BEMIDJI, Minnesota -- Gingras Rally Sport scored a pair of victories on the two Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) ClubRallys held in conjunction with the SCCA Ojibwe Forests ProRally. Driver Steve Gingras, with Alan Perry acting as co-driver, captured the first place trophies in both the Paul Bunyan's Ride and 10,000 Lakes ClubRallys in their Bloomington Subaru/Act II Popcorn Subaru WRX, and tenth place overall on the Ojibwe Forests rally.

Gingras, who lives in Elk River, Minnesota, considers this and the Lake Superior ProRally in Houghton, Michigan, as his home events. He grew up in Marquette, Michigan, and got involved in the sport while a student at Northern Michigan at Marquette.

"I'm very familiar with the roads used for the Ojibwe Rally, so I felt pretty confident," said Gingras, "but I had only run five events in this car, so am still getting used to it. As the rally progressed, I was getting more comfortable with the car and pushing harder. The last stage was the most fun, especially when we caught and passed Doug Shepherd (Dodge SRT-4), which put us ahead of him in the final results overall."

Alan Perry (of Bainbridge Island, Washington) has run quite a few events on the West Coast in the past two years, earning a reputation as a top-notch co-driver. This was his first event calling the turns for Gingras.

"Alan and I really clicked, which makes the driving that much easier," said Gingras. "He has already agreed to co-drive for me again at the Lake Superior ProRally in October."

Gingras and Perry won the Paul Bunyan's Ride ClubRally by 37 seconds over the Subaru Impreza of Piotr Wiktorczyk and Ray Summers. The victory margin on the 10,000 Lakes ClubRally was 42 seconds, again over Wiktorczyk and Summers.

The two ClubRallys count toward the SCCA Central Division Championship. Gingras has entered only three of the five CenDiv Club events held so far this season, and has won all three. He is third in the overall points chase. The top three in each class are eligible to participate in the ClubRally National Championships, held in February at the 100 Acre Wood ClubRally in Missouri.

GRS now has four victories the Bloomington Subaru sponsored WRX in only seven outings. The first came at the Magnum Opus ClubRally near Munising, Michigan, last September. Gingras won the Headwaters ClubRally held out of Park Rapids, Minnesota, in May of this year. The Subaru was unable to finish the other three rallies where it was entered, once due to a damaged suspension that put the car off the road, the other two times due to mechanical failures.

Gingras purchased the Subaru WRX last year and built it into a Performance Rally race car himself with the help of friends. The engine was built by SVS, Inc. of Saginaw, Minnesota.

Steve Gingras is a two-time SCCA Production GT class champion, in 1997 and 1998, driving a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. Gingras was also the 1997 CenDiv Champion in class O4 (Open 4WD).

Gingras Rally Sport is sponsored by Bloomington Subaru, ACT II Popcorn, www.Subaru.net, Rally Performance and PIAA Lighting.