The Oregon Trail Rally is one of two that I’ve gone to in person, back in 2010. The area around Dufur, Oregon is noted for big, broad rolling hills and a kind of high-desert meets plains type of feel, but with a few trees and some wide-open spaces that make for a fast rally course. Plenty of machines show up to take part in the rally…when I was there, it was a flotilla of Subarus and Mitsubishis, with one very memorable Honda CRX standing out above the crowds. This year, Ken Block took his freshly legal Ford Escort Cosworth RS out to Oregon with co-driver Alex Gelsomino in tow, and used the event as the car’s competition break-in. The Cosworth sounds drum-tight and Gelsomino’s instructions are on-point and crystal-clear. Not that there’s that much to dodge here, though…there are sections that we’d flat-foot it in an old Buick, they’re so wide open and straight!