Subaru and Pastrana bathe in X-Games glory
The inaugural X Games rally was a happy time for Subaru and Subaru Rally USA driver, Travis Pastrana, and co-driver, Christian Edstrom, who took the gold medal in the event held August 2-5. The winners topped a podium dominated by Subaru -- former Subaru World Rally Champion Colin McCrae clinched the second spot and teammates Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino took the bronze medal. All three sets of drivers piloted open class Subaru WRX STI rally cars prepared by Vermont Sports Car.
McCrae was well-positioned for the gold until he turned too hard in the air on the last jump, sending him into a full roll. After the car righted itself, McCrae floored it to the finish line, where he finished .52 seconds behind Pastrana.
Pastrana's gold came the day after he earned another gold medal, this one in the Best Trick competition in Moto Freestyle. He ended up with three gold medals overall.
Video of McRae's roll and recovery can be found after the jump.
[Source: Subaru Rally USA via Theautochannel.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
emulous1974 7:06PM (8/12/2006)
Congrats to Subaru and Pastrana and Edstrom. Too bad for McCrae sounds like he put up a hell of a fight. Vermont Sports Car is a class act company, I've seen many of their cars and met a lot of them up at the Maine Forest Rally a few years back. Edstrom is so down to earth, met him when he was navagating in an EVO VIII, he contacted me on evolutionm.net after the rally and we kept up a correspondence for a few months, a really cool guy and glad to see his rally career is progressing nicely.
Subaru and it's California dealers were giving away free tickets to this event, too bad a plane ticket and hotel room were too expensive for me to go.
Also nice to see Rallying slowly gaining an audience in this country.
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snakesausage 7:07PM (8/12/2006)
FYI... He preformed a first ever double back flip for best trick on a dirt bike. It was only a few years ago that a single back flip was thought impossible!
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Bob-o 7:59PM (8/12/2006)
Props to Pastrana, but seriously, his driving was laughable at best. McRae would have had him by 5 seconds or so had he not flipped.
Yeah. Count 'em. 1...2...3...4...5... That's an eternity in racing.
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Whydrive 8:14PM (8/12/2006)
This was last week. Autoblog's late as usual....
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spdracerut 1:18AM (8/13/2006)
I'm bummed that I missed it... I had to help a friend move from Riverside to LA. Travis is still learning, McRae is a proven WRC championship winner. He only lost by 0.52 seconds after rolling and finishing with 3 wheels? Yeah, McRae would've slaughtered everyone.
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Tim C 12:10PM (8/13/2006)
McRae. Not McCrae. 200 lines by registration tomorrow morning Mays.
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zaarin 5:27AM (8/14/2006)
Funny that comment #3 calls Pastrana's driving laugable. I didn't see him flipping any cars. ;) And five seconds is a lot to give McRae considering he was less than a second ahead going into the Home Depot Center. Yes, Pastrana is much, much younger and certainly has a lot to learn compared with a renowned WRC driver, but he beat everyone else at the event and I had the pleasure of witnessing him take the lead at Rim of the World as well... so don't underestimate him!
He's also a genuinely nice guy, which is refreshing to see!
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Jeff 8:35AM (8/14/2006)
"Props to Pastrana, but seriously, his driving was laughable at best. McRae would have had him by 5 seconds or so had he not flipped."
Bob-o,
The key words in your comment were WOULD HAVE. If McRae was so great, then why did he roll the car? I agree, that were it not for the roll, McRae would have won the gold. If it wasn't for alcohol and a poor diet, Babe Ruth would have probably hit well over 800 home runs (or maybe 80, who knows...). If it wasn't for a coaching change, the Dallas Cowboys would have won three Super Bowls in a row. If it wasn't for the Miami Dolphins, the '85 Bears would have been undefeated. If, if, if, if...
The bottom line is, he rolled the car and Pastrana won. That is nothing against McRae, just fact.
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