The 2007 Subaru WRX STI of Travis Hanson is looking like a RWD-only vehicle in this slide.

It was the second-closest finish thus far in the ’09 Rally America season, but many competitors never saw the final stages of the New England Forest Rally. Held July 17-18 and centered at the Sunday River resort in Newry, Maine, blown engines were about as common as the ever-present buzzing of the area's infamous black fly population, only there was no repellant strong enough to keep many of the high-strung engines from giving up the ghost.

A Rally America event is a great race to attend if you are a fan of both old- and new-school cars. This year’s entrants to the NEFR included model years ranging from 1970 to 2009 and boasted 11 different brands. The top of the leaderboard was dominated by the big-time operations of Subaru and Mitsubishi, but the variety of entries gives nearly all fans a rooting interest, even if they don’t have a favorite driver.

Arriving on Thursday afternoon, we were able to bear witness to the arriving stream of trailers and support staff and soak in the diversity of vehicles that were sent through “tech.”  Clearly drawing the most attention were the oddball entries that broke up the stream of Subarus, including the bio-diesel-fueled 1979 VW Rabbit TDI from Greasecar (who have a Baja race vehicle in their stable as well), a super clean 1970 Datsun 510 from Daniel Cook (Red Mist Rally Sport) and a Ford Escape that was an “Escape” in its shell only (having a Contour SVT engine and Jaguar driveline).

After the vehicles were done with their “turn your head and cough” check-ups, we secured a brief ride on a “press stage” within the confines of the race-prepped 1970 Datsun 510.  Having co-driven for a stint in a 3100 class desert SUV I had something compare this to, and the experiences could not have been more different.

Sure, the intoxicating smell of burnt racing fuel was there, as was the well-constructed roll cage and gutted interior, but much was missing that I had expected.  There was no radio contact with the pit/chase crew (rally entrants that I saw did not have long range radio contact with their support staff), which I found odd given how much time the teams spend in “transit” between stages and maintenance areas, which could give their crews a heads up on what services might be needed upon their arrival.  Then there was the missing fresh-air system; when I mentioned this to a number of competitors they looked at me kind of strange and said that they could open a window or pop a vent on their roof. It would have been a big benefit given how much time these racers were to spend sitting still or at very low speeds in what was hot and muggy weather.

The 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI of Ken Block gets a new look during a maintenance period after the factory Subaru techs mounted light pods on the hood.

The driving experience itself was quite different as well.  The soft sand/dirt of the desert and long distances covered there provide a driver with the time and conditions required to find decent traction, whereas rally driving is all about putting the hammer down and never lifting. What this means is that (at least in a RWD car like the Datsun) it feels like you are out in the middle of a frozen lake with your foot on the floor and the rear of the car fishtailing from side to side.  In the brief stage we ran, I spent more time looking out the side windows than the actual windshield!  The car control necessary to keep the vehicle on the road and out of a ditch at the speeds we were traveling is truly remarkable.  When people say that Rally (with a capital “R”) drivers are amongst the best pure drivers in the world, they aren’t kidding.

The FWD 1995 Dodge Neon of Andrew Paine slides through the initial big corner in Sunday's Super Special at the New England Forest Rally.

In speaking with Rally America director Joe Niday during the event, we learned that Rally America is well positioned to survive the current economic downturn, though it does face some headwinds in the near future. Perhaps the biggest of Niday’s issues is RA’s contract with ESPN/ABC, which is up this year. Niday wants to continue Rally America’s presence at the X Games, but he expects Ricky Johnson and his TORC (short-course off-road racing) series to make a strong push to take replace RA there.  Niday knows that the X Games are always looking for what is “next” in the world of action sports, but he still feels that Rally events translate better in smaller venues like the one the X Games have been filmed at the past few years, than can short-course off-road or even something like a drifting contest.

Whatever happens with RA’s relationship with the X Games, Niday says that his series is still on solid footing.

The post podium interview (from left to right): Ken Block, Travis Pastrana and Antoine L'Estage.

“I still have Travis Pastrana, Ken Block and Dave Mirra,” Niday says, indicating that they are bigger in terms of marketing and name recognition than anyone in Johnson’s TORC series or in the world of drifting. That may change down the line as other crossover stars such as Brian Deegan and Carey Hart try their hand at short-course off-road racing, but for now Niday holds all the “aces.”

