Jim Perrin, Driver, #716 Jeep Commanche
BB: Jim, what are your goals for the weekend?
JP: Well, we want to finish the event, obviously. One of our goals is not to finish dead last, though. The truck's really slow out on stage, and I find that any part where it opens up straight out, we lose so much time compared to the other teams. I'm trying to keep a tight run on the roads and just stay out of trouble and hopefully we'll have a good event.
Eric Burmeister, Driver, #42 Mazdaspeed3
BB: Eric, how do you think you're going to do this weekend?
EB: We're going to win.
BB: What do you think of the roads at the New England Forest Rally?
EB: They're fast. It's funny, every time I come up here I think man, I always think of Maine as a rough rally, but it's such a fast rally. It's probably not as rough as I remember it to be. And some stages are different from the last time I was here, quite a bit different. It's definitely very fast, but very technical, so we'll be on our toes all weekend long.
BB: Who do you think are the teams to beat this weekend?
EB: Lauchlin O'Sullivan will definitely be a tough nut to crack. He's the current Jake Himes Cup holder, he won the MaxAttack! series last year, he's very fast. I ran against Lauchlin when he was running for Mitsubishi and I was running Proteges back years ago. I know first-hand what he's capable of. Chris Duplessis in the Scion will definitely be fast as well, I'm sure they've found a few more horsepower for him, although it's still not a turbo car. The thing about Chris is if anyone knows how to pedal a car, a slower or underpowered car, fast it's Chris. And you add to that the fact he lives here in Bethel, Maine, he's got the local knowledge. This is his home town. It's not so much just knowing the roads, it's having the confidence of being at home. I know how I'm more confident when I race in Michigan. I expect Chris to do extremely well, despite a power deficit.
Kevin Turner, Driver, #689 Subaru Impreza
BB: What are you looking forward to most this weekend?
KT: The challenge, there's a lot of Group 2 cars here today, a lot of two-wheel-drive cars. I think we've got 16 in Group 2 and 25 total for two-wheel-drive, so it's going to be a good event this weekend.
BB: Have you run this rally before?
KT: No. I worked it a couple years ago, and spectated a couple years. This is my first time running, so I'm really excited.
Greg Healey, Driver, #280 Datsun 280z
BB: Greg, how many times have you done this event?
GH: Probably a dozen times or so between all the year's it's been running.
BB: What keeps bringing you back?
GH: The roads are generally quite a bit of fun, and the competition is always good up here. And it's close to me, which is good.
BB: Who do you figure is going to be your closest competition this weekend?
GH: Well, for Group 5 in the regional, I know that the guys from Canada there in the other Nissan, they're always fast. I'm not sure if Eric's [Burmeister] entered in the regionals or not. The MaxAttack! is just going to be our main focus, just trying to get out there and really push hard, tonight especially.
Lauchlin O'Sullivan, Driver, #90 Dodge SRT-4
BB: Lauchlin, what are you looking forward to most this weekend?
LO: Driving, having fun with Karen in the car, just having a good time, seeing old friends, just being out on the roads and enjoying a car going sideways.
BB: How do you think you're going to rate in this weekend's MaxAttack! challenge?
LO: Everybody says we're coming in as favorites, because we took it down pretty good last year. There's just such a good field here that we need to be on our game, and it's been a year since I've been in this car. Because I haven't driven in a while it's all up in the air; we won't know until we get out on the stages.
BB: What do you think of the New England Forest Rally?
LO: It's one of my favorite events for sure. No BS. I love the roads out here.
Dillon Van Way, Driver, #600 Ford Focus
BB: Dillon, you won the MaxAttack! challenge at Oregon Trail. How do you think your chances are this weekend?
DV: The competitions going to be really good. We've got Lauchlin, and this is Duplessis' home turf, so it should be a really good race. We're going to give it our best, and see how we do.
BB: How many times have you run the New England Forest Rally?
DV: (Laughs) This will be my first time. I didn't make it even to the first corner last year, we had a mechanical DNF, so recce yesterday was the very first time I've seen any of the roads.
