Maine Forest Rally - Pro Rally

The rally ran like clockwork until an over-enthusiastic spectator ignored his girlfriend's plea to slow down, planted his right foot and promptly rolled his new WRX, blocking the only road in or out of the stage. The Subaru completely burned shortly after the four occupants escaped its confines. One hopes the moral of this story does not need to be explained.

When the cars finally rolled into service after SS7, only 12 seconds covered second, third and fourth. Burke and Bradley had lost time, and a front fender, when one of their Pirellis delaminated 10 miles into SS7. Lagemann and Orr's day got interesting when the left front rotor exploded near the same spot and they had to finish the stage with the handbrake.

The Subaru mechanics weren't the only busy ones. O'Sullivan was bothered by a twitchy car so his crew changed the entire suspension. Harder springs and softer dampers made the EVO much more comfortable to drive. Meanwhile, Choiniere was perfectly happy saying, "We haven't changed a thing. I'm driving down the middle of the road staying out of trouble."

The Open Class competitors weren't the only ones locked in a tight battle. Matt Johnson and Carl Fisher had led the huge 22-car Group Two field through nine stages in their Golf, but the Integra of Will Bacon and Peter Watt was only 12 seconds behind at the start of SS10. Johnson gave up less than a second of a mile but it was enough for Bacon to turn the tables and take the class win.

Six miles into SS10, O'Neil went off hard. "I immediately put it in reverse and backed out. When I put it in first, it wouldn't go. That's when I saw the rear suspension sitting in the middle of the road," he says, and so his string of three podiums in a row came to an end. Burke had two more tires fail, co-driver Bradley reports it's an eerie feeling sitting on the rev limiter in fifth waiting for it to happen again.

McGeer and Davies' luck ran out as well. Their Subaru had been overheating. Turns out the steam had been forcing oil out of the engine as well. As they swung through the final corners, spectators could clearly see flames under the hood. Turns out the oil catch tank had overflowed but quick work at the time control extinguished the fire. Fortunately, and despite seeing oil and water temperatures of 320 degrees, the flat four fired and held together long enough to get back to the finish.

Brits Julian Reynolds and Duncan McMath took the Group N honors with Peter Thomson and Brian Maxwell second in another WRX. With Utecht way back, Shane Mitchell and Paul Donnelly lost a chance to take over the season points lead when a suspension arm failed on SS7.