MEXICO – The 15th running of the Maine Forest Rally, Round 5 in the Rally America National Championship series, is a backcountry car-racing sport that’s continually evolving, says spokesman Michael Doucette of Littleton, N.H.
“It’s a sport that’s building, an up-and-coming sport that I think is going to get very large because kids are getting off their skateboards and getting into rallying,” Doucette said Friday afternoon at the race’s starting point at the Mexico Recreation Park off Route 17.
People from Rumford and Mexico to Bethel and Newry said Friday that the rally was economically beneficial to the River Valley and Bethel areas. However, a clerk at the Linnell Motel in Rumford said he was worried that Bethel and Newry were getting the lion’s share of business from it this year.
Rally organizers based the event at Sunday River Ski Area in Newry, then marketed it in press releases as occurring in Bethel. The race itself covers the north part of the western Maine region and dips into New Hampshire.
Identifying himself only as Thomas, the Linnell Motel clerk said the rally used to be held in Rumford and Mexico.
“All businesses should do what they can to keep this here,” he said. “The rally is a big part of economic development, and the town should try and offer more things like this, because when spectators come into town, they may decide to move in,” he said.
Mexico Board of Selectmen Chairman Barbara Laramee said Friday that the rally “brought a lot of tourists into the area.
“This gives them a chance to see what we have in our area, and I hope they come back while they’re on vacation,” Laramee added.
Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that the chamber aggressively went after rally racers and their large entourages this year, sending them welcoming letters and packets that showed what the Bethel area had to offer.
“It was a big step to introduce it to our village, but it can only get better from here,” Zinchuk said.
But, she said, community members and business owners there and in the River Valley area should work together.
“I see this as something to grow, and, over the long run, if we work together, the better it will be,” Zinchuk said.
Comments are no longer available on this story