This rally gets down and dirty

NEWRY, Maine -- Well before you see them, you hear them coming, one at a time. They kick up dust, snarl with the high RPM whine of unmuffled 300-horsepower engines, and when one lurches into view, if you are smart enough to have a view at a turn, you will likely see the thing sliding through a corner -- or rather floating on top of the sand as the driver tries to pull out to the straightaway.

From the gaudy paint jobs, racing numbers, and decals, NASCAR comes to mind. But don't mention that to the drivers and co-drivers of some 90 Rally America teams competing this weekend in the Maine Forest Rally -- blasting down miles of dirt roads, racing against the clock to win points on one of the least known circuits in motor sports, at least in this country.

``In Europe, this is one of the biggest spectator sports there is," said Tim Penasack, a Nashua, N.H., rally racer whose blue and orange Subaru is emblazoned with Wazoo Racing Team. ``But in this country, it's just slower to catch on."

That all might be changing this year. Rally racing has been included in the X Games and will be featured on live network TV. For a nation hooked on NASCAR, the racers figure rally racing on dirt roads in the backcountry is similarly appealing.

This weekend's event, which begins today in Newry, is known as one of the roughest and most ruinous to cars -- a 95-mile stretch of temporarily closed logging roads, complete with potholes and the washboard surface so well known on back roads in the north country.

The drivers and co-drivers, self-confessed adrenaline junkies who come from backgrounds of motocross to skydiving, are competing for points in the fifth stop of an eight-event circuit. The current leader, Travis Pastrana from Annapolis, Md., is just 22. A BMX rider since he was 4, Pastrana has competed in X Games since age 15, where his daring, high-soaring motorcycle flips have given him celebrity status.

At an introduction of drivers Friday night at Faneuil Hall, a stretch limo stopped and a dozen young people piled out to get Pastrana's autograph and have a picture taken with him.

``When rally racing is exposed by the X Games, it should really open the sport up," said Pastrana, who was driving and crashing any vehicle he could get his hands on at his father's construction company.

Described as the sport's rising star, Pastrana is currently tied with Australia's Andrew Pinker with 52 points, and Californian Ken Block is just behind with 49. Pastrana has short- and long-term goals: win the weekend rally, win the tour, and then expand even further.

The current modified cars rally racers drive are valued at around $75,000; on the World Rally tour, the cars are easily 10 times the investment, and the returns are equally big money.

``In the competition here, there's not a lot of money yet," Pastrana said. ``But people here are serious and the sport is growing. But my goal is to get into the World Rally, and that takes a huge amount of sponsorship."

According to Penasack, the 2005 Eastern Region Production GT champion, the race is a closely coordinated partnership between driver and co-driver, in his case Canadian Natalie Richard, who has also won championship events.

Penasack said the co-driver, armed with a stack of rally instructions, prepares the driver by describing in terse code the conditions that lie ahead. The quickness and precision with which the co-driver does the job the easier the driver can maintain the highest speed possible.

``We rate the roads from a 1 to a 6," he said. ``A 1 is a sharp hairpin. A 6 might be barely turning, so you just can't see around it. So Natalie may read a `left 3 into right 6, 500.' That means I have a left-hand 3 turn and do a right 6 turn and then I'll have 500 meters before I get my next statement. And then it's what we call the `sponge' -- meaning how much I can process and retain. The more I know, the better I'm able to get the car ready for the turns ahead."

Like a ski racing turn, said Penasack, the best turn is an early turn, setting the car up even before it enters the turn. ``We actually turn the car using the brakes, so if she reads and I retain properly, we get this smooth flow so that I'm turning the car into the apex of the turn before I actually see it."

Host of this weekend's event, which moves from Newry to Berlin, N.H., tomorrow, is five-time champion Tim O'Neil, owner and lead instructor of the Team O'Neil Rally School in Dalton, N.H. Co-organizer is John Buffum of Colchester, Vt., who, at 62, is the winningest US rally driver with 110 victories and 10 championships.

``The sport has been going for about 35 years in this country," said Penasack, a high-tech expert with a company in Colorado whose ability to travel helps keep him on the tour. ``But it's growing now with the X Games sort of like snowboarding. Five years ago, they didn't want snowboards on the mountain, but now they're the Olympic gold medal sport."

Danger? Of course, to some extent, it exists in a high-speed motor sport, said Penasack, who rolled a car six times last February. But, as the cars are created with internal roll cages and other safety measures, such crashes usually result in ``just a few aches and pains."

The tour is also sensitive to environment issues. After his last crash, said Penasack: ``It was like a yard sale. There were parts all over the place. But we pick it all up. We actually have spill kits in the car to clean any gas and oil and after we take a car away [from a crash], the next day we'll come through and meticulously pick up every piece. The organizers are very aware that we are doing this in state or federal public use land."

With the Maine Forest Rally now run for more than a decade, locals come out with lawn chairs and line the course. They just love motor sports, Penasack said, with the kind of love that brought him into backwoods racing five years ago. He's tried racing on a track, but running on the same road making a series of left-hand turns doesn't much interest him.

``I need the kind of rush I got in the military jumping out of airplanes," said Penasack. ``This sport is all about the adrenaline."

For contact information, e-mail info@teamoneil.com.