At the conclusion of the third stage, drivers traveled over the Portland Westhills to Hillsboro where Monte and Victoria had a special rally stage – and pizza – waiting. After rallying at three track locations, contestants arrived in Hillsboro hungry. Pizzas disappeared as quickly as they came out of the oven. Monte finally got some when the fifth pizza was done – he’d taken the timer with him.
With a single stage remaining, Team Lancia was tearing it up with four cars in the top ten. And as it had been all day, the top Group B cars of Scott, Rico and Monte remained within seconds of each other. The rally would be decided on the final stage in the hills of Hillsboro.
And what a stage! For starters there were the bridges – a suspension bridge and a hump bridge. Navigation of either “yump” could prove tricky. Add in the sliding curve, a dirt section, and a couple of tricky off-camber turns. Opportunity for disaster was rampant.
In the Historic class Tony’s Porsche continued to set the pace. Three seconds back Greg’s Alfa barely nipped Monte’s Stratos by a tenth of a second while AJ’s class-leading Lancia Fulvia fell a full ten seconds off the pace.
In the Modern class Tony’s Porsche 911 finally found the course it liked. After trailing for much of the day, the Porsche turned in the top performance in the class and third fastest overall time for the stage. Tracy’s Subaru followed two seconds back, with Bill’s Porsche 911 in third.
The Group B class was a close battle all day between Scott’s MG Metro, Rico’s Peugeot 205 and Monte’s Lancia 037. To make things interesting Greg’s Peugeot raced to a quick 1:20.47 – the second fastest time of the stage. Scott, needing to take back three seconds on the stage from Monte was able to only manage a 1:22.15. Rico followed with the top time of the day at 1:12.46 – a full six seconds faster than the previous top time. Needing a top time to keep the lead, Monte’s Lancia 037 flowed over the course “fast as possible, slow as necessary” to set a record time of 1:11.82.
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