As if it wasn’t warm enough on Friday, Andrew Comrie-Picard of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and his co-driver, Marc Goldfarb of Atkinson, New Hampshire were forced to do something not usually associated with Maine until at least late September: They had to run their car heater for 20 miles during the Maine Forest Rally on Friday evening.

Despite their overheating problems, which the team says it will try and correct by changing the head gasket overnight before the brunt of the rally happens on Saturday, the team in Car No. 20 is in third place, just 43 seconds off the pace after four stages in this year’s rally.

Pat Richard, who has already won three times on this year’s circuit, leads overall by 19 seconds over Paul Choiniere of Shelburne, Vermont and co-driver Jeff Becker of New York City.

“If we finish this rally, we will capture the Group N Championship,” Richard said. “That has been our goal all season long, and that’s my goal for the rally. It’s still up in the air whether we can totally pursue the (overall championship), but as long as we set out to meet the goals we established earlier in the year that will be good for the team and the sponsors.”

Richard, who is winless in his last two events after beginning the season with three consecutive victories, was virtually tied with Choiniere after the first two special stages, but a problem with a microphone between Choiniere and Becker left the two without communication for much of Stage 3, enabling Richard and his co-driving sister Nathalie to post a time 21 seconds faster than Choiniere-Becker and take the lead.

While Richard leads the Group N class by almost two minutes over sixth-overall Bill Bacon-Peter Watt, Choiniere holds a 24-second advantage over Comrie-Picard in Open competition.

Doug Shepherd, with co-driver Joe Andreini, continued a torrid 2004 pace in Group 5 and was the only car in the class in the top 20 (eighth overall).

Eric Burmeister leads Group 2 comfortably while at 17th overall with co-driver Cindy Krolikowski.

One spot behind Burmeister is current Production GT leader Greg Healey, with co-driver John McLeod, who holds nearly a two-minute advantage over class competitor Bruce Davis, with co-driver Jimmy Brandt.

Jeff Field, with co-driver Mike Hordjik, leads the Production class in his 2000 Toyota Celica with three stages completed. Field sits 22 seconds ahead of Scott Comens and his co-driver Adrian Wintle.

Friday’s toughest stages appeared to be the middle two, No. 2 and 3. According to the rally’s Web site, several cars limped home after those two stages with missing pieces of fenders, tires (one team arrived at a transition area with a smaller “space-saver spare” on their car) and lights.

In the fan-friendly, half-mile opening stage, Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb sprinted to a win with hundreds of onlookers cheering as teams spun through the final turn. Two of the teams, including Roland McIvor of Clinton, Penn. and Brendan Bohan of Yorktown, New York, spun out just as they neared the finish line, while still others, including Doug Jenkins and Brian Schwanter of Missouri, spun hard but managed to stay on course, and on time. Jenkins and Schwanter are running one of the oldest cars in the rally, a 1972 Cheverolet Corvette.

Choiniere-Becker held on to first place overall through stage two, while Richard-Richard hung on for a stage three win. The race continues on Saturday with eight more stages totaling more than 80 miles of actual racing, starting at the Sunday River Brewing Company and ending in Oquassoc.