Olympus Rally

The Olympus Rally is an event in the motorsport of rallying. While it has usually been run as a national rally, in 1986-1988, it was a round in the FIA World Rally Championship, the most recent time a WRC rally has been run in the United States.

World Rally Championship

After being observed by the FIA for WRC status in 1985, from 1986-1988, the Olympus was a round of the World Rally Championship. From 1985-1987, the rally was sponsored by Toyota.

The 1985 Olympus “World Championship Prototype” event was won by Hannu Mikkola and Arne Hertz in a Group B Audi Quattro S1.

Markku Alen emerged on top of the results as the 1986 Olympus first gained full World Championship status, taking a Lancia Delta S4 and co-driver Ilkka Kivimäki to victory.

In 1987, the Olympus was attended by a number of top international teams, including Nissan, Toyota, and Suzuki. Juha Kankkunen won overall, as his and other Lancia Delta HF 4WD’s dominated the podium.

Massimo “Miki” Biasion won the fourth and final Olympus World Championship Rally in 1988 – his fourth of the season for Lancia, on his way to being the first Italian FIA World Rally Champion.

Winners

Year	Driver	Codriver	Car
1985	Hannu Mikkola	Arne Hertz	Audi Quattro
1986	Markku Alén	Ilkka Kivimäki	Lancia Delta S4
1987	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF 4WD
1988	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta Integrale

National Rally

The first Olympus Rally was held in 1973. It was headquartered in Shelton, WA and was part of the SCCA Pro Rally Championship. It continued to be part of that championship through 1975. In 1976, it became part of the NARA (North American Rally Association) championship (which later changed its name to NARRA (North American Rally Racing Association)). It was part of that championship through 1979. In 1980, it switched back to the SCCA ProRally Championship and remained in that championship through 1987.

While the name was used for a regional rally supporting the 2001 Wild West SCCA Pro Rally, the Olympus Rally was not held from 1989 through 2005.

The Olympus Rally returned as national rally in 2006 and was part of the United States Rally Championship. In 2007, it switched to the Rally America National Championship and has been part of that championship ever since.

Winners

Year	Driver	Codriver	Car	Rally HQ
1973	Gene Henderson	Ken Pogue	AMC Jeep	Shelton, WA
1974	Gene Henderson		AMC Jeep	Shelton, WA
1975	John Buffum	Vicki Dykema	Ford Escort	Tumwater, WA
1976	John Buffum	Vicki Dykema	Porsche Carrera	Olympia, WA
1977	Ron Richardson	Ray Hocker	Plymouth Arrow	Tacoma, WA
1978	John Buffum	Doug Shepherd	Triumph TR7	Olympia, WA
1979	Hendrik Blok	Damon Trimble	Plymouth Arrow	Olympia, WA
1980	Rod Millen	Dave Weiman	Mazda RX-7	Tumwater, WA
1981	Rod Millen	Bob Kraushaar	Mazda RX-7	Olympia, WA
1982	John Buffum	Doug Shepherd	Audi quattro	Tumwater, WA
1983	Rod Millen	R. Dale Kraushaar	Mazda RX-7	Tumwater, WA
1984	Rod Millen	R. Dale Kraushaar	Mazda RX-7	Tumwater, WA
2006	Wyeth Gubelmann	Cindy Krolikowski	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Shelton, WA
2007	Ramana Lagemann	Mark Williams	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution	Shelton, WA
2008	Ken Block	Alessandro Gelsomino	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Pomeroy, WA
2009	Travis Pastrana	Christian Edstrom	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Aberdeen, WA
2010	Travis Pastrana	Christian Edstrom	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Ocean Shores, WA
2011	David Higgins	Craig Drew	Subaru Impreza WRX STI	Ocean Shores, WA

External links

• Olympus Rally
• World Rally Championship Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
• Rally pictures from prorallypix.com