Ojibwe Forests Rally 2026: A Co-driver's View From the Right Seat
Updated: Sep 9
Ojibwe Forests Rally ‘26
It feels like a dream to be racing alongside some of the best drivers and co-drivers, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I’m not sure there’s any other motorsport where the top competitors mingle with grassroots teams as much as they do in rally.
If you would’ve asked me 10 years ago where I’d be, it certainly wouldn’t have been in the right seat at Ojibwe Forests Rally.
This weekend’s race was held in the Land of Paul Bunyan. I’m told this Northern Minnesota race is about as close as you can get to WRC Rally Finland without booking a 14-hour flight. The roads are fast and flowing, with many narrow technical sections, dense trees, and large, hidden rocks.
Before the Stage Start
There is always an immense amount of adrenaline leading up to the start of a rally. It’s my least favorite part. All the pressure of being the co-driver: don’t screw up the transits, don’t be wrong about your start time. Don’t let your driver accidentally speed during a transit…
But at every single event, the moment I sit down in my seat and strap in, with my pace notes and route book in hand, that adrenaline disappears. Then it is time to put my attention to detail, planning, and obsessive organization to work. That is when I am in my zone.
Prior to competition, we do something called “recce,” or reconnaissance. This is where the driver and co-driver go through a rally route before racing to create and review the pace notes. It starts with a recce plan, which helps us organize where we need to be and when, because even driving through the stages takes a surprising amount of planning. Our recce took about 9 hours for 8 unique stages, which are run twice.
There are route books to organize, pace notes to review, and plenty of sticky tabs involved. Honestly, sticky tabs may be one of the less glamorous tools of rally, but they are invaluable when you need to find something quickly.
Of course, no rally would be complete without at least one last-minute change. Around 9:30 Friday morning, notifications started coming through to those with cell service that the route had changed.
Some adjustments were made, one stage was eventually canceled, and we adapted, because that’s rally. You can plan every minute of your day, and the event can still hand you a surprise before you have even started the first stage.
Our Rally Took an Unexpected Turn
For this event, I competed with Brie Lucio in a 2017 Ford Fiesta in the Limited 2WD regional class. The car held up amazingly, and we were on track to reach our scheduled refueling stop before heading to Soo Pass Ranch for the evening's “super special stages”. A super special is a spectator-friendly stage designed to bring the action closer to the fans, and we were supposed to race it twice before ending our first day.
However, our Day 1 ended at refuel.
As our crew tried to fill the tank with our fuel jug, fuel spilled everywhere. Not understanding what was happening, we moved the car over to an actual gas station pump to see if the problem was the fuel jug.
It was not.
The fuel tank is a replacement that Brie bought from someone who had removed it from a junkyard car. When the tank was taken out, the fuel feed line had been cut, so Brie replaced the hose. Somewhere along our travels, that hose moved and kinked.
When we tried to refuel, the kink caused fuel to spill out rather than flow properly into the tank.
Brie decided to open the access panel and remove the fuel sender. That relieved some pressure and allowed us to get fuel into the car. Success! …Almost.
The gasket for the sender fell into the tank, and the resulting debacle took longer than we were allowed to spend at our designated refueling. The officials were forced to take our time card, and just like that, our Day 1 was over.
Back in the Car
Fortunately, we were allowed to “Return After Retirement” as a competitive entry for Day 2. We regrouped as a team, made sure the car was ready to go, and hopped right back in.
Overnight rain kept the dust down, which was very welcome. Around us, there was no shortage of rally drama, including fires, a pristine 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle that rolled but continued to the finish, and another stage that was canceled when ATVs were found on the course.
Then there was the history happening at the front of the field. Lia Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino took overall victory in their Hyundai i20 N Rally2, with Lia becoming the first female driver to win an ARA National round overall. She led from the beginning of the event and finished with a lead of just over two minutes.
For us, simply getting back into the car and finishing Day 2 was a victory in itself.
Earning 2nd in our class was an added bonus.
Nothing beats the feeling of hearing your name called for the podium at the end of a long event, followed by the spray of a champagne bottle. After all the stress, problem-solving, and time constraints, it’s a huge accomplishment. I am also pleased to report that I got slightly better at champagne spraying, which is apparently a skill that improves with practice.
Ojibwe gave us fast roads, rough roads, last-minute changes, mechanical problems, canceled stages, and enough stories to fill more than one blog post.
Despite the anxiety, the damaged cars scattered along the stages, and the dust, we walked away feeling accomplished and knowing that, despite having only just met, Brie and I worked incredibly well together as a team.
Cindi Carlson is Digital Content Manager at Rally Real Estate Group and competes in stage rally as a co-driver. She writes about car culture, the people in it, and the spaces they build for their machines.
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