Stats:
Travis Pastrana
Number: 199
Birth Date: 10/8/1983
Resides: Davisonville, MD
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 195 lbs.
Car: Subaru WRX STi Prepared by Vermont Sportscar
Sponsors: DC, Subaru, SPT, STi, Motul Lubricants, Alpinestars, PIAA, Recaro, BFGoodrich, Vermont SportsCar
Co-Driver: Derek Ringer

Bio:
Travis Pastrana’s been pushing the limits of motorized vehicles for as long as he can remember. He’s best known for doing it on a dirt bike, whether it’s on the track or off a jump.

Now he’s taken that obsession for “pitching things sideways,” as he calls it, into the world of professional rally racing. And whether he’s on two wheels or four, DC supports him.

In 2004, Travis tested himself in three rally events. He finished 3rd in class and 4th overall at the Rim of the World Rally, which was only his second national event. An impressive fact considering he had never raced professionally before.

Travis continued his success in the 2005 Rally America National Championship racing in a 2005 Subaru WRX STi prepared by Vermont SportsCar. Competing in seven of the eight national events, Travis was expected to do well in his first full season, but he shocked fans and other drivers alike when he placed 2nd overall at Oregon Trail‹his first 2005 event. In a year intended for him to get experience, Travis quickly became recognized as a threat for the overall championship.

Although Travis had a quick climb to the top, he had a tough learning curve to overcome. He wrecked his car in Maine and at the Colorado Cog Rally when he flipped his car eight times but walked away uninjured. The Colorado wreck is considered to be one of the most famous documented crashes in US rally history. For those who know him, it isn’t surprising that even when he’s crashing, Travis makes things memorable. He closed out the season with two podium finishes in the last three races: a 3rd place finish at the Ojibwe Forest Rally and a 2nd at the Lake Superior Pro Rally. Travis’ great year
resulted in a 4th place finish in Group N for the season and 5th place overall for the championship. He would have finished much higher had he not crashed twice.

So far in 2006 Travis has proven himself a top contender for the 2006 Rally America National Championship. Travis and his DC Rally Teammate Ken Block entered the year with a new sponsorship deal with Subaru, creating the new “Subaru Rally Team USA.” He opened up the season by fighting his way to a 2nd place finish at the icy Sno*Drift Rally in Northern Michigan, and followed that by driving steadily to another 2nd place finish at The Oregon Trail Rally. Things really came together for Travis this May when he defeated the field and took his first rally victory at the Subaru Rim of the World Rally. He kept the podium-streak going by placing 2nd at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally and the Maine Forrest Rally. He quickly followed those podiums standings by winning the Ojibwe Forests ProRally.

In 2006, the X Games celebrated Rally Racing as its newest sporting category, and Travis proved to be as successful in this new sport as he was in all his other X Games events. Entering the final “Super Special” timed stage, Travis trailed leader and World Rally legend Colin McRae by just one tenth of a second. On that final day, when drivers battled on a 1-mile dirt and tarmac course in and around the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, Travis and McRae put on a show that’ll go down as one of the best moments in X Games history. First Travis bettered McRae’s time but McRae charged back to take the lead. Then, as McRae was finishing the course, he rolled his car, landed on 4 wheels and somehow finished the stage, all inside the Home Depot Center in front of 40,000 fans. When the dust settled and the times were tallied Travis had blazed his way to a thrilling half-second victory over McRae. The win grabbed him the X Games Gold medal. It was his third Gold medal at X Games 12, and he became the first athlete to win Gold in two separate summer X sports.

He kept the winning going at the end of 2006 as he took the Rally America National Championship, becoming the youngest driver to ever do so.

2007? Another great season of rally racing for Travis, culminating in another Rally America National Championship. The win made him the only driver in history able to defend his crown. Before that: a bronze at X Games 13.

In 2007 Travis also stepped up and competed in three rounds of the Production World Rally Championship (P-WRC at the wheel of a Group N Subaru Impreza WRX STI). In the new level of competition he did quite well, finishing fifth in Mexico, 10th in Argentina and 11th at Wales Rally Great Britain. For 2008 he’s continuing to compete in select events on the WRC, gaining experience in hopes of a full fledged World Rally effort in the coming years.

What else is next for Travis Pastrana and his budding rally career? Judging by his string of successful finishes you can look for more wins, more speed and a lot more action.

Or take it from Travis himself, “Two-wheel is my livelihood, but rally is becoming my future.”

Competition Highlights:
2009 – 1st Place, 100-Acre Wood, Salem, MO
2009 – 1st Place, New England Forest Rally, Newry, ME
2009 – 1st Place, Sno* Drift Rally, Atlanta, MI
2009 – 2nd Place, Olympus Rally, Aberdeen, Washington
2009 – 1st Place, Oregon Trail Rally, Portland, OR
2009 – 2nd Place, Susquehannock Trail Rally, Wellsboro, PA
2008 – Rally America National Overall Champion
2008 – 2nd Place, Oregon Trail Rally, Portland, OR
2008 – 2nd Place, 100-Acre Wood, Salem, MO
2008 – 2nd Place, Olympus Rally, Pomeroy, WA
2008 – 3rd Place, New England Forest Rally, Bethel, Maine
2008 – Gold Medal, X Games, Los Angeles, CA, Rally
2008 – 1st Place, Ojibwe Forests Rally, Bemidji, MN
2008 – 1st Place, Rally Colorado, Steamboat Springs, CO
2008 – 3rd Place, Lake Superior Performance Rally, Houghton, MI
2007 – Rally America National Overall Champion
2007 – 1st Place, Sno* Drift Rally, Atlanta, MI
2007 – 1st Place, 100-Acre Wood, Salem, MO
2007 – 3rd Place, Susquehannock Trail Rally, Wellsboro, PA
2007 – 1st Place, New England Forest Rally, Newry, ME
2007 – Bronze Medal, X Games, Los Angeles, CA, Rally
2007 – 1st Place, Ojibwe Forests Rally, Bemidji, MN
2007 – 3rd Place, Rally Colorado, Steamboat Springs, CO
2007 – 1st Place, Lake Superior Performance Rally, Houghton, MI
2006 – Rally America National Overall Champion
2006 – 2nd Place, Sno* Drift Rally, Atlanta, MI
2006 - Gold Medal, X Games, Los Angeles, CA, Rally
2006 – 2nd Place, Oregon Trail Rally, Portland, OR
2006 – 2nd Place, Maine Forest Rally, Rumford, ME
2006 – 1st Place, Ojibwe Forests Rally, Bemidji, MN
2006 – 1st Place, Colorado Cog Rally, Steamboat Springs, CO
2006 – 3rd Place, Lake Superior Performance Rally, Houghton, MI
2006 – 3rd Place, Lake Superior Performance Rally, Houghton, MI
2006 – 1st Place, Wild West Rally, Olympia, WA

