Travis Pastrana's listed age is 30. His listed birth year is 1983. If you have ever met, seen, spoke to, or shared a communal space with Travis Pastrana, you might find these two statements hard to believe.
Now, it's possible that Pastrana isn't 30, that there's some untruth going on here. I don't think it's that simple, though.
I think that all of his crashes, wrecks and injuries have aged him. That spills on dirtbikes and side by sides and NASCAR stock cars and rally Subarus and everything else wore off his youth. It's like he's often lived more than a single year's worth of life over the course of 365 days.
I have had one genuine human interaction with Travis Pastrana. I was at the driver's meeting for the New England Forest Rally this year, standing between my driver and Pastrana in the assembled crowd of competitors. A Rally American official was warning us all not to get out of our cars and piss on the side of the road at the start of the famous Concorde Pond stage — there's an old woman who lives there and can see you peeing from her front porch and she's been complaining.
My driver scoffed, "that's the whole reason why she's on the porch."
Pastrana turned around, and laughed.
That whole day I'd seen him sign autographs and give interviews, always cheery, always in front of a camera. That laugh about a pervy old lady was absolutely genuine. I've liked Pastrana ever since.
But man, that guy has the face of a forty five year old if I have ever seen one.
(Hat tip to For Sweden!)
Photo Credit: Getty Images, Raphael Orlove (lower photo)