Jalopnik: Travis Pastrana

Mitsubishi Evo Flips At X-Games Rally

Mark Arnold — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EDT

The 2008 X-Games Rally held in Carson, California this weekend saw Andrew Comrie Picard launch his Mitsubishi Evo over the big stadium jump, come up short, and flip the car end over end back onto its wheels. The driver and co-driver were uninjured, but the car, as you can see from the in-car angle, wasn't able to continue driving.

Since the X-Games format is a head-to-head tournament on the super-special stage, Picard's opponent, Dave Mirra, went on to win the race despite broken control arms on his Subaru, which caused him to limp around the course making three-point turns. In the final round, Travis Pastrana claimed the gold medal victory over none other than Top Gear USA host Tanner Foust. [YouTube]

Travis Pastrana Jumps Motorycle From Water

Wes Siler — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Travis Pastrana, rally driver and motorcycle stuntman extraordinaire, has completed the world's first Hydrojump. The stunt consisted of mooring a ramp 110 feet from the shore in five-foot deep water. He then raced his motocross bike at the water in excess of 70mph, keeping the power on as he went feet wet. This was fast enough for him to hydroplane all the way out to the ramp and jump off of it. The bike was completely stock, with no flotation devices or special tires.

The stunt was made all the more difficult due to the choppy waves and windy conditions. Pastrana needed to hit the four-foot wide ramp with precisely the right amount of speed, flotation and angle; otherwise it'd have been like hitting a wall.

Speaking immediately afterwards, Pastrana said, "This is one of the most dangerous jumps I have ever made. If I had failed to get into the lake at the proper speed I could have ended up hitting the ramp really hard."

The stunt will form part of the Nitro Circus 6 DVD.
[Via Hell For Leather]

Woodland Creature Costs Pastrana Victory At Sno*Drift Rally This Weekend

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:30:00 EST

You're all well aware that we think racer Travis Pastrana is a bad ass. Sadly, superior driving skills don't exempt you from bad luck. This Pastrana learned during the last stage of the Sno*Drift Rally. All that stood between the Team USA WRX STI and victory was about 11 miles of icy Michigan roads and one adult deer. Christian Edstrom may be a talented co-driver, but there's no navigating around that at high speed, in the dark. Better luck next time guys. [Break.com and Sno*Drift]

X-Games Rally: Watch It, Bub, Or Else

Mike Spinelli — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:43:14 EDT

If you're a resident of the US into car racing even a little, I hope you'll do us a favor. Please Watch X-Games Rally this weekend. It's airing this Sunday on ABC, wedged into a three-hour block that'll be dominated by skateboarding. Normally we'd recommend waiting for the YouTube clips of Travis Pastrana doing whatever he'll end up doing in a Subaru (not to mention on a dirt bike), but not this time. Rally needs you, and you only get one a one-hour shot each year to tell big media you want more of it.

Over in Europe, they love their rallying, which — lest you thought it had something to do with ex-basketball stars fishtailing through East Texas in leased Lamborghinis — is the chosen sport for some of the most well-turned drivers in the motoring universe. Each season, in far-off lands with names like Jyväskylä and Porto Cervo and Lagoa Azul, drivers head out on challenging courses along country lanes, tamped down over a hard, angst-ridden millennium by firewood carts. Fans line up along 14th century stone walls, or form micro-crowds scant feet from dusty paths on which high-powered cars scream by at astounding speeds. There's no understating these fans' commitment to the sport. As happens when cars top 100 miles per hour on gravel, matters can go a bit pear-shaped without warning. There are no barriers, beer vendors or infields packed with RVs and barbecue grills to keep critical injuries from extending beyond those inside the cars.

If this is news to you, you'll likely be unaware that we have rallying here in the land of the oval track. Rallies happen in Washington and Pennsylvania and Maine, and other such places were trees outnumber people millions to one. Since the SCCA pulled out of stage rallying, the best hope for the sport in the US is Rally America, whose events ESPN2 deigned to air. There's little participation from manufacturers other than sponsor Subaru, compared to larger racing events. Mostly, it's the domain of hard-working, independent teams dragging their cars from town to town. Including rally in the X-Games was particularly clever of ESPN; a media-synergy trick to attract new eyeballs for its Rally America coverage.

