Ken Block Attempts an 8th Win at The Rally in The 100 Acre Wood

eSports WRC review 2021 - Round 4 / Rally Argentina

Rally America: Ken Block keeps Championship hopes alive with his victory at the 2013 New England Forest Rally

Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino power through the last stage to take victory by a narrow margin. Photo Neil McDaid/RallyWorldNews

Newry, ME (July 28, 2013) --Hoonigan Racing's Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino won their first New England Forest Rally (NEFR), round 5 of the Rally America National Championship, on July 26-27^th headquartered in Newry, Maine after a closely fought battle with Subaru Rally Team USA's David Higgins and Craig Drew. The margins between the two teams were incredibly thin and either could have snatched victory. Subaru Rally Team USA drove a nearly flawless event and pushed the Hoonigan camp hard all weekend, but Block and Gelsomino persevered with a 6.5 second buffer at the end.

 

Block and Gelsomino's NEFR nearly came to an end when their Ford Fiesta H.F.H.V. experienced electrical problems on stage 11. They had no intercom communications for nearly 13 miles before the alternator quit on the transit back to service. Open Class rivals Rifat Sungkar and Steve Lancaster, who were in fourth place overall at the time, graciously towed the Hoonigan Racing Team back to the service area so Hoonigan Racing Team could complete repairs and continue their race.

"It took a bit of good luck, it was a great battle with Subaru," said Block, "I know a couple of these stages, so I put the hammer down and built a bit of a lead. I had some small problems and then a big problem with the alternator going out. What a struggle, I put everything into it, and drove my heart out."

Subaru Rally Team Driver David Higgins piled on the pressure to try and close the gap on Ken Block, he would come up just a little short, nonetheless Higgins still holds a firm grip on the championship points lead. Photo Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews

 

 

The New England Forest Rally marks Ken Block's second consecutive Rally America National Championship victory having won the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally last June. David Higgins currently leads the Championship Standings, but Block still has a mathematical chance at the title if he outright wins the final two rounds of the season.

 

Rifat Sungkar and Steve Lancaster were able to climb from fourth place to third overall to complete the NEFR podium with a little luck. Over the course of the weekend Sungkar saw a few competitors ahead of him fail to finish. The Rockstar Energy Drink Rally Team of Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard ultimately broke their wheel bolts on stage 11, and privateers Joseph Burke and Alex Kihurani went off on stage 6 and were unable to continue. That left Sungkar alone in third place.

 

The pace and the tough stages at the 2013 New England Forest Rally was just a little much for the Tiburon that Antoine L'Estage took out of retirement for this rally. Photo Joel Sanford / RallyWorldNews

 

Notably L'Estage and Richard have won the New England Forest Rally the last three years in a Mitsubishi EVO X and looked to add their fourth overall victory to keep their streak alive. This time they competed with a Tiburon rally car that has seen plenty of rally action in the past, but the team experienced problems that effectively ended their event on the second day.

David Sterckx and Karen Jankowski get their rally off to a flying start with a hard charge down the opening stage of the rally, the infamous "Concord Pond" Photo; Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews

 

 

In the Super Production Class, David Sterckx and Karen Jankowski notched a third consecutive class win and also placed fourth overall in the event. This is their fourth podium finish since failing to finish the Rally America season opener Sno*Drift Rally in January. This NEFR win extends their SP Class standings total while keeping third place in the overall Championship standings.

"The New England Forest Rally was hard because of all the sharp rocks," added Sterckx, "We broke some things, but we fixed it all in service and it was good enough to win."

Super Production's Mason Moyle and John Hall took second in the class after an exciting battle with Rookie of the Year contenders Nick Roberts and Nick Judkins. Over the course of the weekend Moyle lost second place to Roberts, yet later snatched the position back when Roberts suffered a strut failure on stage 11. Moyle had suspension damage as well; only he was able to carry enough speed to overtake Roberts and win by 6.1 seconds. This is Moyle's third podium finish this year and Robert's first in his rally career.

 

Keeping the streak alive, Australians Rhianon Smyth and Brendan Reeves celebrate yet another overall podium finish in two wheel drive in their Team O'Neil /Ford Racing R2 Fiesta. Photo: Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews

 

The Two-Wheel Drive category was an absolute knockdown fight won when Australia's Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth finally overtook fellow Australian rivals Will Orders and Toni Feaver on stage 11. Orders jumped into the lead on stage 1 and fended off Reeves until Orders overheated his brakes on the more technical stages of the event. Reeves seized this opportunity to take the lead with his Ford Fiesta R2. The 2WD win is Reeves and Smyth's third top podium finish since joining the Championship at the Oregon Trail Rally.

