BETHEL, ME -- With just two stages to go, the leaders of the New England Forest Rally were battling mechanical trouble as hard as they were battling each other and it remained anyone’s guess who might claim the top spot.

Rally leaders Travis Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom arrived at the final service trailing a cloud of oily smoke; Antoine L’Estage and Mark Williams were complaining that their car was overheating; and Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino said their car was down on power.

Rally car racing is notoriously tough on cars and the extremely fast pace at this event has proven brutal for the front-runners. Teams at weekend’s Round 6 of the Rally America championship are fighting for crucial mid-season points and a shot at the biggest rally contest on the continent.

As winners of the 2006 X Games Rally, Pastrana and Edstrom were the first to receive their invitation for this year’s X Games, but L’Estage - a rare figure on the U.S. scene - was still hoping to earn the remaining "wildcard" invitation.

With two stages to go, L’Estage was trailing Pastrana by just 10 seconds. The two teams had been trading fractions of a second all day until L’Estage’s car began to overheat.

L’Estage began the race cautiously optimistic he could take an overall win, but with car trouble and the X Games in the balance, he was expected to adopt a conservative strategy to the finish.

"It’s hot and we’re driving hard," L'Estage said as mechanics wrenched on his car during the service break. "We took it easy in the last one with the car overheating."

With service crews limited to three mechanics per car under the rules of this contest, even the well-resourced Subaru Rally Team USA struggled to make the necessary repairs during the allotted 25-minute service break midday Saturday. Pastrana’s team refilled a leaking gearbox and swapped in a new turbo. Block’s packed his car with fluids, and L’Estage’s got to work on a faulty water sprayer.

L’Estage failed to finish the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally earlier this year and is eager for a chance to prove he has what it takes to contend with the top teams in the United States.

All the teams returned to the race, but it remained to be seen which repairs would hold.

"The top three of us want to win," said Block Saturday. "Travis and I both want championship points here."

In fourth, trailing Block and Gelsomino, were Matt Iorio and co-driver Ole Holter.

But L’Estage isn’t the only driver with his eye on the X Games. The lure of the wildcard spot has prompted several teams to change classes for this contest. PGT drivers Kenny Bartram and Matt Johnson have both stepped up into the faster Open class. But both were learning how best to drive their new cars and found themselves off the pace early in the contest.

"I would love to be in the X Games," said Johnson, who was in seventh place with two stages to go. "I’m fired up and ready to go today."

And even though Bartram was in 10th at the end of Day 1, he was philosophical about his chances. "It’s rallying. It isn’t about going fast - it’s about going just fast enough," he said.

Series leader Andrew Pinker, meanwhile, had clawed back into fifth place overall after ending Day 2 in ninth. He suffered three flat tires in four stages Friday, which pushed him well back. Pinker had been hoping to claw back enough time on Day 2 to extend his championship lead.

Notably absent from the contest was Tanner Foust, who opted to sit this one out due to a scheduling conflict with his other competition series - Formula Drift. Also absent were Andrew Comrie-Picard and Ramana Lagemann, who both elected not to race rather than risk damaging their competition cars so close to the California contest.

The New England Forest Rally, which began in the winter of 1991 as the Maine Forest Rally, has grown into one of the most eagerly anticipated races on the Rally America calendar. Round six of the 2007 Rally America championship, the two-day contest challenges teams to take on rough and rugged logging roads with some of the longest stage roads on the circuit. Quintessential northeastern settings such as winding creeks and one lane bridges add not only beauty to the race, but also added excitement at breakneck speeds.

WRC champ Colin McRae, Pastrana, Block, Choiniere, Foust, Iorio, Pinker, Comrie-Picard and Lagemann have already qualified for the X Games, In addition to the driver named here, two others will be selected from the racing community at large.

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.

Complete television coverage of the Rally America Championship airs on ESPN2. The X Games Rally goes live-to-air on August 5.