So let the cart lead the horse, if that's what it takes. Check out the logos plastered across Los Angeles's Home Depot Center, and patronize the businesses they signify. Watch Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom go for the gold again. See international champ Colin McRae try to win the crowd with another of his cunning stunts. See fortysomething Nascar fill-in Boris Said lend his well-earned cred to the still-lightweight event. Don't blink, or you may miss it all.

The only hope for rallying in the US is to shoehorn it into the existing extreme-sports paradigm. If you watch this year, good things may happen. If not, the American rally scene will be stillborn as a media draw, and ultimately won't survive outside online file sharing. Don't watch for the sake of ESPN (or ABC or Disney), do it for car racing. We need more of it.

Schedule:
Skateboard Vert, Skateboard Street Men's, Rally
Sunday, August 5, 3:00-6:00 PM (ET) on ABC

ROCin' ya Face! Finns Win Race of Champions

Davey G. Johnson — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:45:00 EST

Travis Pastrana had to forget about it and go it alone this year in the Race of Champions, as Jimmie Johnson and his last-minute replacement Scott Speed couldn't make the competition. The multi-disciplinary Pastrana put on a solid showing, as one might expect, but the day belonged to Finland. And when was the last time the day belonged to freaking Finland? Marcus Gr nholm was taken by Pastrana, but Renault F1-driving teammate Heikki Kovalainen was en fuego, giving the Finns the overall win while Swede Mattias Ekstr m took it overall. Nevertheless, one man down, the U.S. took home the silver, and if there was any lingering question about Pastrana's overall skill, that's just been put to bed like a narcoleptic newborn with a scag addiction. – Davey G. Johnson

2006 Race of Champions: The Finns Win Nations Cup [Paddock Talk]; More coverage and photos at 0-60

Gleaming the Tube: X Games Rally Update

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 08:17:32 EDT

There it went, this past weekend — the first rally car racing event graced the X Games. As matters shook out at the The Home Depot Center, Travis Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom wound up with the gold, but it was Colin McRae who scored the most freestyle points with the Rockstar-addled crowd. Coming into the games' "Super Special" contest with a 0.5 second edge over Pastrana was veteran rallyist, McRae, who was favored to dust the field. But as he and co-driver Nicky Grist dropped into the stadium for a last sprint for the finish line, he barrel-rolled the team's Subaru, landing wheels down. A last, full-throttle effort toward the checkered flag brought him in 0.52 seconds short — nabbing McRae the silver medal. Pretty slick, Macky. Thanks to amateur video, we can check it out here. Aye! Click through for final standings.

· Travis Pastrana / Christian Edstrom: 12:02.19
· Colin McRae / Nicky Grist: 12:02.71
· Ken Block / Alex Gelsomino: 12:21.32
· Lauchlin O'Sullivan / Scott Putnam: 12:22.59
· Paul Choiniere / Jeff Becker: 12:28.36
· Pat Richard / Nathalie Richard: 12:38.64
· Ramana Lagemann / Mike Fennell: 12:53.50
· Matt Iorio / Ole Holter: 12:57.30
· Tanner Foust / Scott Crouch: 13:01.44
· Wyeth Gubelmann / Cindy Krolikowski: 13:11.81
· Andrew Comrie-Picard / Marc Goldfarb: 15:36.05
· Rhys Millen / Tony Sircombe: DNF

Jalopnik Team Party Crash: X Games Rally Party in Los Angeles

Mike Spinelli — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:51:01 EDT

"Man, I ain't never been to a Rally-party like this," explained Rally Innovations driver Kevin Welker as we both stood gawking at the hordes of beautiful-ish people that had bum-rushed the Avalon in Hollywood for the X-Games After Party. Rallying, that loveable sport where hopped up Evos and STIs go "Dukes of Hazzard"-style airborne crazy, has been added as an official X-Games event. Mr. Welker went on to explain that every Rally party he's been to comprised drivers, mechanics and owners slamming cheap beer and pizza in a community center. This was very, very different.