 

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RA is also exploring other media opportunities, including a larger and more diverse Web presence (something brought home by the 22 million hits Block’s videos have received). What RA will not do is buy up TV time as the ill-fated CORR series did.

“We knew that the Baldwins could not spend like they did, even though everyone else was telling us that we had to do what they were doing in order to succeed,” Niday states.

John Cassidy showing his skills with a four-wheel drift in his 2003 Subaru WRX STI.

Friday dawns sunny and muggy with the threat of a thunderstorm present all day long.  As the race cars gather at the “Parc Expose” in a Sunday River parking lot, so do the fans.  Numbering around a thousand, the fans mingle with the superstars of the sport and get an up-close look at the machines they pilot.  The hour long “Show and Shine” is just enough to show off the vehicles without eating into the day’s racing before the spectators and competitors head over to the 1/2-mile-long “Super Special,” which is the name for a short, spectator friendly section that sometimes includes manmade jumps. In speaking with Mitsubishi Evo IX privateer Bill Bacon (who finished 4th overall) after this brief stage, he stated what all the racers feel: “You can’t win a rally during a Super Special, but you can lose one.” This is because the section puts all the drivers in a precarious position—on one hand they want to put on a good show for both the spectators and the cameras but they also need to be careful not to push things too hard knowing that the Super Special stage is such a small part of the overall race.

The 1979 VW TDI of Justin Carven and the Greasecar team powers through the turn.

As soon as the Super Special is over, the race vehicles and their support crews begin their transit over to the next stage that is to be held in Mexico, ME, about 35 minutes away.  All entered vehicles are required to be street legal, as they will need to drive under their own power between some stages that are a fair distance apart.  A second 1/2-mile Super Special awaits the racers in Mexico. This one takes the vehicles over a decent-sized jump and past a section of packed stands where local spectators await.
           
The spectators are told via an onsite announcer that the first time the vehicles come by will be a “parade lap” and that the true racing will take place on a second lap.  Turns out there was no parade lap, and the lap that no one was paying much attention to turns out to be the only racing action many of the spectators would see that day. A series of miscommunications and a difference in timing between the racer’s and the spectator/media guides is to blame for this and of little consolation to those standing out in noontime sun.

Rear underneath of Travis Pastrana's 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI during a maintenance period.

A second setback for the event occurred shortly thereafter with the first two real “specials” (each 10 miles in length) being cancelled, as the small town they were to be held in has only a single ambulance “on call” in case of a race emergency, and as luck would have it that one ambulance was needed for a non-race emergency during the time the stages were to be run.  No ambulance=no race.

William Petrow signals that everyone is OK after losing control and crashing into a drainage ditch.

So, at this point it was now 5 p.m. and there had been a grand total of 1 mile of racing, 1/2-mile of which no one really paid much attention. Not exactly an auspicious beginning.  As I dozed on the media bus eyeing the cooler of beer next to me (the VIPs on board were allowed to drink, media members were not), I hoped that my fortunes would turn.

And did they ever … we arrived at the final stage of the day to an amazing site—lined along both sides of this remote forest fire road were hundreds upon hundreds (likely into the thousands) of people who had driven to the spot and dumped their trucks/SUVs/cars into whatever bushes or trees were nearby to get out of the way of the race.  Most of the attendees could be seen with a beer in hand (anyone for a PBR?), and the raucous atmosphere was a welcome change from the disappointment seen earlier in the day.

As each set of headlights began to light up the trees approaching the off-camber hump in the road that I was stationed near, a cheer from the crowd would go up and cameras would begin to flash, trying to catch the exact moment each vehicle went airborne.  Course marshals were a bit worried what would happen if a car went careening into the woods given the large number of spectators (some slightly inebriated) and media crowding around this location, but all ended well as everyone went home happy and in one piece.

 

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An after-party back at Sunday River gave everyone a chance to kick back and recap the day.  Out of the 48 entries that started the day, thanks in part to the two cancelled stages, only two teams would not return for the second day.  Team #600, an ‘02 Ford Focus piloted by 16-year-old Dillon Van Way of Louisiana was out due to a snapped CV that then damaged the engine block, and team #289, a ’91 VW GTI, was out due to a broken temperature sensor.

The 1978 280Z of Greg Healey during tech.

