Having Fun is the Maine Thing
By David Gee

We always enjoy ourselves! That’s the operating mantra of the Maine Forest Rally, and when Round Six of the SCCA ProRally Championship commences this Friday in Rumford, the country’s best rally drivers will enjoy negotiating stages through some of the country’s most picturesque forest areas.
Raw speed and engine superiority won’t be the factors here that they were at the previous two rounds at Susquehannock Trail and Pikes Peak, and the gravel logging trails used by local paper companies on most days will allow the competitors a chance to show off their car handling skills.
Social skills also come into play, as this event has always been a favorite of competitors. In fact, the Maine Forest Rally has been voted “ProRally of the Year” several times, and has boasted the highest number of starting cars in the series since 1999.
“We understand that most competitors come to a rally not only to race, but to enjoy the competition and the involvement in one of the most exciting of all motorsports,” states Rallymaster John Buffum. “To this end, we have structured the course, event locations, time schedules and parties in the most user-friendly manner possible.”
The guy should know. He has competed in his share of road racing and rally events as a driver, and won way more than his share.
Yes, this event’s Rallymaster is that John Buffum. If any American could tell you the name of a single rally driver, the name Buffum is the one they would most likely come up with, and for good reason.
He won 11 national titles, grabbing an all-time record 117 ProRally victories along the way, and has the distinction of being the first – and only – American to win a European Championship event.
Not bad for a guy who got his start when a college frat buddy convinced him to be the navigator in a borrowed MGA for a time-speed-distance rally.
You probably won’t find any MG’s out on the Maine roads dodging trees – and the occasional moose – but there will be plenty of challenges for the high-tech cars that do run on the course this weekend for 108 miles during the 11 special stages.
The action begins Friday with four stages totaling 22 miles, and Saturday’s rally will have seven stages adding up to 86 miles, all on gravel.
And all those rocks can pose some interesting problems.
“It’s not unusual to come around a corner and see watermelon-sized rocks on the road ahead of you,” says Scott Putnam, the co-driver for CPD Racing’s Prodrive-built Subaru. “Depending on how much moisture is on the road, hidden boulders sometimes get unearthed that can end your weekend in a hurry.”
Speed hasn’t been the problem in 2004 for the CPD Racing effort, but reliability has. In fact, despite showing some real promise at various stages during the season, the team has yet to finish a race.
“It’s been a tough year so far,” says Doug Havir, the CPD Racing driver and team owner. “But like every competitor in every form of motorsport, we’re always looking to improve, and we think we have.”
What the CPD Racing team has done is hire Graham Evans, better known as “Whiskers” to the rally community. And Whiskers is very well known, having crewed for Richard Burns when he took his Prodrive Subaru to the World Rally Championship.
“You know this team has persevered through engine issues, through body shell issues, and just about every other problem a rally team can face,” says Whiskers. “But I think everything is finally getting ironed out. I’m just going to try to give a bit of help in every area, make sure everyone is pointed in the right direction, and bring some of the things I learned from the factory teams.”
Graham Evans grew up “right in the heart of rally country” he likes to say, and that means Wales.
He first started to professionally apply his passion for motorsports in 1985 when he began working on rally cars for the Welsh Stage Championship.
The progression continued as he worked his way to the pinnacle of the world rallying scene with a three year stint with the Subaru World Rally Team.
His timing was good, as he was the co-crew chief in 2001 when Richard Burns clinched his first – and Subaru’s second – WRC World Driver’s Championship.
Evans jumped across the pond with Prodrive in 2002, and put his expertise to work with the Subaru factory effort in the SCCA ProRally series, as a senior car chief and logistics and operations coordinator for two years.
The factory sponsorship went away for the time being, but Whiskers didn’t, and he wanted to stay in this country and “see what happens.”
And now he’ll be watching what happens to the Doug Havir and the CPD Racing team beginning this weekend.
“Doug has progressed a lot. Since he went over and did some rally training in Finland, he has shown some speed he simply didn’t have before. Doug knows he can do it, the team knows he can do it, we just have to get away from all these little nagging problems.”
One area that Evans doesn’t think will be a problem is in communicating what the car is doing – and what it needs.
“Doug gives very good feedback. Sometimes when a driver comes in and tells you something about the car, you just kind of shrug and nod your head, but you know as a mechanic or an engineer what they are saying can’t really be true. But Doug is a very good driver and I trust his judgment.”
Havir has been spending a few days before the Maine Forest Rally testing the car at the Team O’Neil Rally School in nearby Dalton, New Hampshire, but Whiskers doesn’t expect huge changes to spring from that.
“If he comes to Maine and tells me the back end is all over the place, or it’s understeering a lot, we might consider some changes. But I really think the car is fairly well sorted and it’s usually not good to change a rally car a lot after a test. Because then you get it to the first stage and it handles completely different than the car you were just driving, and you have to adapt while the clock is ticking. So I don’t think we’ll be making that many changes.”
The weather may mean some changes for the Maine Forest Rally, depending on how much it rains.
“Two years ago it was bone dry and the rocks were very loose and unstable. And then last year it did nothing but rain the whole event. At the moment, who knows what it’s going to be like?”
Who knows indeed? But Whiskers knows what he would like to see at Maine…and then Bemidji….and beyond…and that’s the CPD Racing team up on the podium.
“With the way the car is looking, I think we’re going to be serious contenders. It’s going to be a lot of hard work to get there, but I really think we can do it.”
Also looking for a good result in Maine will be 28-year-old Bill Bacon, who will be debuting a 2004 Subaru WRX STi Group N car recently completed by Vermont SportsCar.
“Even though he has virtually no experience with turbocharged, all-wheel drive cars, Bacon finished second in Group N and fourth overall at the Susquehannock Trail ProRally last month,” states Chris Yandell, the marketing manager for Vermont SportsCar. “Bacon lives in New Hampshire, and is always quick in Maine, where he most recently won the Group 2 class in 2003 with a low-horsepower, front-wheel-drive Acura Integra. With this new Group N car we just built, he should be ready to make a run for Group N honors.”
Two other cars that Vermont SportsCar recently built will also be running at the Maine Forest ProRally; the Group N Subaru of Otis Dimiters, and the PGT Subaru of Bob Wall.
Graham Wilcock of Autosport Engineering will have a brand new car at Maine as well, a Mitsubishi Lancer he was excitedly – and somewhat nervously – still trying to get finished and on the truck Tuesday.
“We ran the car at Pikes Peak, but we put in a new Evolution package and some other bits and pieces we hope will make it go faster,” said Wilcock.
As for who will be running fastest at Maine, Wilcock said to look for a big Irish contingent at Maine to be cheering for Seamus Burke, who has had anything but the luck of the Irish so far this year, and that he also expects his car, as well as CPD Racing’s, to be at the front.
In the summer event’s 10 years of existence, seven different drivers have taken home the win. And among those, only Paul Choiniere is the only one to win multiple times (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000).
Choiniere is back in his home territory (he lives in Vermont) in an equally familiar Hyundai Tiburon, with long-time co-driver Jeff Becker alongside.
Although the entry record of 121 National and ClubRally starting teams set back in the 2001 event will likely be safe this year, those who do show up – to race or watch – will be treated to a quality event.
“They don’t beat the crap out of you in Maine, like some events,” says CPD Racing’s Scott Putnam, with a succinctness that all motorsports guys seem to master. “This is a very competitor-friendly event, and we can’t wait!”
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Article Provided courtesy of Scott Putnam's Subenet