Mike White, Driver, #900 Saab 900
BB: This is your first rally in seven years. What brought you back?
MW: Fate, Ben, it was fate. I figured I've been trying to build this car for four years, I ought to finish it and at least race in my home event. It's been a long time trying to build the car. The first one took me about eight months to build, this one's taken four years.
BB: How have you fared in past Maine Forest or New England Forest Rallies?
MW: It's my favorite gravel event. It's got a great mix of rough roads, really really fast sections, and twisty, technical stuff. We had our best national finish here ever, I think it was something like 13th or 14th overall, third in class. That was back in the day when there were more two-wheel-drive cars than all-wheel-drive cars, so we really like Maine.
BB: How do you figure your chances are for the weekend?
MW: My goals are to put on a good show, not look like a chump, and go find some Sebago Brewing Company ale afterwards.
David Furey, Driver, #32 Volkswagen Golf
BB: Have you run this rally before?
DF: Yeah, I did it four years ago, and we finished second in our class. I'm looking forward to having another go. I haven't done anything in three years. We'll just see how it goes.
BB: What is your impression of the roads here?
DF: Haven't seen them. I just got here.
BB: So you didn't get a chance to do the recce, then?
DF: No recce, no nothing. We're just going to go have fun and try to get a finish.
Bill Caswell, Driver, #318 BMW 318i
BB: One of the few real-wheel-drive cars in MaxAttack! this weekend, do you think this gives you an advantage or a disadvantage?
BC: It gives me an advantage on fun, as far as speed it's probably a disadvantage. There's a reason why everyone here's running front-wheel-drive cars in two-wheel-drive.
BB: Have you run this event before?
BC: No, this is my first time. I'm really looking forward to it.
BB: What did you think of the roads during recce yesterday?
BC: Ridiculously fast. Just crazy fast, wide-open, lots of jumps. It's going to be a fun rally, I think some roads are going to just get kicked off the road by some of the hops.
BB: Is this the style of road that you like?
BC: Normally yes, but I think it's going to rain a little bit, it's going to be fast and we're going to be pushing, it's going to be interesting.
Erika Detota, Driver, #91 Subaru Impreza
BB: How are things looking for the rally this weekend?
ED: They're pretty good. I need an alignment, since the rally tires went on it's feeling a little rough, but Eric Burmeister said I could use his alignment rack so hopefully we'll get that taken care of. Everything else, I think I'm ready.
BB: This is what, rally number three for you?
ED: It's rally number three with this car. I raced STPR last year in the Team O'Neil Golf. It's hard to say that counts, because that was my first race, I only drove half of it, and it was the Team O'Neil Golf
BB: What do you think of the roads here at the New England Forest Rally?
ED: They're looking pretty tough. Definitely the most rough I've ever seen. I raced obviously STPR, which is a really smooth rally, and this is my first gravel event in this car. I'm excited to be back on my home turf.
BB: Do you have any goals for the weekend, or are you just going to kick it and have fun?
ED: Have fun, get faster. My co-driver is like a coach to me, so we set our goals kind of per stage and see how it goes.
Michael Reilly, Driver, #100 Ford Focus
BB: What are you looking forward to most about the weekend?
MR: Starting. We were scrambling last-minute to put this car back together because we're actually building a new car, but due to some tuning issues we weren't able to get it put together.
BB: What's the other car you're building?
MR: It's a Group 5 turbo Ford Focus. We had to put the motor back in this, get the tranny back in it, get it all ready to go, like, three days ago. We've been chasing electrical gremlins all the way up until about 9:00 this morning when we were at the Ford dealer in Goreham, New Hampshire.
BB: This is pretty much a local rally for you. What do you think of the roads here?
MR: We're really rookies, so last year was our first year, we ran four events, so I think this is our sixth event. I mean we have a blast no matter where we are, cause we're so new to this it's really hard to judge. I love this event, I love the crowds, I love the fact that we're kind-of locals, and get to hang out with a all of our fellow Mainiax.
