It was a tough battle, but last weekend DC’s Travis Pastrana emerged on top, taking a well earned win at the Olympus Rally. He had to first fight his way to the top spot before going all out on the final day just to keep his lead and take the checkered.
Round three of the 2009 Rally America National Championship, the Olympus Rally weaves its way through 100 miles of scenic, tree lines logging roads in Washington. This year the weather, which is usually wet and unruly, was great, with calm, dry, and clear conditions. The drivers pounced at the opportunity, and stage times were fast.
Ken Block was at the front of them, setting the tone as the day one leader by winning half of the stages and taking a 20 second lead. Unfortunately the next day Ken suffered an unpredictable mechanical failure on stage 13, forcing him to withdraw from the rally. “Although we hit some bad luck my confidence is boosted from our stage times on the first day where the competition was so good and everyone was going flat-out. The next round in Oregon has roads similar to Olympus so I’m sure we will have the speed again there,” said the DC Co-Founder afterwards.
Travis finished day one third overall... with Ken out of the hunt he had to really push it to get into the lead. He drove clean and really fast, eventually taking the lead and holding it, winning by a convincing 40 seconds.
“It was a great battle, our stage times were really close with ACP (Andrew Comrie Picard), we even tied on a stage to the tenth of a second,” said Travis. “But I managed to pull out a small lead and keep it for most of the day, then charged hard on the last few stages for the win. It’s a great feeling to win with such strong competition.”
Dave Mirra, now behind the wheel of a new Subaru WRX STI in the Super Production class (minimally modified, production-based cars), looked like a seasoned vet out there for almost the entire rally. He ran 2nd in class for most of the rally, but on the second-to-last stage he took a turn wide and hit a bank, damaging his suspension and busting three tires. He limped to the stage finish, but was unable to finish the rest of the rally.
Now having logged two wins in three events, Travis is now tied for second overall in the Rally America National Championship. Like Ken said, the team now hits up Oregon Trail in about a month. For more, check out rally.subaru.com and auto.dcshoes.com.
