The Maine Forest Rally is an SCCA sanctioned event, taking place in the woods in and around Rumford, Maine- at times as close as 10 miles to the US/Canadian border! It is a two day event with cars spanning the gamut of classes- Production, PGT, Group N, and even Open Class. We went mainly to cheer on Subaru Rally Team USA and the other 28 Subarus registered for the rally (out of 96 total participants). Subaru vehicles took all of the top 15 places in the rally!
          
The trip up to Rumford Maine began for most of us in Manchester New Hampshire. We made sure to take over a gas station along the way again this year. We caravaned up to Rumford Maine, with one mishap along the way- a four car accident (only 3 sustained any real damage) turning into a trailhead to take a rest stop. Jim's exhaust (among the above photos) did not fare well. the "circle" in the bumper of the VW is from the tip of Jim's exhaust. Nobody was hurt, but we had 3 state police, 1 local (Franconia) policeman, and 2 EMT's arrive on scene about 15 minutes after the accident.
      
We got the unique opportunity to meet and greet with Subaru Rally Team USA, but there were also quite a few other rally teams staging in the same area on Friday morning. These are just a few of them.
  
This particular beast deserved a little extra attention. It is a Prodrive-prepped open class car, rumored to be pushing 42psi of boost!
   
This particular vehicle belongs to one of our own, John Cassidy (aka "Rovah"). I got a real kick out of the license plates on the car and his service vehicle.
           
The real reason we came up to the staging area- to meet Subaru Rally Team USA in person. They are all completely down-to-earth people (even the Prodrive support crew guys I talked to were great). By the time the day was over, I had my Rally Team USA hat signed by both drivers and both of their co-drivers.
   
Just a few random photos- us taking over Subway, BugGirl finds the temple of VW bling, Andrew's Trunkmonky that should show up in the Speed Channel's coverage of the Maine Forest Rally (I put it right in the view of their lipstick camera before stage opening), and a view of the PGT Impreza that gave our caravan chase from the staging area to Parc Expose, as taken by Andrew Hobgood.
         
Parc Expose- the chance to get up close and personal with the rally teams and their cars. Most of my photos focus on Subarus (naturally), but there are some very impressive machines from the other works, including the VW Fox Wagon, the Escort Cosworth,the Porsche, and a good showing of Mitsubishi EVO's and turbo Eclipse's.
     
Parade Lap- Just before the start of the first stage on Friday, all entrants take a "parade lap" around the ballfields at the beginning of the stage. It gives everyone a good look at the cars in motion, but kicks up alot dust. We were about 8 feet from the stage road at this point, and when things started going (they pulled 30 seconds between starts instead of a more normal 2 or 3 minutes) the dust really started to fly. It's good to be this close to the action, but we got closer later in the day!
        
And by close, I mean CLOSE. We trekked back into the woods to get to our location, and were, quite literally, 3 feet from the stage road- that's about as close as most people would want to get. I however, was looking for better, closer photos. I went across the road, stood right on the edge of the roadway, and took shelter behind a tree that had previously been hit... because it was on the outside apex of the turn. A rather dangerous spot yes, but the tree stopped the last thing that hit it, and I could jump down in the ravine behind me should the need arise. I got pelted several times by gravel from small pea stones to larger pieces of rock, but the photos were well worth it. I used the remainder of the photo space in my digital camera, and then took photos using Slvrblt's camera as well. All in all, a great spot. The spectator marshalls did do their job and move me, but next year I'm getting a press pass- you sign a waiver that says if you are maimed or injured, it's your own damn fault!
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