Recap: Press On Regardless 75^th Anniversary Road Rally

by: Larry Navarre

The Press On Regardless^© TSD road rally celebrated its 75^th anniversary in 2024. POR is the longest continuously operated road rally event in America. For several years in the 1970’s POR was an event on the World Rally Championship tour. As a WRC event it spanned Michigan’s Upper peninsula and northern portions of the Lower peninsula. Today it has returned to a time-speed-distance rally and uses many of the same roads that were WRC special stages. This year the event was all Upper peninsula from St. Ignace to Manistique, and back. As always with POR, it’s all about the stories.

The daughter/father team of Amanda and Randy Poole were a Novice team in 2024, but their motorsports history goes way back. Randy’s father Thomas set a speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Randy and his father built out a Corvette and set records at the Ohio Mile. Amanda is a graduate of the Tire Rack Street Survival Course, then at age 17, while driving manual transmission car!  As Amanda said, “Before my wedding in 2024, I wanted to do a fun trip or experience with my dad so I started looking into different events that could be done in your personal vehicle. We found Press on Regardless and decided to register as a novice team, not knowing a single thing about it… we actually gained the most knowledge from the guys leading the rally and the other teams we met with before receiving our instructions.” Amanda continued, “We got off to a horrible start because we … were both used to a ‘pedal to the metal’ mindset. After about an hour of driving, we finally got the hang of it. It was such a great experience. We look forward to doing more in the future, and we might even make a comeback for Press on Regardless 2025.”

The team of Daniel and Elizabeth Unglenieks-Ploeg traveled to the Upper Peninsula in an old-ish Subaru Forester, but with many mods. Normally an ideal vehicle for POR, the Forester was giving the couple starting trouble in Manistique on Saturday morning. Trying various fixes, they attempted a tow start which nearly ripped the transmission right out of the vehicle. Upon inspection it was determined that it was not quite bad enough to give up the event. After all, it is Press On Regardless!  [still need to confirm this story, waiting on a reply from the Daniel and Elizabeth Unglenieks-Ploeg]

The 1963 Chevrolet Corvair “PORvair” driven by Tyler Linner and Eric Linner

And then there is the PORvair. That’s right. A 1963 Chevrolet Corvair ran POR 2024. Furiously prepared in the weeks before the event by son/father team of Tyler Linner and Eric Linner from Minnesota, the PORvair arrived in stunning Monza Blue color and plenty of spare parts. Fortunately, it is our understanding that the car only required one repair during the event. The team was ready to compete as well with an overall score of 155 earning the team second place out of five teams in Vintage class. Best of all the PORvair is already registered for POR 2025!

Mark Vojtisek pressing on after a brake caliper repair

POR volunteers are not immune to pressing on, and the course open car of Mark Vojtisek and Larry Navarre were driving the 1990 Mazda Miata.  Being completely prepared for POR, Mark had just replaced a rear brake caliper, which failed late Friday. Limping to Seney, just in time for the last auto parts store to close, they parked the Miata in the Dollar Store lot and began improvised repairs. The Dollar Store manager called her husband who promptly delivered a banjo bolt, washers, and nut. Such friendly U.P. service! And it worked! Responsible for removing rocks and trees from the course, the team traveled “briskly” to a mile marker where a tree was known to be down. They arrived just in time to assist Rallymaster Bruce Fisher and his son Matt Fisher to clear the obstacle without delaying the rally.

Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza POR 2024 Overall Winners with Joe Layton, POR 2024 Chairperson

Of course, POR is a competition and 2024 was a surprising result. Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza were the overall winners of the 2024 Press on Regardless! This marks the first time in the 75-year history of the event that a GPS-class team has won POR overall, with an incredible 43 points accumulated over 2 days, covering almost 500 miles and passing over 250 checkpoints. Of course, technology has always been a competitive edge in rally from mechanical calculators to electronic rally computers, but now custom software and satellites are the frontier of rally navigation. That said, the team still must drive the course!

Screenshot of the SCCA presentation of the W. David Teter Tour Rally of the Year award

POR was a winner too. At the SCCA National Convention, Press On Regardless was awarded the W. David Teter Tour Rally of the Year. This award is made by vote of the top 20 competitors in each rally class who competed in at least three national events. So if you want a great rally experience, travel up north to the Press On Regardless. This year POR will be Friday and Saturday, September 5^th and 6^th, headquartered at the Hampton Inn in Gaylord, Michigan. We hope to see you there!

Bonus: video of the Sunoco lot