Rally at X Games 14 wows the crowds [SPOILER ALERT]
Click above for high-res gallery of rally at X Games 14
You can bitch and moan about the X Games version of rally racing being less pure than what you see on WRC, and while there are no trees whizzing by or bottomless pits in which to careen, the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA offered many opportunities for competitors to crash their cars in spectacular fashion. This year's event at X Games 14 was divided between driving on dirt within the stadium and pavement outside with a big jump smack dab in the center of the stadium giving fans the best view of the biggest car-nage.
The most spectacular example of mechanical mayhem from this past weekend's two-hour competition was during the quarterfinals in which Andrew Comrie-Picard didn't quite make the big jump and smacked his rear end on the lip of the receiving ramp, which flipped his car end over end (see above and more in gallery). His competitor at the time, Dave Mirra, who is an X Games alum competing for the first time in a car rather than on a bike, just had to finish to win. He tagged the wall halfway through the race, however, and was forced to finish without being able to turn left.
Find out what happened in the gold medal race, as well video of that race and the Mirra/Comrie-Picard duel after the jump, and view some photos of yesterday's Rally X action in the gallery below.
Gallery: X Games 14 (2008) - Rally
[Source: Expn]
The race for X Games gold came down to two familiar names: Travis Pastrana and host of the new Top Gear USA, Tanner Foust. These two met in the gold medal race last year where Pastrana slid into Foust's lane on the last turn to lose the race by disqualification. Sturdier barriers were erected this year to ensure such an anticlimactic ending didn't happen again. Pastrana was also forced to run the race with the late (and great) Colin McCrae's former co-driver after his main shotgun specialist, Jim DeChamp, broke his back in the Moto X Best Trick competition earlier in the X Games. It didn't seem to phase him, as Pastrana was able to avenge last year's loss by running a clean race. Foust would have been right there had he not tapped the wall early on. TP celebrated with some dirt doughnuts and professional gloating on the roof of his Subaru.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
simianspeedster 4:14PM (8/04/2008)
I'm the last person to watch the X Games, but I have to admit that I stumbled on the rally racing starting with the quarterfinals when I was flipping channels out of boredom yesterday. The next hour was ceratinly a lot of fun to watch!
I particularly liked watching the driver with the damaged left front suspension working REALLY hard to get that car home. The front wheels were completely pigeon toed, but the driver rowed the car back and forth and slid around enough to make it work. Entertaining stuff.
-SimianSpeedster
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R 5:02PM (8/04/2008)
Yeah it may not be "real" rally, but I think it will shed more light on the sport as a whole, and that should be a good thing.
Dan 7:06PM (8/04/2008)
Why didn't AutoBlog have anything on Pikes Peak? That's real rally. Two competitors even had to be airlifted to hospital due to broken backs after their Subaru wrapped around a tree. Even though it wasn't a televised event, surely it is as news worthy as this.
why not the LS2LS7? 7:56PM (8/04/2008)
Pikes Peak is televised, just weeks or months late. At least with autoblog not covering it I can still be surprised.
Todd 4:12PM (8/04/2008)
Watched it. Wasn't the same without Colin. That snotty kid who won did a poor job of acknowledging McRae's contribution to the sport, and the reason its in the X Games at all.
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Hugh G 4:19PM (8/04/2008)
What are you talking about? Travis Pastrano said he did this race in honor of Colin. They were great friends. THey even did a tear-jerker piece where Travis talked about what Colin meant to him. Wake up chump.
garlinski 4:27PM (8/04/2008)
While most gamers and hard core WRC fans love Colin and know Colin's name, Pastrana's run 2 years ago when Colin rolled his WRX is what drew people to the XG Rally. Rally with Pastrana in it brought the fans that had no idea what Rally was or for that matter a WRX or EVO.
Colin, rest his sole, was by far the most entertaining part of XG 2 years ago when he rolled his ride and kept going. Pastrana may be brash, but I believe he respects Colin's legacy.
RJP 5:33PM (8/04/2008)
@Garlinksi: "Colin, rest his sole"
I hope his rally shoes are up there, walkin' around, in Heaven, too.
big jim slade 6:26PM (8/04/2008)
I think his fillet of sole could use some rest too. Those fish swim their butts off...
Zane 4:12PM (8/04/2008)
Thanks for posting everything before the jump.
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TwinTurboVR4 4:20PM (8/04/2008)
that flip was pretty disappointing. What kind of rally driver is skiddish of a jump?
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:23PM (8/04/2008)
He's a BMXer, not a rally driver.
adrenalnjunky 6:55PM (8/04/2008)
Actually, the guy that flipped his car over the jump was Andrew Comrie-Picard - who is a rally driver. It was Dave Mirra - BMXer- that had already wrecked that same lap, and though he was out of it, until ACP flipped it - the officials said Mirra still had to complete his laps to advance, so he drove a car with broken control arms or steering another lap to get to the next round. Next round was when he stuffed it in the wall after coming off the ramp askew.
Vic4re 4:23PM (8/04/2008)
here is some video i took at the x-games... they need to have more of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57ao5YSb-oM
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Vic4re 4:25PM (8/04/2008)
here is from the practice they did before the main event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8gd7MHhqw
and a link to my flickr account of some of the pix i took .
http://flickr.com/photos/vicferrari
jon 4:31PM (8/04/2008)
this is the type of stuff they need to bring up during the next top gear USA filming, they need to talk up foust's performance, show some crazy pics (like the one above) during the news segment, then laugh and joke about how he lost- thats classic top gear style
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FamilyGuy 4:52PM (8/04/2008)
I watched it live and pretty much knew immediately the EVO was not up to speed to clear that jump. The entire rally event was a total blast to watch, especially the driving of David Mira.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:21PM (8/04/2008)
Apparently you didn't see the in-CAR footage of Pastrana saying thanks to Colin AS HE CROSSED THE FINISH LINE.
Or him having Colin's number on the fender of his car and him being responsible for it being on every car in the X games. Or his letter to Colin he read on air where he said "your ability as a driver is only exceeded by your abilities as a teacher".
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FamilyGuy 5:39PM (8/04/2008)
Yeah that as a very nice tribute to the great Colin McCrae by Pastrana. Having McCrae's co-driver from last year with him during the drive was icing on the cake.
FotoGenetix 10:43PM (8/04/2008)
boo to travis and mirra...these guys are good i guess..but no where near wrc good. Although they might bring in their own fans to rally.
I'll give them respect when they can keep up with the best.
im just surprised they havent gone to showboat drifting yet.
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