Silent for years, the cavernous planer shed at the old Weyerhaeuser mill site in Snoqualmie came alive with sound Friday, April 15.

Dozens of high-performance sports cars revved their engines, readying for an afternoon heat in the Global Rallycross Twin Peaks race, held last weekend at the transformed mill site now known as the Old Mill Adventure Park and headquarters of DirtFish Rally School.

The race drew international stars of the rally circuit and their vehicles to the course, which wound around and through the former mill’s empty warehouses and lots.

Driver Mikael Eriksson of Sweden got out of his car, a powerful Porsche 911/996, to chat with two fans. Minutes later, he barreled through the huge shed at full speed, braking hard at the end to enter the outdoor course.

“It’s really bumpy inside,” said pro drift and stunt driver Stephan Verdier, who hails from France. “The cars are bouncing around. You can’t make any mistakes.”

“The trickiest part is the mud,” he said. The track “is a tough one, really slippery.”

Twin Peaks’ mix of off- and on-road track included such features as the “hairpin,” the “boneyard” and the 70-foot “Joker Jump.”

“The track is hilarious,” said pro driver Tanner Foust, who powered the Rockstar Energy Drink Ford Fiesta through two- and three-car heats Friday.

“You’re going from concrete to mud, gravel,” Foust said. “With this much grip and power in these cars, when you hit the concrete, you’re just gone. You go flying through a building, hitting fifth gear in the building, then sliding around and having to check your speed for a giant jump. It’s got everything in it. It’s really, really fun.”

As mechanics readied his vehicle, Foust, a three-time X-Games Rally gold medalist and two-time Formula Drift Champion, stopped to autograph posters for his fans.

Foust’s car is a far cry from a normal Fiesta. While the wheelbase and base specs are the same, “virtually everything else is just for racing.”

Foust has 575 horses under the hood, and will need them for 10 European races and five X Games races in America this year. Before racing in Snoqualmie, he had competed in Qatar and Los Angeles.

Besides X Games, Foust has hosted racing television shows and done stunt driving for major Hollywood movies.

“The variety in what I do keeps me going,” the 15-year professional said.

Foust won the all-wheel-drive finals Saturday, while Verdier took fourth. Eriksson won the two-wheel drive finals.

DirtFish President Ross Bentley said the event drew a good-sized crowd; earlier, he found race team members dining in Snoqualmie.

For the rally school, which has been drawing hundreds of drivers monthly for its rally experience since opening last October, the global event’s international draw is a sign that DirtFish has arrived.

“It blows us away that this is actually happening.”

After Snoqualmie, the series moves to Colorado Springs in June, with the final event in downtown Los Angeles in July.

To learn more about Global RallyCross Twin Peaks, visit the race web site.

To learn more about DirtFish Rally School, visit http://www.dirtfish.com/.