Stage 2 and 3-roughest roads I've EVER driven a car on. Not sure if I would even take my Land Rover out on them! We lost the muffler, and then the back of the front skidplate came undone. Why the front two bolts held, I'll never know! We were making a racket during the last stage! Skid plate clanging on the ground and no muffler! Last stage was run in darkness(at least for us). Rally lights were good, but positioned too low...hard time seeing what was coming...

Friday night...thanks to quick thinking by our crew, we fabricated new rear brackets for the skidplate using the metal from a seal puller....Didn't have any bolts, so we needed to get some Sat AM...

Sat AM Hit the local hardware store at 07:00 for some bolts for the skidplate brackets-no metric hardware in that store. On we went to the local autoparts store(didn't open until 07:30, so we stopped for a muffin and juice). Bought a universal muffler, hanger and assorted clamps-back to the car!

Got the skid muffler on and most of the skidplate. One bolt up front had become bent and when we went to put it back in, it stripped the captive nut. Couldn't rethread it, so some of the crew headed off to the hardware store to find some sort of smaller bolt to go up through and bolt on the top and bottom....they came back in short order with some threaded rod and we double nutted it on the bottom and top....

We just made the start time....long transit to the first stage(60.72 miles). First stage was 12.43 miles. We went wide on one high speed corner and I had to correct(overcorrect!) three times to save it. We went off a short time later on a right 3 after a downhill section. It was a wet, boggy area with tall grass, and we were sure we'd hit something hidden in the grass. Jim hopped out to put out the triangles and I couldn't go forward, but could reverse...I backed up, hoping we wouldn't hook the rear axle on anything and was able to drive it out! I honked our pitiful horn and Jim came running-exhausted, he wanted to wait a minute before we got going. It had turned hot, and we were both feeling the heat and pressure!

I don't know which of the next two stages(one 12 and one 14 miles) that the following happened on, but I went wide on a left 3-4 and hit the dirt bank pretty hard...broke the bead on the front passenger tire and it went flat. We were still 7 miles from the end of the stage, so we elected to change it. Car was too low to get the bottle jack under, so we had to find a rock to drive the flat tire up onto to get the jack placed. Man are those lug nuts hot-ouch! Got the tire changed, but it was pretty slow with the rock hunting and all...

Lost our new muffler someplace...noisy again!

Went to next service and found that we had bent the lower control arm on the passenger front. Probably when we hit the bank. The car tracked straight, but the tire rubbed on the rear of the front fender...we left it alone-nothing really we could do about it....

The next stage was a 24 mile stage! Man, it seemed like it would never end! The roads were sweet and smooth, and we were hitting 80-90 in spots...No trouble at all on that stage...

SSS 9 was a really fun stage. They cut the first 7 miles off because it had gotten rough with the rain. There were some ruts we almost didn't make it through just to get to the ATC! Stage was very twisty, but very smooth. I finally felt like I had the left foot braking thing happening. Some nice slides and it seemed like a quick time....

About two miles from the end, we had a shake in the front end, and I thought we had a flat. I slowed down-almost lost it a couple times, but we made it through...After the FTC, Jim got out to check the tire. It looked good until he kicked it-the top fell into the wheel well! We jacked it up and took the wheel off-the bottom of the front strut had come out! Damn! Luckily, the brake line was still intact, although under a lot of tension! The strut had black marks from where the tire had been rubbing....The bottom of the strut was oily, not sure if it was from the remote oil filter that was leaking a bit, or the torn CV boot on that side...

We got the strut back in without trouble and tightened the piss out of it!

We had to transit to service, but we were 10 minutes late. There wasn't even an MTC sign out anymore! John Buffum was there and saw us coming...he put his hand out and we stopped. He said, "Do you guys think you're still in the rally? You haven't timed out, have you?" We assured him that, to the best of our knowledge, we were still in! He told us to get down to Rumford without delay-"no speeding," he said.

The turn to Rumford was only about 1/10th mile from where we met him-we went by it because I was waving to the guys in the ambulance that we weren't going to stop for service service....

I think John was worried that we might not find Rumford! ;-) We had approximately 36 miles back to Rumford. The car felt good and we made good time. The sound of the car without the muffler was starting to give me a headache...

