was had by all.
In 2005, Rainier Auto Sports Club continued Nor'wester tradition by crafting another memorable event, combining it's Nor'wester and Alcan style, with more secondary roads but a relaxed pace. Vancouver Island assistance was by Brian Carriere and Island Rallysport Club, including roads you might never find without such help. The 2005 Nor'wester started in Kirkland, WA and headed north to explore the beautiful scenery and back roads of British Columbia. Williams Lake in the BC interior hosted our first overnight stop, then we visited the distinctly different coastal village of Bella Coola the second night. Day three was spent cruising the Discovery Coast Passage on the BC Ferry Queen of Chilliwack to Port Hardy on the north tip of Vancouver Island. Driving resumed on the final day for a spectacular run down Vancouver Island to the finish and awards in Victoria, BC.
For the 45th anniversary, in 2012, it was run as a two-day event from Ellensburg, WA to Lewiston, ID to Moses Lake, WA. Day One left Ellensburg southbound on the old wagon road over Ellensburg Pass. Construction between Checkout and Rally Day prompted a detour through Selah. Through the hop fields recalled the 1967 and 1997 route. A long "enduro" TSD up and down the Horse Heaven Hills may have been the longest in Nor'Wester history at 71.31 miles. Tri-Cities break. Skyrocket Road, Marengo hill climb. Pomeroy Park break. Peola and Blue Mountain TSD. Asotin, for a tribute to RASC's 1995 Evergreen State 1000, up Sherry Grade, then down Weissenfels Ridge with hairpins in the dust, in the dark! The loop became a 39-mile TSD. Overnight at the Red Lion Lewiston. Day Two with no surprises, east into Idaho, Angel Grade, Peck, Central Ridge, Winchester … Back into Washington for Howell Grade, Hammer Grade, Lind Coulee, Schrag, and Moses Lake. Total 705.46 miles in 19-1/2 hours.