On the heels of another successful X Games, DC Rally drivers Travis Pastrana and Ken Block went 1-2 respectively at last weekend's Ojibwe Forest Rally, round 7 of the 2007 Rally America National Championship. The strong finishes were huge for the guys, who now find themselves thick in the championship hunt with just two more races left in '07.
The Ojibwe Forest Rally covers 115 miles of sandy gravel roads that weave through the trees in northern Minnesota. Drivers tend to like racing Ojibwe the roads are fast, and select stages of the rally are raced at night, making for very unique driving conditions.
Travis was solid from the start, amassing an early lead and picking up about 40 seconds on the rest of the field by the end of Day 1. Day 2 saw more success along with more challenges for Travis. He started off well, but then suffered a punctured tire that cost him about 30 seconds, cutting his lead down to 11 seconds. Another flat caused Travis further troubles, but he was able to hold on in the end for the win.
Ken also had an up and down experience at Ojibwe. Historically Ken's had terrible luck at Ojibwe, having never once finished it! This year he had some engine issues to start off the rally, but his team quickly fixed things and got him up to speed, so to speak. He went on to climb from 4th place to 3rd, and eventually make the pass at the very end of the weekend to take over the 2nd place spot.
Afterwards, Travis said, "I'm the luckiest unlucky person in the world today! We came into this rally with the sole objective of getting the win and we had the rally in our control until the flat tire changed everything! But we were able to come away with the win even after our troubles, and we are back in the hunt for the championship!"
So will Ken or Travis be able to pull it off and take over the lead in the 2007 Rally America National Championship? Their recent string of success points to yes, but we'll all find out when the series hits Rally Colorado on Sept 22-23, and finally LSPR on Oct 26-27. Check out rally.subaru.com for more on Ojibwe, including lots of photos.