"It's like a christening, a baptism," Rally Innovations crew chief Kevin Mount boasted. I'll tone down the religious aspect, but this was indeed a coming out party for the sport — and in a big way. Not counting the cost of the car, the average US Rally team gets by on a budget of $50,000 a year. This Hollywood-style party spent more than that on wristbands. Hell, the Miller Lite was $6 a can. Case in point; the United Colors of Benetton rap collective Visionaries were letting their anti-corporate rap flow underneath not one, but three huge projectors displaying WR Pearl Blue STIs flying every which way. "Will this work?" I asked Mr. Mount. "It already is!" he shouted back to me. [by Jonny Lieberman]

Related:
Travis Pastrana Chalks Up First Rally Win [internal]

X-Games Rallying: Americans Hold Their Own Against McRae

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:30:00 EDT

It's gotta be daunting to go up against Colin McRae in rally competition. It's like staging against Don Garlits or qualifying against Junior Johnson. Or going for a friendly jog with Carl Lewis. Then again, when you're Travis Pastrana, we imagine it takes a fair amount to faze you. And while the Vermont SportsCar crew makes mental notes to bring more air dams to next year's rally, Pastrana is only a half-second off of McRae's pace on the X-Games rally. Meanwhile, after hearing McRae's tale of taking out a photog during a stage, Scotto is reconning the courses for very stout trees to shield himself.

X-Treme Blog: Day 3 [WRC.com]

Related:
Scotto Can't Get Enough of the Rallying [Internal]

Scotto Can't Get Enough of the Rallying

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EDT

Whether it's the point-to-point, party-to-party on-road banzai antics of the Bullrun and Gumball, or the off-highway, minimal-traction action of WRC, it seems like our boy Scotto just can't keep his face filled with rallying. It is food to him. As such, he's blogging over at WRC.com this week in anticipation of the upcoming first-ever X-Games rallying segment. Go show the tall man some love.

X-Treme Blog Day One [WRC.com]

Related:
McRae to Participate in X-Games Rally [Internal]

Travis Pastrana Chalks Up First Rally Win

David Thomas — Mon, 01 May 2006 18:17:48 EDT

The former motocross superstar won his first race Saturday at the Rim of The World Rally outside of Los Angeles. Pastrana won by a significant margin, but that's probably because this wasn't part of the WRC circuit. That means there wasn't much competition besides Pastrana's own teammate Ken Block, who came in second. There is some upside to this win though. Pastrana gets an ego boost and the two drivers get familiar with the route most likely to be used in this summer's X Games Rally competition. The marketing folks know where the money is that's for sure. It's on ESPN during the X Games and they want their drivers to get some air time. Get it? Air time? X Games? Ahhh... nevermind.

[Photo Courtesy of Subaru]

Related:
Rallying Becomes an X Game [internal]
Pastrana Gets a Factory Ride from Subaru [internal]

Pastrana Gets a Factory Ride from Subaru

Davey G. Johnson — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:55:56 EST

Brian, rapidly becoming our source for all things Travis Pastrana passed along the news that Pastrana and DC Shoes co-founder Ken Block have been conscripted by Subaru as the drivers for their two-car Rally America factory team. The cars will be prepared by Vermont SportsCar, which built Pastrana's previous cars. As far as we're concerned, this can only be good for American rallying, as Pastrana's one of the hottest young alternative-sports stars around. Plus, he rolls cars with such panache and flair, it's hard not to root for the guy, y'know?

Related:
Rolling a Subaru with Travis Pastrana [Internal]

Rolling a Subaru with Travis Pastrana

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:42:20 EST

We mentioned a couple of months ago that motocross hero Travis Pastrana is trying his hand at rallying. Our man with the hip-hops, Brian hipped us to the fact that Pastrana's effort's got some serious muscle behind it, but muscle wasn't enough to save Travis and his co-driver Christian Edstrom from what can only be termed as a gnarly roll when Pastrana carried too much speed into a corner. The footage is shot from three angles, so you can watch Travis as the car flips. And flips. And flips again. And again. At one point, his arm gets sucked out the window from the force of the roll. He's lucky he was able to hold onto it.

Travis Pastrana/Driver #199 [Vermont SportsCar]