My Rally Team

We're from Minneapolis, MN and compete primarily in SCCA's Central Division, which extends from Ohio to the Dakotas. We have run between 1 and 6 events per year, mostly divisional events, with a few entries on national events that run in the Central Division. The farthest we have travelled for a ProRally is to Paris, Texas.

Here's a little bit more about us:

Mark Larson (on the left) and Tim Winker before the 1998 Ojibwe Forests national Pro Rally.

Mark Larson

The driver of the car is me, Mark Larson. I'm a software developer by trade, and as you've probably noticed made my own Web site.

I first got interested in car rallying when I was in high school. I entered my first event right after graduation in my shiny new Triumph Spitfire. It was a TSD rally, which is run on public roads at legal speeds. Instead of a race, contestants follow a carefully described course at exact speeds, trying to stay exactly on time between checkpoints. I believe we finished 2nd in the novice class.

I ran TSD rallies for many years before entering my first ProRally. In 1980, I won an SCCA national championship, with a few more top-five finishes in the 80s. During that period, I got involved in ProRallying (then called Pro Rallying) as a spectator, worker, and crew member for a friend of mine, finally buying my first ProRally car in 1989.

I finished 8th overall on my first divisional ProRally in 1990. Over the next several years, I competed in many divisional eventsin that car, never finishing lower than 5th overall (not counting a few DNFs, of course). Surprisingly, with all those top fives I never won my class. Even when I finished second overall I got beat by Mike Hurst, a former divisional champion, in another front wheel drive car. At least that night we beat all the 4 wheel drives!

I also entered 3 national events during that period, but never finished one. Two crashes and one co-driver so car sick we had to quit.

In 1997 I sold my car to Brian Scott and started building the Talon. I entered the Ojibwe Forests national ProRally in 1998 and failed to finish the first night due to a stuck thermostat, of all things. However, I opened the 1999 season with my first class victory and ended up with a 3rd place finish in the SCCA Central Division for 1999. I'm currently holding a 6-event win streak.

Will MacDonald

Paris was Will's first event as a co-driver, though he's been around ProRallies his entire life. Will's dad, Dan, is an experienced rallyist and head of the sweep crews for the LOL region's rallies. Will has run many rallies in the lead or sweep vehicles and did a great job his first time in competition.

Heather Cox

My first co-driving daughter was my oldest, Heather Cox. Heather expressed interest in co-driving at about 18 years of age, so I took her out for a practice session in the woods one night. I figured she'd either get car sick, scared or bored and give it up, but she really seemed to like it. After a couple of hours, I decided to turn up the heat a little and see if she could take it. When we got a little airborne going over a jump, she let out a "cool!" and then got her eyes back on the computer. I knew then that she was serious about it.

She's a very good co-driver, stays calm no matter what direction the car is heading, and only gets sick under the worst conditions. She's also run one pro rally with another driver, and did a good job helping him through his first event. In return, he treated her to her first rollover.

Photograph by Gary Starr

Kelly Cox

Kelly Cox is my second-oldest daughter and my second daughter-co-driver. Kelly ran her first pro rally before she had a driver's license. She and I teamed up for the 1999 Headwaters ClubRally. After she shook off her early jitters, she settled in and guided me to my first ever class win, taking Production GT and 2nd overall. We repeated at the 2000 Headwaters, winning our class by .01 minute.

Kelly is hooked now, and wants to run a lot more rallies. So give her a call when you need a co-driver who doesn't get car sick and keeps her cool even when the car's on two wheels.

Ashley Cox

My third-oldest daughter, Ashley Cox, ran a lot of pre-checks and lead cars before competing on her first pro rally at the age of 16. She co-drove for Jonathan Butts and had a great time. She and I then teamed up for the 1999 Paris, Texas rallies and scored a pair of class wins.

Ashley has been known to accept a good ride when offered.

Gary Starr

My crew chief is Gary Starr, who used to be my co-driver and was my TSD rally partner for many years. Gary and I won a national TSD championship in 1980 and I believe he's probably finished in the top 10 every year since then. He's also a good mechanic, very organized, and knows the car as well as I do, making him a great crew chief. And he never gets lost on the way to the service.

Gary recently bought a ProRally car and will be competing in 2000. Looks like I need to find a new crew chief.

Jeff Burmeister

I teamed up with Jeff Burmeister for the 1999 ClubRallies in Paris. Jeff was relatively new to rallying, but fits right in because of his adventurous nature. In the past, he's tried sky diving, mountain climbing and sailboat racing. Jeff is planning to build a rally car, but in the mean time is available to co-drive. he is currently heavily involved in the promotion of ProRally.

Photograph by Jerry Winker

Tim Winker

My co-driver for the 1998 Ojibwe ProRally was Tim Winker. Tim's an experienced rallyist in practically every form of rallying there is and is a Saab fanatic. He's got a ProRally prepared Saab that he runs when he can, and is equally comfortable on either side of the car. By coincidence, Tim was the navigator in the winning car on the very first TSD rally I ever organized back in 1977.

Here's a picture of Tim in his Saab on the 1998 Lake Superior Pro Rally.

Photograph by Tim Winker

The Girls

I've got one more daughter besides Heather, Kelly and Ashley: Rachel. She's too young to pro rally, but has run lots of prechecks and worked lots of controls. She's a permanent member of our service crew (specializing in refreshments) and will be a co-driver some day.

Sometimes the girls bring their friends to help crew for us, too. Here are Ashley and her friend Jackie hamming it up before the 1999 Paris, Texas ClubRallies.

Photograph by Rachel Larson

My Friends

I'd like to thank all the friends who have helped me with car prep, repairs and crewing over the years: Bill Bjorklund, Dave Fuss, Mark Iverson, Todd Jarvey, Al Kintigh, Brad Odegard, Bill Tifft, Dan MacDonald, my dad, my ex-wife and many others who I've forgotten to list. I couldn't have done it without them.

Our Sponsor

Just kidding. My sponsor is me. I work a zillion hours to try to scrape up enough money for tires, gas, motels, entry fees, broken parts and a host of other expenses, just to do this a few times a year. But it's worth every hour I put into it.

Know how to make a small fortune in Pro Rallying? Start with a large one.