Said Reeves, "We've been driving these (Ford Fiesta R2's) for a few years, so we have the experience to win. Car is driving great, we have three wins now, next... we'll try for four."

 

Will Orders made a return to the New England Rally in his newly developed Toyota GT86, despite leading for most of the rally, problems slowed Orders on day two, he would eventually finish 2nd in 2WD. Photo : Neil McDaid / RallyWorldNews 

 

 

Will Orders had won the 2WD Class at the 2012 New England Forest Rally. This time he takes another podium with a newly built Nameless Performance Toyota GT86, the first of its kind in America.

Current 2WD national standings leader Andrew Comrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpey were able to preserve their points lead by taking third place in class. The team overcame early gearbox problems in their Scion xD and drove a fantastic race to come back as far down as 7^th in class to the podium. Comrie-Picard and Wimpey have made the podium every event this year and just needs to keep that trend going in order to finish the season with their first 2WD national title.

 

Team Honda Research's James Robinson and Ross Forde won Rally America's B-Spec category. Tracy Gardiner and Nigel McGinn took second place. Robinson was a one man show driving and crewing for his Honda Fit, and squeaked out the win running his Honda with a broken engine mount and limited power on the last two stages of the day.

Mark Piatkowski on his way to the regional rally victory. Photo: Joel Sanford /RallyWorldNews

 

The Maine Regional Rally and the New Hampshire Regional were both won by MAP Rally Team's Mark Piatkowski and Robert Maciejski in their Open Light Class 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS.

 

Report By: Neil McDaid 

When Ken Block Attacks, "There is no doubt! It will be flat out".

 

Newry Maine, July 23, It’s a simple stretch of road that a normal everyday person might drive on to get from “a” to “b” without taking much of a notice, it’s mostly a smooth gravel surface, with a few sections of “rough” broken asphalt, and just a few blind crests along the way. But for a few hours each year this simple quiet stretch of country road transforms into one of the most hotly contested Rally stages on the Rally American Championship calender.

In stage mode, its notorious for its flat-out, tree-lined twists and turns with numerous yumps and blind crests, it is “Concord Pond” the stage that Ken Block has claimed as his own. It is one of the shortest but most exciting stages on The New England Forest Rally.

Ken set about taking ownership of the stage in 2007, when the distance was slightly longer at 5.6 miles.

Since then, when he has contested the stage, Ken was untouchable, but while Block was off racing in the WRC in 2012, Canadian Antoine L’Estage would step up the plate in his Team RockStar/Mitsubishi reset the stage record.

Now, just so we have the facts straight, the stage has seen some modification in 2012,  Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino last attacked the stage in 2009 then setting the fastest time. The changes are not significant, but the distance is slightly shorter so there is 4-5 seconds of turns that have been shaved away.

The record for this short 5.38 stage that has a stark resemblance to some of the roads used on Neste Oil Rally Finland now stands at 4:08.0

Unlike in prior years when Concord Pond was the last stage on day one and drivers could hobble back to longer service  with a blown radiator or maybe say on three wheels due to hard landings or clipping bridges. This year this epic test with be the first stage of the rally, there is very little room for error.  

Drivers will have to consider if they will attack all out, or ease into the long two rally with a conservative run on Concord Pond.  They will have two of the longer stages in the rally coming up as SS4 and SS5 both at 16 miles plus following a short stage and service at Rally HQ.

If we were to ask any of the top drivers, with  the exception of a very few what was their plan for Concord Pond, most would bury their hands in the race suit pockets, look at the ground and kick some rocks, and most definitely dismiss its importance. But deep down they all want to dethrone Block on Concord Pond.

As for Ken, I have no doubt in my mind that he will be in his normal Concord Pond mode comes Friday morning the opening day of the 2013 New England Forest Rally. It also should be noted that Ken Block has to yet claim a victory at the New England Forest Rally. Ken needs a victory this weekend to keep any hopes of his first Championship title alive

- 

 The 2wd record belongs to Mainer Chris Duplessis, Chris will unfortunately not contest the rally this year, but you can be assures his stage time will be hunted down by a pair of hard Charging Aussies, Will Orders in a Toyota 86 and Brendan Kelly in an R2 Fiesta.
So again we say- "there is no doubt! It will be flat out".

