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There were many curious events included in the championship calendar when FIA ran the World Rally Championship for the first time in 1973. One of those curious rallies is the Press On Regardless Rally, also known as POR. Organised by Detroit Region branch of SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), the event had seen better days. For 1973, they had just lost support of Total, main sponsor for the previous edition of the rally. That led to financial problems and even though enthusiastic SCCA clubmen were able to put rally together, lack of money and all-volunteer-work hampered that effort.
Rally was held in the heartland of US automobile industry, headquartered at Detroit in 1973 and in 1974 at Marquette, a mining town at the shores of Lake Superior. Route consisted of logging roads around the peninsula, stages being sandy and slippery when wet. On both occasions competitors complained about the tight schedule, any delays forced them to speed on road sections.
And since we are talking about United States, no story is complete without an encounter with the law. In 1974, Sheriff of Dickinson County decided, on his own, that rally was being cancelled. Front-runners had already started the stage 23 before marshal arrived at the scene but he did convince some of the later crews that rally was over. Adding to the confusion were stage officials who told drivers to proceed to rest halt instead of going to next stage. Eventually the rally ended in a chaos, protests were flying all over the place and the results were decided only long after the event had finished.
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| 1973:
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Boyce, Walter
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Toyota Corolla
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79.23 km/h
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| 1974:
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Therier, Jean-Luc
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Renault 17 Gordini
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84.52 km/h
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Driver wins
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Boyce, Walter (1)
Therier, Jean-Luc (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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Renault (1)
Toyota (1)
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