BETHEL, MAINE -- The fifteenth running of the Maine Forest Rally will occur on July 28-30 in Bethel, Maine. The event, round five in the Rally America National Championship series, is expected to draw the top performance rally drivers from all over North America including the 2004 US and Canadian Champion Pat Richard, the 1984 World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist, and the X Games Gold Medalist Travis Pastrana. The Rally America sanctioned event is also expected to draw close to 100 other teams and thousands of spectators from all over the United States and Canada.

Teams will compete in a grueling 18-hour endurance event that runs both night and day on the gravel roads of Northern Maine. The teams will compete on nine different roads - or stages - covering 90 miles of racing over both wide 2-lane as well as narrow 1-lane roads. The excitement of two and four-wheel-drive cars traveling on gravel roads at more than 100 miles-per-hour - especially on a blind course where no practice has been allowed - is exciting both for spectators and competitors.

The sport of performance rally racing has the largest live attendance than any other sport in the world - more than 1 billion people will spectate performance rally races all over the world in 2005. Rally racing is a form of auto racing in which the cars race against the clock, one at-a-time, on closed roads at the fastest speed possible. Each car has a driver, plus a co-driver who reads from a route book and barks out instructions while the driver is negotiating the course at high speed with the team having the fastest time over the whole course wins. Teams will compete in street legal but highly prepared cars that are based upon current popular car models such as the Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi EVO, Dodge Neon and Volkswagen Golf.

The Maine Forest Rally will return to the Sunday River Ski Area and will start on Thursday, July 28 with registration, technical inspection and the running of a press stage. A press reception will follow at the Bethel Inn with all of the top national and regional teams available for interviews. The rally will start on Friday from the Mexico Recreation Area just north of Rumford, Maine with the running of a spectator stage following the competitor display or Parc Expose. Competitors will then run three more stages with a majority of them finishing at night. Saturday the rally will restart from the Sunday River Brewery where teams will then transit to Errol, NH and run two grueling long stages. After a return to Errol, NH for service the teams will then run two new stages for 2005 and return to the Sunday River Ski Resort for the finish and awards dinner.

For more information on spectating at the 2005 Maine Forest Rally, be sure to visit the official event web site: www.maineforestrally.com. Media and press groups please contact the Media Coordinator, Tara McMann at 603-444-4488, for assistance with lodging, logistics and for obtaining credentials.