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Felch site of Iron Mule Road Rally on Saturday

By JIM PAUL 5 min read

FELCH TOWNSHIP -- Central UP Rally will host the 110-mile Iron Mule Rally race Saturday over a course in Felch Township.

The North American Sports Association Rally Sport event will start at 11 a.m.

Roger VanDamme, chair of CUP Rally 2023, has been involved with rally racing in the Upper Peninsula since the 1990s, first by helping his brother out in racing and then racing himself for a year before going back to college.

VanDamme says it is the people and expanding interest in rally racing that keeps him in the sport.

"The rally community is a great community," VanDamme said. "Rally is addictive; the last person that interviewed me is now a co-driver, she got hooked on it and she has been co-driving for the last three or four years ... I had my shirt on when I went to get a root canal one time and, oh my God, my dentist now is going to race his first race."

NASA Rally Sport has five events in 2023, with two of them in the Upper Peninsula; the other was the Hardwood CUP Rally on June 17.

VanDamme said that the logging roads in Upper Michigan are tight and twisted, ideal for rally racing.

According to VanDamme, NASA Rally Sport and a race like the Iron Mule serve a significant role for aspiring rally racers.

"There's two circuits running currently in rally. One is the American Rally Association or ARA, and we're running in the North American Sports Association, which is NASA. The ARA has the big names. NASA is more of a grassroots, get started type of rally where we typically have smaller events and, you know, beginners," VanDamme said.

NASA is also a better value for casual racers.

"The guys that aren't really competing but they still want to go out and play will come to the NASA events, which are generally cheaper than the ARA-type events," VanDamme said. "ARA races run from Tuesday through Sunday; NASA races run Friday and Saturday, so it is more affordable."

The race will start at the Felch Community Center and go along Calumet Mine Road, Lyons Lake Road and Norway Truck Trail. Competitors will run up and down the course three times.

While the Hardwood Rally did not have any areas for spectators, the Iron Mule has three, on Finn Town Road, Merriman East Road and Lyons Lake Road.

The public is encouraged to attend free of charge.

The event could use as many as 60 volunteers, he said, noting that volunteering is a great way to see the action.

Road rally consists of a series of timed races called stages, which are anywhere from one to 25 miles long and usually on a forest or logging road that is closed to the public.

Competitors start one minute apart from each other and race for the best time. They do not race wheel to wheel with their competitors to cross the finish line first.

Just about any type of vehicle can be a rally car -- even motorcycles at some events -- and while modified production vehicles they must remain street legal so that they can legally cross the transits on roads between race stages that remain open to the public during the race. In addition to being street legal, the vehicles must have a roll cage, racing seats, skid plates and five-point harnesses.

Four classes will compete: two-wheel drive natural and turbo and four-wheel drive natural and turbo. Typically, the higher horsepower turbos usually win the overall race but not always.

While the vehicles are capable of speeds from 120 to 130 mph, racing will be at speeds of up to 80 mph with occasional faster bursts; on transits between race stages, vehicles must go the speed limit and follow all traffic laws.

"One of the nice things about this road is that I don't think that kind of (higher) speed is attainable," VanDamme said. "The danger level goes way up when you get overwhelmed ... everybody out there is taking a calculated risk; we try our best to keep it safe, but accidents do happen."

The course has twists and turns and is unfamiliar to them, so typically a navigator rides along in the car following a notebook listing all of the turns and lets the driver know what is coming up next.

According to VanDamme, 19 cars are signed up to race and that with the type of course like the Iron Mule, 25 would be about the maximum the course could handle. Of the cars already signed up, three drivers are local to the area.

Drivers come from as far as Florida and South Carolina, mainly drivers east of the Mississippi River although drivers from as far away as the West Coast have competed at Hardwood Rally and its predecessor in Powers.

Dickinson County Road Commission Managing Director Jim Harris said it has been a pleasant experience dealing with race officials and there have been no issues during the rallies. A post-race inspection of the course revealed no damage to the roads, he added.

For more information on the race, go to https://cuprally.wixsite.com/2023 and https://www.nasarallysport.com/main/.

Starting at /week.