I was listening and feeling for anything out of the ordinary the whole way down. As we got close to Mexico, I started to feel a vague shake. Jim didn't feel it until later. When we got into Mexico, there was a shake that he could feel as well as a sharp metallic clicking. Steering was getting a bit heavy.

We got into Rumford, wondering if we'd have time to check the car. The closed sign was up on the road where the MTC was, so we went down a side street. A worker asked if we were looking for the MTC and told us to go back out. He said they had been expecting us. He gave us explicit instructions-I think John had radioed that we might not know exactly where we were going after that missed turn in Oquossoc! ;-)

John met us at MTC and gave us the thumbs up! We would be starting the in town stage, as we were the last car. We we directed to park with the other cars and I had to back in at an angle. Right turns made a horrendous noise as the tire rubbed the fender. Left turns didn't feel right-more effort than usual along with the clicking-must be the CV. We had about 4 minutes prior to the start, so I got out to look at the front strut and make sure it was still attached. It was! Looked like the CV was toast, and I got back in and belted knowing that we could probably push it a little and have fun on this last stage as we would be replacing the CV after the race anyway! :-)

We did the parade lap through the stage and town-led by a Lancia Delta H-one of two we saw-very cool! When we parked back on main street prior to going back to the start, people were cheering and yelling. It was cool-what a great way to end the race!

We went back to the start and waited. The feeling was incredible. Waiting at the head of this long line of cool cars, having finished a rally we barely started last year. Wondering if we'd DNF on this last stage, or if Fireball would hold together for .48 more miles....man, talk about dry mouth!

30 seconds.....15......5-4-3-2-1....easy down the haripin left and downhill section-trying not to catch any air in case the strut wanted to pop out again! Once on the flat, I punched it as best I could...a little cautious over the railroad tracks and then hell-bent for leather! Hehehehe....this really is too much fun and probably should be illegal! We had what felt like a nice slide around the Dunkin' Donuts and onto main street for the finish. People yelling and flashes going off! Way cool!

Then, we had to find a parking space-kind of a strange thing to be thinking about after running a stage, but we parked and got out to watch the others come through. Some spectacular antics. Honda clipping the stone retaining wall where we were standing. One guy spinning, and crossing the finish line in reverse! Choiniere going wide and clipping the curb by the bank....One guy was airborne as he went by us!

We're exhausted, and the ride home, although the shortest of any entrant, still seemed long. I slept most of the afternoon. I'll sort through the ambulance tomorrow...my suit is still soaked from yesterday...

The car-two mufflers gone. Skid plate failure. Bent control arm, CV joint and who knows what else on the drivers side. Bent radiator support on the passenger side...Couple of new dents in the floor....

After we get the known mechanical defects fixed, I think we'll run the exhaust straight out the rear bumper and maybe put a cherry bomb or some other muffler that's small back there. I'm going to put the rear coil-overs to the highest position. Still have 1-1.5 inches left. Ended up running #3 front and #2 rear on the Tockiko's. Seemed to work better on that second day.

Despite my cooling concerns, water temp was never over 200 degrees. Oil temp was another issue-we had a reading of 320 on one stage! I'm not sure if it was because the sensor is at the remote filter. Could be the hoses were hot where they went by the engine, or that the sensor tubing did the same...might put a hood vent in. Other stages, the temp was fine...

Got multiple bends in the rims, and it might just be the excuse I need to get some sexy race rims! Probably ought to keep pounding on these steel rims for a couple more races!

We let three cars by that were quicker, only to see a couple of them on the side of the road later. Carnage was incredible! The teams were enthusiastic as we passed, encouraging us to go faster! Very nice support!

Maine Forest 2000 was a dream comet true for Last Ditch Racing. We'd worked since last year to get the car set, and it exceeded our expections!

A very big thank-you to John Buffum, the organizers, fans, and of course our team! James Altemus was corageous enough to sit in the co-driver seat with a green driver. Nate Dwelley served admirably as crew chief. Philip Mueller, Justin Nablo, and Jeremiah
Gilmore came up and helped us crew and they were really the missing link and we would NOT have been able to finish the race without them. My helmet is off to them and their hard work!

And finally, a HUGE thank you to my wife-she really is the person responsible for my racing. As she learns more about it she is more encouraging and you may even see her in the co-driver seat next year!