Tell me how you became involved with Subaru and racing rally professionally.
I've always been into rally. But when I was 16, Alpinestars took me to watch a world rally race, and actually got me into a WRC Subaru car---a bad-ass, amazing car. I've wanted to get involved with it ever since then, but obviously racing motocross has been number one for me. Last year, though, I took some time off to get healthy, so I figured I'd give rally a shot to see what I could do. I've had some pretty good results. In my first year as a pro, I took a couple top-fives, so I was really excited. It's a lot of fun.

How did you hook up with Subaru?

All of my sponsors, especially Alpinestars, were involved with Subaru Prodrive, so naturally that was the car that I chose. Plus they pretty much make the best car! They'd been looking for someone to help spread their message to a younger audience, so when I started driving the Subarus and getting good results, I was candidate number one.

Why do you like about rally? What attracted you to it?
Rally is motocross with a roll-cage. When I'm racing cars, I tend to struggle on the courses that I've seen and gone around, lap after lap. I always try to over-drive the car.

But with rally, you have to improvise the whole time. You've never really seen the course, and conditions have changed even if you have seen it before. Your co-driver is calling out commands, it's pitch-black in the snow, and you're going 100 miles-per-hour over a blind crest, with a 50-foot drop and trees on the other side. You've got the engine pinned, and you're totally relying on what the other guy's saying.

Basically, even if you're doing everything perfect, it's an adrenaline rush the whole way.

How is rally similar to motocross?
I think the biggest similarity is the terrain. In motocross, the terrain is always changing. In rally, you don't know the track, so it's always a changing environment. In both, you need to read the dirt to know where to go and which lines are slick. Moto and rally are really related. The only thing rally doesn't have is head-to-head competition. The best part about motocross is that you get to bump people around a little bit. Rally makes up for it with pure speed.

Do you find rally racing carries over to the way you drive on the street? Is it hard to scale down to the posted speed limit?
I have to drive the speed limit, because I have so many tickets that I'd lose my license---so pretty much I'm the safest driver on the road right now! Right on the limit, never over.

I do have a bunch of private land, though, and my neighbor has a bunch, and we're always on off-road karts, and we buy cars to demolition derby and stuff, so ... I get plenty of time to pitch stuff sideways.

How do you prepare for a rally on a typical race day?
In motocross I always warmed up so my body would be physically ready for the event, but I never thought of how it helped the mental state as well. For rally racing, being on your game from the second the stage starts is something that is very difficult, but being well warmed up and focused helps minimize the loss of time in the first few corners of every stage.

Are you as passionate about rally racing as you are about motocross? Really, which is more fun for you?

I am just as passionate about rally as I am about motorcycles. I love racing and see rally as the sport I can continue my racing career with in the future.

For me, the rush of hitting a big hit on a motorcycle is very comparable to getting a perfect slide around a fast corner with a cliff on the outside. The difference is that I always have something that hurts when I ride motorcycles, and in a car you can go for hours at a time without getting tired or being in pain.

Head to head competition is the only part of what I truly enjoy from motocross that rally racing doesn't have. What it does have however is a co-driver. I miss the one on one dogfights but I truly enjoy coming up to a blind crest at night driving well over 100mph in the trees when my co-driver says "keep flat, big jump into jump 200 turn right 1." In English that means hold the petal to the floor over this first big jump... when you land you will be on the ground for only a split second before going into the air again... then slow down over two football fields and into a hairpin right! Yeehaa!

Is rally physically demanding? If so, how do you train for it?
Rally isn't even close to being as physical as motocross but it is very mentally taxing. This might be difficult to understand, but when you finish a supercross you feel pumped and alert but your body is as useless as a wet noodle. At the end of a car race it's hard to keep your eyes open and you don't feel like even spending the energy to read a menu, but your body is ready to go do interval training. All the stress build-up without the physical aspect makes you feel as though you drank 50 Red Bulls before you go to bed on the night after a race.

Is there much competition between yourself and your teammate, Ken Block?
The competition between Ken and myself really helps us elevate our driving. I feel that even though we are more likely to crash out of the events this year while pushing to one-up each other it will be exactly what we need in order to become competitive in the WRC sometime in the near future.

Does it piss you off that Ken won a race before you?
The fact that Ken won a race before me was tough in that a lot of the industry still doesn't believe that Ken is as talented in a car as he really is. When they heard that Ken won an event in only his second season as a rally driver and that I continue to either be bridesmaid or crash... I put up with a lot of harassment from everyone in the moto industry.

I'm proud of Ken and how much he has improved and truly feel like are a team, so of course I was happy for him to win. But at the same time, it sucks getting beat by your boss!