Last weekend in the Pacific Northwest Ken Block held on tight to his lead in the 2007 Rally America National Championship by taking fourth overall at the Olympus Rally.
The Northwest is known for its quick-changing weather, and last weekend conditions stayed true to character as Ken, his teammate Travis Pastrana, and the rest of the field had to adjust between sunny skies and rain, which in turn caused variable slick conditions on the 125 miles of gravel and dirt mountainous roads.
Up at the top of the leader board Ken was battling it out with a large list of competitors as the top seven drivers were all within 13 seconds of each other. When Ken punctured his tire, he slipped out of the top three, but thankfully his speed was enough to maintain the fourth overall position.
"There was great competition here this weekend, but we just didn't have a clean run. I was a bit off the pace and then had to deal with the flat tire among other things," said Ken. "We are now racing against so many fast and capable drivers that it's good to just come away with points, even if we didn't make the podium. We still lead the Championship and hope to keep it that way for the remainder of the season!"
What about Pastrana? On the first day of the rally Travis had an issue with fuel, causing him to be towed back to the service area. When maximum allowable time expired, Travis was forced to withdraw and his weekend was cut short.
Ken and Travis next head to the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR) on June 2-3 in Pennsylvania. Check out rally.subaru.com for more info and photos.
