Last weekend Travis Pastrana slipped into the lead at the last minute to win the Ojibwe Forest Rally, the third-to-last round of the 2008 Rally America National Championship. Victory came only when the rally's leader, DC Co-founder Ken Block, crashed hard into a tree with just miles to go on the rally's last stage.
Ojibwe is always a favorite amongst drivers. With loose, sandy roads and plenty of nighttime stages, rally racers fly over the course's 140 miles of tech Northern Minnesota roads.
After the second stage of the weekend Ken jumped out to lead the rally, driving exceptionally well in hopes of gaining valuable points towards his first Rally Championship. He maintained that lead for nearly the entire rally... with Travis in 2nd place charging hard on his heels, Ken consistently managed to push his Subaru to win 6 of 8 stages on Day 1 and maintain a fairly-strong 19 second lead heading into the rally's very last stage. "Ken is an amazing driver and he's been out-driving me all season," said Travis. About his efforts, he went on to say, "When we pushed to gain back time on Block he just pushed back, we weren't able to catch him."
Then, bad luck struck for Ken. With only 5 miles to go, he went off the road and collided with a tree, a collision that left him and his co-driver uninjured but his car un-drivable. "I am devastated," said Ken afterwards. "I did exactly what I needed to do to win here and set up a big title fight for the rest of the year but one mistake is all it took to end it all."
With Travis stealing the Ojibwe victory away, his third-straight Rally America National Championship is now well within reach. Just two rounds left in the season... all he has to do is finish 6th or better in either race to lock down the championship.
For more, including lots of photos, check out rally.subaru.com.