Stay tuned!

For more information check out www.rally-america.com
Photos and Word: Neil McDaid /RallyWordNews

 

L’Estage Wins the Rally; Higgins Wins the Championship, While Duplessis Wins with the Fans

Antoine L"Estage and Nathalie Ricahrd, charge to victory at the 2011 New England Forest Rally - Photo Neil McDaid

EDIT: *See note regarding Concord Pond record:

Newry, Maine, July 16^th 2011.  Antoine L’Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard capped off a bitter sweet 2011 season with a victory at New England Forest Rally, the final round of the 2011 Rally America Championship. L’Estage who ran first on the road, seemed to charge unopposed to victory over Team Subaru USA driver David Higgins. Higgins clearly drove to plan with a caution approach throughout the event to secure the 2011 Rally America Championship title for Subaru. Despite the lack of a battle off the front, the same could not be said back in 2WD, local driver/legend Chris Duplessis won over the fans in his 2011 Ford Fiesta R2  as he drove at and beyond the limit to place first in 2WD and a unbelievable 5^th overall in the event.

The New England Forest Rally will definitely go down as the sting in the tail of the 2011 Rally America Championship, as temperatures flutters in the upper eighties, drivers and co-drivers faced some of the toughest/rocky/dusty stages of the season. Many of the stages were still showing scares from heavy runoff after a very snowy New England winter. Throw in a few big spring storms and rally organizers were scrambling pre -event to repair the stages where they could.  Maine has always been notorious for rocks; year after year the organizers have taken the time to highlight the worst of these immovable objects, but for some reason this year the trademark orange markings seemed to have quadrupled over prior years.

The opening stages of the NEFR event got underway with three short spectator super specials, the first ran on some of the service roads of The Sunday River resort, which was also the rally headquarters. Then after a short transit to the town of Mexico the drivers would tackle a rather steep man made jump as they completed this series of short Spectator specials SS1,2,3.

With the departure of Travis Pastrana and Ken Block from the 2011 Rally America Championship and Dave Mirra been pulled from the rally in the weeks leading up to the event, one could clearly see a drop in spectator’s attendance over prior years at this very popular Rally.



Subaru Team driver David Higgins takes a safe approch in his bit to secure the 2011 Championship. Photo Neil McDaid



L’Estage would open big taking victory on the first two stages,  Higgins took the third super special by a headlight bettering L’Estage by a mere four hundredths of a second.

Onto the first true test of the rally, SS4 “Icicle Brook North” for the most part this is a fast flowing two car logging road with some soft crests, that is until you tackle the new section around Metallak Pond, the stage tightens to a tight technical single lane road, with a few hidden gotchas to keep drivers on their game.

Running first on the road therefore sweeping the loose gravel for those in his wake, we had expected L’Estage to lose time to David Higgins over this 16 mile test. But L’Estage attacked hard and opened a 19second advantage over the Team Subaru driver through the flying finish.

Again on SS5 which was a reverse of SS4, Antoine L’Estage pushed hard for his fourth stage victory on day one, adding 23 seconds to his advantage on Higgins.  Heath Nunnemacher and Mike Rooney in their rented Evo 9, edged out Travis Hanson on SS5 moving Heath to third overall heading into the historic Concord Pond stage.

SS6 Concord Pond, although short in length at only 5.76 miles, this may very well be one of the most popular stages in US stage rally. Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino took it upon themselves to set the record time on this stage, with their last record set in 2009.  

In an interview with David Higgins prior to the event, when asked would he go after  Block’s time on Concord Pond, Higgins replied, “we need to focus on the Championship for Subaru, but if its right we will see what happens” I don’t recall anyone asking Antoine L’Estage regarding his intention to dethrone Block.

Ken Block’s fastest time on Concord Pond was set in 2009, with a time of 4:17.9, but it’s important to note that the stage length was 5:38 miles. After some research post event it seems that in 2010 the stage length was changed to 5:76 miles. So in that same year Travis Pastrana effectively set the new stage record at that distance with a time of 4:23.1.

This year Antoine L’Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard smashed Pastrana’s 2010 record stopping the clocks at 4:20.7; it’s also interesting to note that L’Estage had an average speed for the stage of 79.54 mph versus Block [2009 record time at 75.1 mph], so did L’Estage actually smash Block’s time over the shorter distance, we think so. 

