Houghton, MI — Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block has a commanding lead at the Rally America season ender this weekend in Michigan’s upper peninsula and is in line to capture second place in the championship series.

“I’ve had a lot of fun today; I love these stages,” said Block, who had more than a minute lead over second-place Kyle Sarasin by Saturday. “I’m taking the time to work on driving quick but clean.”

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino had a strong start to the season, winning a pair of events early in the year. But a string of DNFs dropped the duo back in the standings and they entered the Lake Superior Performance Rally in third place overall.

Heading into this event, Block’s teammate Travis Pastrana has already secured the Rally America drivers’ title. However, with three drivers separated by just four points in the championship standings, second-place remains very much up for grabs.

After a strong drive at Rally Colorado last month, young driver Sarasin moved into second-place overall in the title hunt and was looking for home-field advantage this weekend. The student at Northern Michigan University in nearby Marquette has run this event twice before.

The early stages on Friday saw Sarasin and his co-driver Mikael Johansson in a tight fight with Block and Gelsomino for the rally lead, but electrical trouble late in the evening saw the team fall behind. By Saturday, it was looking like they’d have to settle for third in the championship.

“I’ve been comfortable pushing hard here, but we won’t catch Ken unless he has a problem,” said Sarasin.

In third place as the rally finish approached was Pastrana and his guest co-driver John Buffum. With the title sewn up already, Pastrana and Buffum said they were just looking to have some fun on the course this weekend.

“When he drives well and I can spit the notes out at the right time, it’s good,” said Buffum, whose own rally driving career is legendary. “I don’t drive very much anymore and co-driving is a different challenge.”

Andi Mancin and co-driver Maciej Wislawski were in fourth place on Saturday in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Mancin, who is a Polish championship contender, is making his debut competition appearance in the Rally America championship this weekend. He is accustomed to writing his own pace notes when he competes at home and he said early in the day that he was struggling to adjust to the Jemba system favored by the Rally America series.

Tough luck put Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and co-driver Marc Goldfarb out of the contest early on Friday. The duo were among the contenders for the championship runner-up position heading into this contest, but a spark plug failure left them down on power and they rolled their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX while trying to make up time. There were no injuries, but Comrie-Picard said the car is done for the season.

Blinding dust became an issue for teams as night fell on Day 1, with drivers reporting near-zero visibility in some areas.

“When it’s that dusty, you just have to trust the notes,” said Pastrana.

In the Production GT class, Pat Moro holds a commanding 74-point lead over Ropert Borowicz in the championship. With just a handful of stage miles remaining, Moro and co-driver Mike Rossey were leading the class charge and sitting in sixth overall.

The event also plays host to the final round of the three-event MaxAttack! Triple Crown Rally series. The series consists of three events across the country, featuring a $5,000 prize fund to be distributed among the top two-wheel-drive teams, as well as a season championship.

Veteran Doug Shepherd and co-driver Karen Wagner were leading the two-wheel drive battle at this event and were in fifth-place overall in their Group 5 Dodge Neon SRT-4.

The Lake Superior Performance Rally, known as LSPR, runs through Michigan’s rugged upper peninsula. With fast gravel roads, deep rutted sand, the likelihood of snow, and even a tarmac stage thrown into the mix, the event is a definite challenge.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2008 Rally America National Championship series consists of nine exciting events throughout the country in many different weather and road conditions. Throughout the year, teams take on everything from snow-covered trails of Michigan, forest-logging roads in Minnesota, coastal paths of the Pacific Northwest, fast but rocky challenges of New England, to the high-altitude roads of Northwest Colorado, and finally to its conclusion in the fall splendor of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.