For Immediate Release

July 24, 2006

Bangor, Maine

Maine's Last Ditch Racing performance rally team put both team cars into the top 10 in both the national and regional portions of the 2006 Maine Forest Rally, round 5 of the Rally America Championship.  Last Ditch Racing was the only team fielding two cars with the exception of the Subaru USA Rally Team.

Over the past 16 years, the Maine Forest Rally has been known as a rough event on the crews and cars, yet remains a competitor favorite.  As a qualifying event for this year's summer X-Games in Los Angeles, this year's event attracted a large field, deep with talent.

Driving an aggressive and mature event, owner/driver John Cassidy and co-driver Erik Lee climbed from a starting position of 22 up to 10th by the end of the event.  Said Cassidy, "I knew T-4, our new car, wasn't as developed enough to challenge the top of the field, so we had to drive a neat and tidy event-drive to finish.  It was obviously a strategy that worked well for us and we found ourselves finishing in our best position in a US National event to date."   Of the Top 10, at least 5 are slated to attend the rally portion of the Summer X-Games.

Dave Getchell and co-driver Steve McKelvie, crew of LDR's second Open Class Subaru Impreza took 9th and 10th overall in each of the two regional events, another personal best for LDR in a Rally America regional event.

Said Getchell, "Maine Forest 2006 was all you cold ask for in a rally--fast, rough, hot and fun. We had a persistent misfire on a couple of stages Friday which cost us some time, but we cured it for the start on Saturday. It was SO sweet to have old Tulip pulling full blast again!. Thanks to the LDR service crew and to Dave Siesiecki for curing the fault.  All weekend, we had great battles with other naturally aspirated Imprezas.  We all pushed to the max on the long Middle Dam stages on Saturday, and had as much fun as you can have...and still stay on the road!"

Both cars were fettled by the enthusiastic LDR crew, consisting of Duncan Matlack, Michael Rademacher, Zach Gerry and Rob Sockalexis.  Said Cassidy, "These guys enable us to put a competitive car on stage.  They allow us to push just a bit harder every time we head to the stages by having the skill to fix whatever we break!"

For more information about the Maine Forest Rally, please visit: http://www.maineforestrally.com and  http://www.teamoneil.com/maineforestrally/

To view the recent article on the Maine Forest Rally in Downeast Magazine, please visit:  http://www.downeast.com/index.php/page/issues/id/357

To read the Boston Globe Article on Rallying, please visit:  http://www.boston.com/sports/outdoors/articles/2006/07/21/this_rally_gets_down_a...

Last Ditch Racing would like to thank their 2006 team partners for their continued support!

http://www.teamoneil.com
http://www.mainehost.com
http://www.carmodifications.com/
http://www.f1dyno.com/
http://www.triplecaution.com
http://www.rallyxi.com
http://www.andrewharvey.ca
http://www.rev-lab.com/
http://planetmotorsport.com/

For more information on Last Ditch Racing and to subscribe to our mailing list and podcasts, please visit:  http://www.lastditchracing.com