Rangely to host road rally in July

RANGELY | In July the roads around Rangely will be turned into a race track for Rally Colorado 2017. Friday, representatives and drivers from Rally America, the sponsoring organization, met with town and county representatives in a fitting location—Bud Striegel’s Automotive Museum—to announce Rangely as the site for this year’s state competition.
Returning to Colorado after an eight year hiatus, this is the first time the rally will be held in Western Colorado. The two races are part of the national competition.
“The organizers were looking at hosting the event in Steamboat again, and there had been too much residential development on the routes they previously used. The Mile High Jeep Club works with Rally America on these events, and they knew of the Rangely Rock Crawling Park and encouraged organizers to check out the Rangely area. The roads around Rangely are ideal for this type of race, and the technicality and overall condition of the road lends itself to creating a very competitive road system,” said Katelin Cook, Rio Blanco County’s economic development coordinator.
Stage rally racing, according to the Rally Colorado website, involves “modified street-legal production cars racing as fast as possible on underdeveloped roads (stages) in any weather conditions against the clock. Cars will slip, slide, and jump through miles of roads trying not to hit rocks and trees. A navigator accompanies the driver verbally issuing instructions on what turns are coming. The car with the fastest stage time wins the stage. The car with the lowest combined stage time wins the rally event.”
“We are very excited to host Rally Colorado 2017, and we gladly welcome the event organizers, participants and spectators to Rangely! This is guaranteed to be an incredible event, and the first of its kind in Northwest Colorado,” Cook said.