Ramana Lagemann was the closest to L’Estage in Concord pond, but was a whopping 15 seconds off the pace.  David Higgins time over Concord Pond was handicapped by transmission problems, pushing him to third. Heath Nunnemacher, who had battled his way to an impressive third overall coming into Concord Pond, made an uncharacteristic mistake over the last crest on the stage and veered off the stage into the trees.

"Flat over Rock" Chris Duplessis Schools the fans and his competition on how to drive 2WD. Photo Neil McDaid

By the reaction of the fans that were packed into the woods at the infamous “jump over rock” towards the end of Concord Pond, Chris Duplessis stole the show with his epic sideways over crest move. In this only his second rally in the newly developed Fiesta R2, Duplessis was already shredding the 2wd field and then some.

Heading into day two, with Antoine L’Estage holding a minute lead over David Higgins it was fairly obvious that neither Higgins nor Subaru were going to risk the overall Championship by trying to chase down L’Estage for the overall victory at Maine.

Due to some major water damage on the Success Pond stage it was not run this year, but was replaced with a short Spectator super special in Errol NH. The balance of the rally would be fought out over four growling rocky stages, varying in length between 12 and 19 miles in length.

Antoine would take stage victories on three of the final stages sealing his overall Rally victory. Higgins would claim his only “proper” stage win of the rally on SS9 while holding onto 2^nd overall in the rally and claiming the 2011 Championship title.

The 2011 SP Class winner Travis Hanson in his now overheating Subaru would manage to hold off a late charge by Tom Lawless to secure third overall in the rally, a perfect ending to a dream season for Travis and his co-driving father Terry.

For L’Estage the victory was bitter sweet as he reflected on how the Championship slipped through his fingers, “a stupid mistake at Snowdrift, not pushing all out at STPR” exclaimed Antoine, “but we make David work for his title”

Chris Duplessis and his new co-driver for this event Karl Atkinson took their Ford Racing R2 Fiesta to the top of the 2WD podium. Chris had opened a 40 second gap on his nearest rival Andrew Comprie Picard on day one, and continued to widen the gap on day two. Andrew in his Scion Racing XD would eventually finish over three minutes behind Chris to grab second on the 2WD podium. Fellow Ford Fiesta driver Dillon Van Way rounded out the podium for Ford grabbing third.

The New England Forest Rally capped off another great season for Rally America, a season where the light dimmed some with the departure of some top names, but also a year where we have seen some very exciting activity in the 2WD class.

*7-24-11 -The rally organizers have since clarified that the stage length has not changed,-
"That's the (total) distance they way the stages are laid out in a route book (from ATC->FTC), so they just didn't get adjusted/corrected when noting/transferring the actual "competition" distance. It's just something that slipped through the cracks with all the other things that needed to be done with much of the organizing committee having undergone changes since 2009".

The Rally America Championship Returns to the Northwest for the 2011 Olympus Rally



Dave Mirra will be hoping to keep his streak of podium finishes alive at Olympus Rally this weekend.
Photo Neil McDaid /OLY 2010



April 30, 2011: Ocean Shores WA.  Round #3 of the 2011 Rally America Championship gets underway today in South Bend WA. This is a change over previous years where the southern loops of stages were run on day two of the Rally.

Team Subaru USA will debut their latest car at Olympus, and will as always be on a mission to capture the top step on the podium, getting them there lays firmly on the shoulders of David Higgins.

Off the front in AWD, we expect to see Higgins set the early pace; he cannot let the Canadians Antoine L’Estage or Pat Richard open any gap before the rally turns to the more technical stages in the afternoon and on day two.

The opening stages today, Palix, Smith Creek and of course the infamous Brooklyn stage are all very fast smooth flowing tests, and should suit the more powerfully car of Team Subaru USA. 

As with Higgins, Antoine L’Estage will no doubt be on the early pace, but we expect Antoine may not be at 10 tenth on the opening stages and may make his move later in the day over the more technical twisty Pico stage.  Despite running first on the road we would not rule Antoine out for a stage victory on say, the second pass on Palix or on Brooklyn West. 
Making his annual pilgrimage across the border from Canada Pat Richard is always the wild card at Olympus, and he can never be ruled out as a contender for the overall podium. Running third on the road Richard is in perfect position to be the spoiler for the Championship contenders.

