New England Forest Rally

Local hotshoe bests two dozen other two-wheel-drive rally competitors to claim victory at the New England Forest Rally.

From the rally finish at the Sunday River Ski Resort...

The five money-winners for the New England Forest Rally round of the MaxAttack! Series presented by the Danza Del Sol Winery are:

1. Chris Duplessis/Karl Atkinson - Ford Fiesta R2 - $1500
2. Andrew Comrie-Picard/Jeremy Wimpey - Scion XD - $1200
3. Dillon Van Way/Jake Blattner - Ford Fiesta - $1000
4. Kevin Turner/Robert Sockalexis - Subaru Impreza - $800
5. Greg Healey/Cindy Krolikowski - Datsun 280Z - $500

Before we begin Day 2 coverage for MaxAttack!, here are some updates from Friday action.

-Michael Gillespie and Brian Kirby had a gearbox let go early in the rally. It is shame to see their classic Mark II Escort out of the rally so quickly.

-Also out early was the Acura Integra of Bradford Ames and Mike Kent. On the very first stage, their distributor blew up and they were done.

The famous Concord Pond stage was halted after only about ten cars made it cleanly through the stage. An all-wheel-drive competitor went way off the road, and a red cross was thrown. Rest assured, everyone was OK.

Of the MaxAttack! competitors, only Chris Duplessis/Karl Atkinson and Andrew Comrie-Picard/Jeremy Wimpey made it through cleanly and will receive a time. All others will be assigned the slowest reasonably competitive time of the stage finishers.

Cars just returned from Stages 4 and 5, the 16.45-mile turnaround stages Icicle Brook North and Icicle Brook South. There was a service, after which cars headed out to the final stage of the evening, the infamous 5.76 miles and big jumps of Concord Pond.

-Andrew Comrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpey report that since Oregon they have made some improvements to their Scion XD, and as a result it is much better handling. The team cracked their exhaust, but don't believe it cost them any time. They lost 20 seconds to Chris Duplessis on the inbound stage, but only 7 seconds on the return trip as the driver gets more comfortable.

Newsflash! Doug Shepherd and Karen Jankowski broke a strut on their Dodge SRT-4 on Stage 4. They tried to limp through Stage 5 but there was too much damage and the team was forced to withdraw.

-Edward McNelly and Pascal Belperron are driving their second rally in their ex-Chris Duplessis VW Golf. It is a proven car, and is now sporting a fresh refrigerator-white paint scheme.

-The Merkur XR4ti of Tim Chevalier and Alan Moody was finished just before the rally, so it is brand-new to them. They are using the New England Forest Rally as a shakedown for the car, which looks really nice.

-Unfortunately, we've suffered our first casualty of the NEFR 2011 MaxAttack! Event. New competitors Briar McGee and Josh Dampier showed up in an awesome piece of engineering. They took a Suzuki Swift and placed a Suzuki Hyabusa superbike engine in the bay, with a chain coming off the stock countershaft and driving a final drive to the axles. I'll post photos of the arrangement, as the machine is just too cool. As can happen with fresh engineering projects, the weak spots are surfacing and the car suffered a broken axle after landing the jump at Mexico. This sidelines them for MaxAttack!, but they'll try to get going to get some experience.

Welcome to the MaxAttack! Event at the 2011 New England Forest Rally!

We have 25 cars entered in this year's east coast round of the MaxAttack! Two Wheel Drive Series presented by Danza del Sol!

The rally is already underway, so let's get you caught up to date.

-The cars left Parc Expose at Sunday River Ski Resort and did a spectator stage on the mountain before heading to Mexico Recreation area for the traditional spectator stages around the ball park. They ran 2 runs around the Mexico stage and then came into service before heading out to the forest for the proper road stages. Still, after just 3 presentation stages, the story is beginning to form...