SALEM, MO -- Competition is fierce this weekend at Rally America's second round of 2007, the challenging Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, through the rolling Ozark foothills of southern Missouri.

"There are at least nine guys here who could legitimately win this race," defending Rally America champions Travis Pastrana said early Friday. "That's awesome."

In addition to Pastrana, who won the first 2007 round in snowy Michigan last month, top drivers include 2006 100 Acre Wood winner Ken Block, Matt Iorio, Paul Choiniere, Andrew Pinker, Ramana Lagemann, Andrew Comrie-Picard and Lauchlin O'Sullivan.

Tanner Foust, who is new to the Open class after a successful season in the Production GT class, will also vie for the win, as will veteran Seamus Burke, who said Friday the assembled field is as competitive as he can remember in a US rally event.

In order to win, teams will have to drive aggressively through the area's winding gravel roads and uniquely challenging water crossings known as "low-water bridges."

The race started under sunny springtime skies, but forecasters are expecting rain on Saturday that will turn the roads to slick mud.

Teams are vying for a chance to complete at the high profile X Games 13 this summer in Los Angeles. Pastrana took the win at the first-ever X Games Rally in 2006 (barely edging out rally legend Colin McRae who rolled just seconds from the finish line). It is expected that only a handful of top-placing teams will secure an invitation to compete there in 2007.

Unusual in Rally America contests, competitors took the opportunity to review the roads at low speeds on Thursday in a practice known as reconnaissance. The added confidence of having seen the course could mean teams demonstrate even faster speeds than usual.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2007 Rally America National Championship series consists of ten exciting events throughout the country in many different weather and road conditions. The series takes on everything from the forest logging roads in Minnesota, to the high-altitude Yampa River Valley in Northwest Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest forest and coast paths.

The Rally America Championship airs on ESPN2.