New England Forest Rally (Alternatively: Mmm… Dust)
A while ago I volunteered to be a worker at the New England Forest Rally (NEFR) as a way to meet people in the rally scene in the US, and at the same time watch the cars. So on July 19th I showed up as scheduled in the little town of Newry, Maine, and registered at the Sunday River Ski Resort, home base for the NEFR. I was placed as a Stage Marshal on Stage Team 2, covering stages 1, 2, 6, and 11.
The big operators such as Subaru, Toyota, Ford, and McKenna were there setting up, but there were also plenty of amateurs with no teams to back them up, some in classic cars or even rented cars.
On Friday I set up with a guy named Dave in a pretty nice spot, a grassy area with lots of shade. There were lots of spectators, and crowd control was our main reason for being there, but aside from a few people pushing on the rope to get closer to the action, everyone was very well behaved. So the biggest worry we had was whether the radio sign was supposed to have the arrow pointing up or down…
During the two days of the rally I mostly took video, but I did experiment with capturing still shots and these are a few of my better ones. I thought it was cool how the 944 Porsche was car number 944, and the 280Z was car number 280. I think those were the only ones that managed that trick though!
Yep, this is a stock Rav4, being run in 2wd!
Stages 1 and 2 were run consecutively, and in the same direction, so when they were over and we took down all the tape and signs, I was done for the day, feeling quite dusty and gritty. I attended the parc ferme that evening, but didn’t take any pictures, just used the opportunity to meet people and chat about the event.
The next morning our team had a long drive, so we met bright and early at 6:30 am. As stages 1 and 2 were the southernmost in the rally, our next assignment, stages 6 and 11, were the northernmost, only a few miles from the Canadian border, and it took us about 1.5 hours to drive there. It was a nice drive, though, up through the mountains of northern Maine.
The last 20 miles or so was on dirt roads, and the view was pretty much dust. In the picture below, I’m the third car in the convoy (you can barely see the car in front of me if you look closely), so you can imagine what it was like ten cars back! We crossed a couple of narrow wooden bridges that we couldn’t even see until we were on top of them!
My assignment that day was to control this intersection, making sure that no traffic entered from the side road, and no rally car took a wrong turn to the left. After this picture was taken I thought better of my position and moved my truck back a bit… it was on the outside of a bend, and the stones definitely came flying my way! There was no phone coverage here all day.
Stage 6 went off well, and there was really not much for me to do but record the cars going by. Then after a 3 hour gap between stages, spent mostly at a local swimming hole that the friendly locals told us about, stage 11 went though in the same direction.
I ate a lot of dust again that day though.
Unfortunately it wasn’t a great spot to spectate, but in stage 11 when a car went off the road just around the next corner I at least felt useful. Luckily they were able to get themselves unstuck and rejoin the race, and the caution triangles came down again.
From talking to others, and from first hand observation, it seems that this rally is well known for being very hard on the cars because of all the jumps and big rocks. Travis Pastrana, who won the race, had a damaged suspension that needed a quick repair, and when his codriver Robbie Durant got a back injury on a jump on day one, he was lucky to find the only other available codriver, Greg Dorman, to finish the race with him. In the Instagram picture below you see David Higgins and Craig Drew finishing stage 12 on three wheels after a rock encounter. Amazingly, they drove this way for the full 27 miles transit stage until they were able to repair and complete the final stage to take second place. Jeff Seehorn and Karen Jankowski placed third, making it a trifecta for Subaru. (You can read a good review of the whole race here:
After the end of stage 11, a few of the volunteers decided to convoy back to Sunday River for the awards ceremony and after party. After the first car got a bit disoriented, I took the lead, flipped the FJ into 4wd, and got more than a bit sideways for the rest of the dirt road section! Woohoo!! The guy behind me apparently fluctuated between laughing and being annoyed at eating my dust. Hee hee… sorry (not sorry) Kelvin! 😉 Back on the paved roads, the view was just as pretty as it was coming up.
At home base, we watched the cars arrive and chatted to the drivers and crew, who were all very friendly. Some drivers even went around and thanked all the volunteers he could find personally, so it was great to be appreciated.
Most of the cars made it back under their own power, but some… not so much. I’m not sure of the exact number, but of the 45 cars that started, the attrition rate was something like 15 or 17.
We had a great barbeque (volunteers eat free) and some rather mediocre beer, and watched the awards ceremony.
I had a great time at the NEFR, met a lot of wonderful people, and will definitely be doing this again.
After a wash, vacuum, and cleaning inside and out, the FJ Baby Blue is ready too!
