Once again it was raining, and once again, David Higgins and Daniel Barritt brought their Mitsubishi EVO home in first place. But rarely has the rally community seen such close competition in so many classes.
After almost 120 miles of North America's fastest and most unforgiving rally stages, Paul Choiniere and Jeff Becker posted a time in their ex-factory Hyundai identical to that of Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Christian Edstrom's Mitsubishi.
"We were never more than 10 seconds apart from the start of the rally to the finish," says Paul Choiniere. "So it's quite fitting that we tied for second."
Organizers almost had to make a lot more room on the podium. For several stages,O'Sullivan and Choiniere traded times with Seamus Burke and Charlie Bradley and with Canadian star Tom McGeer with Howard Davies co-driving. Five seconds covered the lot on four of the first six stages. Subaru's Ramana Lagemann and Micheal Orr started the rally with a one-second victory on SS1 and the Focus of Tim O'Neil and Gelsomino was never far behind.
Lagemann and Orr were the first to run into trouble with a flat on SS3. Lagemann had backed off to 30 mph but as co-driver Orr said, "We caught one of the front wheels and popped it up on its side. Eventually some spectators arrived, one push and it was back on its wheels. We lost 14 minutes."
Said team boss David Campion, "I didn't mind him being on his side, but being there for 14 minutes didn't suit me at all. These things should only take 10 seconds, anything longer than that is compounding a felony!"
SS3 was also unkind to the Group 5 Dodge SRT-4 of Doug Shepard and Pete Gladyzs. A flat tire delaminated, nearly tearing off the left front fender and dropping the team to 35th at the end of Leg One. Group N points leader Mark Utecht suffered two flats and dropped 10 minutes on the stage. Peter Thomson and Brian Maxwell graciously loaned Utecht/Secor a spare to get back to the following service.
Leg Two at Maine Forest comprises three stages, each run twice. SS8 and 10 add an extra loop to SS5 and 7. SS6 and 9 are the same and lead directly into SS8 and 10 with no other access, which makes getting around to spectate a difficult proposition. The day's two spectator areas are at the ends of stages, with a popular spot at the end of SS7 and 10 several miles up the same roads that the rally cars use as a transit to service in Oquassoc.