2011 is officially here and with it brings the promise of another great racing season, the only hard part is waiting for it to arrive. I myself am not really great on patience, so I will be kicking off the 2011 racing season at the end of this month (January 28-29th) on the snow and ice covered back roads of Montmorency County (Michigan).
The Sno*Drift Rally is an incredible event that draws teams from all over the world to do battle over two days on stretches of closed secondary roads, two tracks, and private drives. Over the weekend competitors will test their cars to the limit for over 100-miles broke up over approx. 20 different stages.
Between the intense race to get the fastest time on the stage, competitors must take their street-legal race cars on the main roads to transit from the finish of one stage to the start of the next. Between stages competitors must adhere to all regular traffic laws, but once on a closed stretch of road average speeds are staggering, and it is not uncommon to see portions of road where the speeds exceed 100 MPH. An impressive feat considering the elements and the rutted, curvy, and sometimes downright scary roads.
I am definitely looking forward to this year’s event. It is racing in its purest form and a great way to spend some family time. There is no admission into most of the spectator areas (The only exception being a super-special stage formatted like a rally-cross where the fee is typically $5 and includes transportation to and from your choice of Lewiston or Atlanta). Garage areas are even open to the public during service times so that everyone can get a close-up look at the cars and teams.
As this is a volunteer run sport, more help is always welcomed and volunteers gain access to some of the coolest sections of the race as well as free admission into Saturday nights awards dinner. This year I will be working as a tech inspector as well as navigating for the course open #00 car driven by Ed Macklenburg.
For more information on Sno* Drift or to volunteer check them out on the web at www.sno-drift.org, for some insight on rally racing along with some awesome pics you can check out the Rally America site at www.rally-america.com.
Hope to see you there!!!
PitSide... Online 
Another fine article Darcie!
Darcie i really need to know where they start this at and best places to watch from thank you
Glenn-
The rally begins with a Parc Expose on Friday at 12-Noon from downtown Lewiston (Kneeland Street). There should be a few stage-side spectator areas on Friday afternoon/evening and even more on Saturday including the super-special stage which will be between Vienna and Atlanta, Michigan. The super-special stage has a charge for bussing to and from the event, but it is minimal. All other areas are free to spectate.
As rally competitors are not allowed to test their cars or their skills prior to the event, the location of the spectator areas and stage roads will not be posted on the Sno* Drift website until just a couple of weeks before the event.
It is a great race and I hope to see you there!
Thank You!
Darcie