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The Crew of WO Rally Team Forced to Retire at Maine Fore - Wojciech Okula and his co-driver Adam Pelc were forced to retire on the ninth and last stage of the Maine Forest Rally when they cracked one of the a-frames while they were passing one of the chicanes. Unfortunately they not only had just seven miles to the end of the stage, but they were also winning Group 2 in the national championship and were the fastest of all two-wheel drive cars. Friday stages started a little nervous for WO Rally. At the first teams mechanics had to straighten out one of the steering rods after it was hit by a rock. All faulty parts were swapped at the night service to bring the car to a 100% shape for Saturday. Saturday morning began with a change of the mood. Okula made up 12 seconds to the class leader and after last service he was first out of all two wheel drive cars when Chris Havas retired from the rally. The red and white Focus moved on to the last three stages where he was gaining time from mile to mile. The happiness did not last long. On Stage 9, the last stage of the rally, going through the second chicane one of the ball joints broke and it was obviously the end of rally for the only Polish team at the event. Wojciech Okula: "We were out of luck. It was the first time that we ran a national rally, and this score left the whole team burning for a much stronger fight next time. Our service crew did whatever they could; the guys did a great job." Adam Pelc: "Too bad the car couldn't get to the finish, alll these factors are counted in this sport. We have a big hunger for a finish, this brings more motivation into driving faster on the next rally." Friday's stages were also counted as a qualifying event of the Rally America eastern region championship, where Okula finished in third place in class G2. International Rally New York will be the next rally in which WO Rally Team will appear. Official start of the rally is being planed on the 30th of September in Manhattan and going into an upper state of New York where four stages will take place on the area of Monticello Raceway. --- Story courtesy of Rally America Home