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Mike White, Driver, #900 Saab 900 – South Arm long was a really rough stage, they ripped a shock right up through their new stronger shock mount. They are having some fuel starvation issues, new-car teething issues, but the crew got the welder out and like magic it was fixed.

Erika Detota, Driver, #91 Subaru Impreza – The forest stages were pretty rough, they had some suspension problems, blew a strut top mount. They got it replaced and they're ready for the big jump. They still have a few noises she would like to get checked out, but she guesses she's going to hit it. And she caught the all-wheel-drive turbo car in front of her on the last stage.

Simon Wright, Driver, #311 Ford Focus – Their makeshift motor mount repair was brilliant. They kept an eye on it, they stopped at the beginning of each stage to check it, and everything was good. They did have other damage, which was a major zip-tie or bolt holding the under-body protection on It came off and the underboy protection folded under the car, so they were scraping the road along. It was just noisy, it didn't really affect performance. They're still in the game, there were a lot of cars out with flat tires on this last stage, very rough stage. They were able to keep it on the road.

Signing off, and heading to the final MTC at Sunday River.

Rumors of the demise of Dillon Van Way and Ben Slocum were grossly exaggerated.  The scores from Stage 4 had been sent back by text messages, and for some reason they were missed.  The are still running, and are running very strongly.

1. O'Sullivan/Wagner 11:03.5
2. Burmeister/Shindle 11:35.5
3. Sorensen/Jenny 11:38.5
4. Duplessis/Woods 11:31.3
5. Healey/Johnson 11:47.0
6. White/Lantzy 12:06.9
7. Walter/Trauttmansdorff 12:10.5
8. Caswell/Donlin 12:21.0
9. Carven/Clark 12:22.9
10. Bushore/Bushore 12:25.5
11. Morris/Nagy 12:26.9
12. Wiggin/DeMotte 12:36.5
13. Reilly/Benthien 12:48.6
14. Topping/Secor 12:50.6
15. Wimpey/Wimpey 12:51.8
16. Wright/Ciascai 13:03.4
17. Barton/Barton 13:20.7
18. Detota/Smith 13:22.1

Some early times from Special Stage 4:

O'Sullivan/Wagner 8:39.0
Burmeister/Shindle 9:09.0
Sorensen/Jenny 9:05.0
Duplessis/Woods 9:13.0
Healey/Johnson 9:19.0
Walter/Trauttmansdorff 9:37.0
Bushore/Bushore 9:45.0
Morris/Nagy 9:50.0
Reilly/Benthein 10:07.0
Wimpey/Wimpey 10:23.0

Guess the tenths of a second clock didn't work on this stage.
 

Lauchlin O'Sullivan/Karen Wagner, Dodge Neon SRT-4, Stage 3

Chris Duplessis/Catherine Woods, Scion XD, Stage 3

Josh Wimpey/Jeremy Wimpey, VW GTI, Stage 3

Ben Slocum, Co-Driver, #600 Ford Fiesta – things went alright, it's really hard to judge how an event will go by superspecials alone, since there were three in a row, just trying to drive their own pace to get used to being back in the car after about a month off. The car feels great, the crew has always done a great job.

Geoff Clark, Co-Driver, #501 VW Rabbit – Everything's smooth, everything's running good, have just done a couple short little superspecials and are excited to get out on the long stuff.

Official scoring can be found at http://www.rally-america.com/events/2010/NEFR/results/

Scores after SS3

1. O'Sullivan/Wagner, Dodge SRT4,  2:24.5
2. Burmeister/Shindle, Mazda, 2:26.5
3. Healey/Johnson, Datsun, 2:28.0
4. Duplessis/Woods, Scion, 2:28.3
5. Wimpey/Wimpey, VW, 2:28.8
6. Van Way/Slocum, Ford, 2:29.2
7. Walter/Trauttmansdorff, Nissan, 2:33.5
7. Sorenson/Jenny, Saab, 2:33.5
9. Wiggin/DeMotte, VW, 2:34.5
10. Morris/Nagy, Mitsubishi, 2:36.9
11. Carven/Clark, VW, 2:36.9
11. White/Lantzy, Saab, 2:36.9
13. Turner/Sockalexis, Subaru, 2:37.7
14. Bushore/Bushore, VW, 2:40.5
15. Reilly/Benthien, Ford, 2:41.6
16. Wright/Ciascai, Ford, 2:43.4
17. Topping/Secor, Volvo, 2:48.6
18. Perrin/McElhinny, Jeep, 2:48.8
19. Przybysz/Roy, Subaru, 2:52.1
20. McClelland/Jones, Toyota, 2:52.3
21. Riddell/Silverstone, Mitsubishi, 2:58.5
22. Barton/Barton, Mazda, 12:39.7 (*)
23. Detota/Smith, Subaru, 14:47.1 (**)
24. Caswell/Donlin, BMW, 15:47.0 (***)

DNF Wildman/Bromley, VW
DNF Furey/McKenna, VW
DNF Simsek/Simsek, Ford

*10 minutes road penalties, incorrect MTC declaration, being reviewed
**12 minutes road penalties, incorrect MTC declaration, being reviewed
***13 minutes road penalties, incorrect MTC declaration, being reviewed

From the top half of the field at the Mexico Rec Center, first service:

Karen Wagner, Co-Driver, #90 Dodge SRT4 -- Things are going well, there is no drama.  Times are close on these short spectator stages.

Chris Duplessis, Driver, #70 Scion XD -- Things are going well, the car is much better with the new limited slip differential [ed. A-Ha!!].  The car is 100%, and he's driving like that.

Josh Wimpey, Driver, #213 VW Golf -- They lost their power steering.  They hit a big rock that was pulled up on the stage near one of the baseball diamond, and they bent their pulley and steering rack.  They fear they may have no power steering for the remainder of the rally.

Eric Burmeister, Driver, #42 Mazdaspeed3 -- They hit a hole on the transition from gravel to pavement both times on the Rec Center stage.  They hit the right front hard, and are giving it a once-over.

Martin Walter, Driver, #22 Nissan 240 -- Their crew is somewhere between Ottawa and the rally.  They have no parts, no water, no nothing.  They are scrounging today.  They took the stages gently as they did not want to break a part since they don't have any spares.

Brian Johnson, Co-Driver, #80 Datsun 280z -- It is going well, the car feels good.

Brian Morris, Driver, #18 Mitsubishi Lancer -- Life's good so far, he's hoping it stays that way the rest of the day.  He will go at it "hammer and tongs" out on the forest stages.

Will try to get some scores soon.

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

Ben Bradley asks some random questions while competitors are waiting in the tech line on Thursday evening.