We feel that dispite the introduction of the new car from Subaru, and his gravel clearing duties on day one, we still  give the edge to L’Estage for the overall victory.

The second of the two Team Subaru USA cars will be driven by Dave Mirra, who’s just coming off a few epic rounds at The Global RallyCross Championship; Mirra will need to quickly adjust back to taking instruction from his navigator Marshall Clarke to be in the hunt.  We expect that Mirra will be felling the heat from some of the SP cars running behind him in the top ten.  

In SP Class, look for Ramana Lagemann to charge hard right from the get go, Ramana has some good history at this rally, he took the overall victory at Olympus in 2007.  We expect to see a more conservative run from the current overall Rally America and SP Class point’s leader Travis Hanson as he sets his focused on the 2011 SP championship.

It’s shaping up to be a great 2WD battle, both on the national level and also in the chase for those precious Max Attack dollars.

Point’s leader Dillon Van Way finally gets some more grunt under the hood of his 2011 2WD Ford Fiesta. The Van Way Racing Team added a turbo since their last outing at 100aw. Fitted with a front mounted intercooler, the car will also be popping with the tune of it new  anti lag system.  The Fiesta is now reported to be putting out somewhere in the ballpark of 260 bhp, a lot of power from a  1.6 Motor, let’s hope it holds. In addition the car has been fitted with a new sequential 6 speed box; assuming  everything performs as planned, we expect to see big things from Van Way this weekend.

Canadian Andrew Comrie-Picard makes a return to stage rally in above all things, a 2WD Scion XD. Andrew [ACP] has called on the services of English co-driver Robbie Durant to call the notes, ACP and Durant have teamed up many times in the past, and have seen some great results. The Scion that ACP will drive is the same car that Chris Duplessis drove in 2010 with the addition of few go faster bits, it will be interesting to see what ACP can do with the Scion, if it holds up?.

Last but not least, we expect to see Wyatt Knox in the Team O’ Neil - MazdaSpeed3 running in the front 2WD pack.  Both Dillon Van Way and ACP have past experience at Olympus which will work to their advantage.   For Knox this is his first visit to Olympus, Wyatt will have to put a lot of trust in the experience of his co-driver Ole Holter to stay in the hunt. Wyatt may be best advised to ease into this unfamiliar rally as the reliability of both the Fiesta and the Scion is still in question.

The Rally will move north of Ocean Shores for day two.

Check back for updates and you can also check in with www.rally-america.com for the latest updates.

FORD RACING ANNOUNCES 2011 RALLYCAR CONTINGENCY PROGRAM

Team O’Neil the exclusive U.S. supplier of the Ford Racing R2 Kit is currently working on building several 2011 Ford Fiesta R2’s. TON driver Verena Mei, pictured here at a resent Winter RallyX gets in as much seat time as she can, in anticipation of her Rally debut. Picture: PJ Corrales

Ford Racing has announced its 2011 RallyCar contingency program to support competitors who campaign Ford entries in three classes of the 2WD division. The Ford Racing contingency payouts will be available for all Ford competitors at the RallyCar 2011 Rally America National Championship events as well as for Fiesta entries at RallyCar regional events.

Ford Racing contingency program will award competitors competing in the Fiesta Sport Trophy (FST) championship featuring the R2 Fiesta as well as competitors in Group 2 and Group 5. Ford Racing will also award a championship prize of $5,000 to a Ford driver for wining the overall 2WD Rally America National Championship.

"Our program in RallyCar has been a big part of establishing the Fiesta brand in the United States," said Scott Denby, Ford Racing Business Manager. "Fiesta offers competitors a great Rally platform which has benefitted from years of development in Europe and we're committed to helping reestablish 2WD rallying in the U.S. with Fiesta. From our involvement in the Team O'Neil Fiesta Rally Experience, to our growing support of RallyCar, their competitors and enthusiasts, we are excited for the future of the sport."

"Ford is bringing support and excitement to 2WD rally that RallyCar has been missing," said J.B. Niday, RallyCar Managing Director. "The Ford Fiesta Sport Trophy should develop into an exciting series and their contingency program support for any Ford demonstrates their broad commitment to rally racing."

