Adam Craig loves to rip through the woods and winding forest trails and through water and over jumps and bumps on gravel roads as fast as he can.  

Sound like anyone you know? Adam is in fact a Subaru fanatic and fan who has run a few regional rallies and hopes one day to make a bigger splash on the national rally scene.  

But for now, his stage is much bigger than that as he competes in the international athletic competition known as the Olympics. He is in Beijing right now preparing for his race on August 23rd as part of the two-man U.S. Olympic mountain biking team. He took a few minutes out of his busy pre-Olympic schedule to talk about his second favorite subject; cars. 

Q: It seems you had quite an early interest in cars growing up in Maine. When did you first start driving and what did you drive? 

Adam: I learned to operate motorized stuff pretty young, first on a four-wheeler, then dirt bikes.  By age 10 or so I was figuring out how not to stall my Dad's Jeep CJ-7 with a really temperamental 4-sped tranny so he could have a break from driving while we were out fishing and hunting in the Maine woods. We did some pretty aggressive four-wheel driving on these terrible roads and I'm sure that helped me both with my mountain bike and the rallying in terms of line selection and the like.  From there I drove whatever was in the family that could go off-road until I got my license at 16.  My first actual car was a 1987 Mercury Topaz. It had studded snow tires that got me to ski team practice in style. 

Q: You also had a few of what might be described as "homemade" vehicles. Tell us about those. 

Adam: There was this dune buggy we got just after I learned to drive in the Jeep.  It was a custom rolling tube chassis with VW Suspension components and a VW 1600 motor. By the way, we went through three of those motors in a couple years of gravel pit and mud bog abuse. That thing was a good time. It was fast, jumped well, and didn't understeer THAT horribly after we put a tractor weight just behind the front axle. Then there was the ‘Jitterbug!'  Ah yes, where to start...  Take a one-ton truck chassis you find rusting in a field.  Then put whatever moving parts you can find on it.  Stick a 2-liter Datsun engine in it with two transmissions that gave it about 25 gear ratios to lower the gearing and run the winch, and then weld some huge metal lags around the dual rear wheels for grip in the mud, and to kill anyone who falls off the bus seat mounted behind the steering wheel.  No body panels at all.  No shocks, just leaf springs. Lots of rust. You could yard some serious wood with it though.  And it still jumped almost as good as the dune buggy. 

Q: What gave you the initial rally bug? Was it driving the dune buggy, the Jitterbug, or later thrashing around your daily driver 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX wagon around all those mountain and logging roads?  

Adam: I'd been doing cookies in ski area parking lots and driving like a **** in the snow since I got my license and the Topaz. Then I just kind of became aware of the WRC and rallying in general. In the fall of 2002 I was attending the mountain biking World Cup finals in Les Gets, France and got wind that the French Rally Series had a stage over the Col du Joux Plagne so we went up to check it out.  Wet tarmac, heavy fog and COMMITMENT!  That fall I signed with the Giant Team and started "building my credit" by buying a Subaru Impreza 2.5 Wagon and rallycrossing it, naturally...  That was the proper beginning.  But having done all those cookies made me pretty fast right off the bat... 

Q: You have run some Northwest regional rallies as a co-driver in a Rally America Group 2 class Subaru Impreza with your friend and fellow mountain biker Carl Decker behind the wheel. Looking down as you have to do as a co-driver a lot might make some people "car sick." Do you think your mountain biking experience helped with that? 

Adam: I think the last six years of abusing rental cars and our own personal cars with Carl has given me the kind of complete trust in his skills that breeds the kind of relaxation a co-driver needs to perform their job effectively; that is namely not puking and keeping things on track. 

Q: Obviously the cool factor of professional rallying has been upped by having X Games extreme athletes like Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra and Kenny Bartram come over to compete. What do you think is cool about the sport of rallying? 

Adam: Someone told me the Rally America line of told me "Real Cars, Real Roads, Real Fast" at some point and that kind of resonated.  Rallying is real driving in real conditions. Just like Mountain Biking.  You just deal with what's in front of you. This base awesomeness combined with big names like Pastrana (who we didn't have the power to fulfill the request of a tow to service at Olympus last year) has rally on a great trajectory in the States.   

Q: Do you have any goals or hopes of competing at a higher level than regional events? 

Adam: We've definitely got ambitions to get an Open Class car together and start contending for wins regionally. After that takes place, which might be soon, there is a complete STi drivetrain in Carl's garage right now waiting to go in the Wheels of Teal as we call our Subaru. We'll be targeting whatever Rally America series events fit in with our bike racing schedule.  Our eyes are definitely set on competing in the X Games somehow.  I'm pretty sure with Carl's talent and our variety of competitive experience we can make that happen. If the reality of an Open Car budget isn't too daunting and we keep our reliability track record going...it's gonna be good. 

Q: Statistically, they say the chances of growing up to become an Olympic athlete are 1 in 28,000 so you definitely beat the odds to get to Beijing. Now that you are getting ready to ride your first Olympics what's going through your mind? 

Adam: I'm fired up! It's just a few days ‘till the biggest race of my life.  And I've got the form and motivation to be a contender instead of just a participant.  Either way it's going to be an awesome time.   

Adam Craig will represent the U.S. in the Olympic mountain biking competition on August 23. If you would like to keep track of his exploits, you can read more at www.ridelife.net/ridelife.html and then go to Rider Blogs...Adam Craig.