The lack of carnage on Day 1 would not hold through Day 2, as the number and length of stages increased and took their toll. Andi Mancin (sitting in fourth place for the year coming into the NEFR) had the engine blow on his ’07 Mitsu Evo and did not even start Day 2, and Andy Havas and his ’00 VW Golf was also forced out with mechanical issues early on.

Up front, the top three drivers were no surprise. Truly the class of the race, Block, Antoine L’Estage and Pastrana (in that order through eight of 13 stages) were packed closely together, with L’Estage and Pastrana only 2.8 and 17.5 seconds behind, respectively.  All this would change over the final five stages of the race that represented the crux of the event, as race organizers added a stage to make up for the two cancelled ones, which encompassed 53 miles over some of the fastest terrain yet.  With speeds for the top teams averaging virtually 80 mph, even the slightest mistake could end in disaster—and it did for numerous teams.

The number of entries taken out by mechanical failures and/or driver error seemed to explode during the final stages. Of some 50 total entries that began the event on Friday, 20 would not be able to finish. Those not making it to the end of the race included Pastrana and Block’s teammate Mirra, who toasted his engine; Allen Downs (#878 ’96 Impreza) with transmission issues; Matt Gottlieb (#67 ’02 Impreza WRX), who ran off the road; Arkadiusz Gruszka (#198 ’06 Mitsu EVO IX), who holed a piston; Bob Olson (#93 ’99 Impreza) lost all coolant; Don Conley (#477 ’07 Impreza WRX Wagon) breaking a CV, which went under a skid plate and punctured the gas tank; Steven Wakefield (#348 ’93 Talon ESI) with a blown motor; Andrew Havas (#188 ’00 Golf) with a burnt clutch;  Andrew Paine (#216 ’95 Neon) with blown tires and struts; and five other competitors were taken out on Stage 11 alone with various issues.

The 2004 Subaru Impreza of Mark Fox slides through the corner in Sunday's Super Special.

The best story of the day came from local driver Mike Doucette (an instructor at the Team O’Neil rally school), who was driving the company Ford Escape, which was used to provide training to the military and private contractors. Doucette had been forced to retire the Escape on day one due to a broken slave cylinder, but he managed to get that fixed and return for day two. In the heat of racing, Doucette not once, but twice, stopped and pulled a fellow competitor out of a ditch so that they could continue running with as little lost time as possible. Not only did Doucette manage to haul both the ’70 Datsun 510 of Dan Cook and the ’04 Impreza of National entrant Mark Fox out of their predicaments, but he was good enough to finish 14th out of the 31 entries in Sunday’s regional event.

Within the pro ranks, it was the same three drivers (Block, L’Estage and Pastrana) on top of the leaderboard at the end of ’09 New England Forest rally as it was at the end of Day 1, albeit this time in a different order. Through Stage 9, Block was leading the event and had built up a decent 21.5-second lead on Pastrana. Showing the tenacity and skill that has made him the three-time defending Rally America champion, Pastrana finished the day strong, winning three of the final four stages and taking the overall win by 42 seconds over Block (who’s time was impacted by an inadvertent spin in the final stages) and by about 1 1/2 minutes over Antoine L’Estage.

Ken Block's team goes to work on the 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI to check brakes, tires, etc.

With two of the top three drivers in the ’09 Rally America standings not present (Andrew Comrie-Picard and Tanner Foust were both prepping for the X-Games) and the fourth place driver (Andi Mancin) suffering a DNF, Block moved up three spots in the overall standings to second with his silver-medal finish. For Pastrana however, one has to wonder where he goes from here. He has more or less wrapped up his fourth-consecutive Rally America title with three events to go. The challenges remain for him in this series are minimal. No one has the skill, funding or equipment that Pastrana possesses, and he could go on winning Rally America championships for as long as he wants. 

When asked if he would ever consider returning to the desert for some racing there (he has finished 3rd at the Baja 1000 on a motorcycle), Pastrana responded by saying, “There are certain events on everyone’s ‘bucket list,’ the Baja was one for me and I finished third there,” at which point he was interrupted by Block who simply said, “Dakar?” Pastrana continued, “Yes … yes, if approached I would consider that,” he said with his trademark ear-to-ear smile looking ever-so-much like the Cheshire cat who knows something the rest of us don’t. “Yes, but my focus is here and on winning the Rally America championship.”

If I were a factory Dakar driver, I wouldn’t let my seat get very cool … I have a feeling there might be someone looking for an open spot real soon.