For more details on the Ford Racing 2011 RallyCar contingency program go to rally-america.com or go to fordracingparts.com and click on contingency to register.www.fordracingparts.com/register/ www.fordracingparts.com/Register/Contingency.asp


R2 PayoutFord Sport Trophy Entrants
1st$2,000
2nd$1,500
3rd$1,000
4th$500
5th$250



Overall 2 Wheel Drive National Championship: $5,000



Group 5 FiestaNational Event EntrantsRegional Event Entrants
1st$750$350
2nd$500$200
3rd$250$100Group 5 (Ford Car/Non-Fiesta)
National Event Entrants
1st$500
2nd$250
3rd$100





Group 2 FiestaNational Event EntrantsRegional Event Entrants
1st$750$350
2nd$500$200
3rd$250$100Group 2 (Ford Car/Non-Fiesta)
National Event Entrants
1st$500
2nd$250
3rd$100



About Ford North America Motorsports

Ford North America Motorsports, based in Dearborn, Mich., is responsible for major racing operations in North America, including NASCAR (Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, Camping World Trucks), Grand American sports car racing, NHRA drag racing, RallyCar and USAC midget car racing. The department also oversees the development and marketing of Ford Racing Engines and Performance Parts, the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts, and the marketing of the Ford Racing brand. For more information regarding Ford Racing's activities, please visit http://www.fordracing.com/.

About RallyCar  

Based in Golden Valley, Minn., RallyCar sanctions the premier performance rally series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. In 2011, RallyCar is conducting six National Championship events at venues across the country, from Olympia, Washington to Newry, Maine. RallyCar competitors reach speeds of well over 100 mph in modified street cars on natural-terrain courses consisting of gravel, dirt or snow. Additionally, RallyCar sanctions the 2011 U.S. Rallycross Championship featuring rally cars racing door-to-door on tricky tarmac/dirt race tracks. More information about rally and rallycross can be found at www.rally-america.com, and videos can viewed at www.youtube.com/rallyamericaseries.

2011 MaxAttack!™ Rally Series Presented by Danza del Sol Winery Calendar Announced

After four successful years of bringing the best of two-wheel-drive rally action to the United States, the MaxAttack! Rally Series is pleased to announce that the series will yet again provide the most intense competition and the richest prize fund in North American two-wheel-drive rallying thanks to the continued support of the Danza del Sol Winery in Temecula Valley, California.

The prize fund and format for the MaxAttack! Rally Series presented by Danza del Sol will remain the same in 2011, with the winner of each event taking home a cool $1,500. As in 2009 and 2010, competitors will run either a western or eastern qualifying event, with teams then contesting a central “Shootout.” The highest point total from one of the qualifying events and the Shootout will determine the winner of the coveted Jake Himes Cup. The $15,000 prize fund will again be available to all registered two-wheel-drive entrants at each series event, regardless of how many of the MaxAttack! rallies a team may contest.

The events that comprise the 2011 MaxAttack! Series feature one change from the 2010 schedule. The ever-popular New England Forest Rally remains on the calendar, as does the classic Lake Superior rally. New for this season is a different west coast event, the Olympus Rally, based in Ocean Shores, Washington in late April.

The Rallysports Group of America is also pleased to announce continued video coverage of the series; in 2011, video from all three events will be available on YouTube, the MaxAttack! web site, as well as other internet motorsport video hosts. "We are pleased that Grant Hughes and the NoCoast Productions video crew have agreed to return and cover the series in 2011," states Eric Burmeister of the Rallysports Group of America. "They did a tremendous job of providing well-edited same-week coverage last year, and we are excited to see what they can produce in the new season."

The three events that will constitute the 2011 MaxAttack! Rally Series Presented by Danza del Sol are:
• Olympus Rally, April 30-May 1, Ocean Shores, WA, www.olympusrally.com
• New England Forest Rally, July 15-16, Bethel, ME, www.newenglandforestrally.com
• Lake Superior Performance Rally, October 14-16, Houghton, MI, www.lsprorally.com
The Olympus Rally and the New England Forest Rally will be the qualifying events for the Jake Himes Cup, and the Lake Superior Performance Rally will be the central Shootout event.

The MaxAttack! Rally Series Presented by Danza del Sol consists of three events across the country, and each event will feature a $15,000 prize fund to be distributed among the top two-wheel-drive teams, as well as a season championship. For more information about the MaxAttack! Series and the Rallysports Group of America, please visit www.max-attack.com.

Photo/Neil McDaid -Maine 2010