Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana came out on top of a hard fought battle at the Olympus Rally, round three of the 2009 Rally America National Championship which held from 18-19 April, to earn his second win of the season. Pastrana, with co-driver Christian Edstrom, drove a faultless rally in their 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car but needed to go flat-out on the final stages of competition to pull away from a strong field of challengers, winning by a convincing forty seconds. Pastrana's Subaru teammate Ken Block led the rally after Day One but an engine problem sidelined him midway through the final day.Bad luck also befell Subaru Rally Team USA's newest team member, BMX legend Dave Mirra, who damaged his STI in a spin late in the rally while sitting in 2nd place in the Super Production class.
The 2009 Olympus Rally featured over 100 miles of sinuous, tree-lined logging roads near Aberdeen, Washington. The typically unpredictable Pacific Northwest weather was absent throughout the event allowing calm dry conditions to persist.
Pastrana found himself in 3rd position in the Olympus Rally at the conclusion of the first day, trailing rally leader and teammate Ken Block by over twenty seconds. On Day Two, Block dropped out of the hunt for victory early with engine trouble, leaving Pastrana locked in a tight battle for overall victory with Canadian driver Andrew Comrie Picard. "It was a great battle, our stage times were really close with ACP (Andrew Comrie Picard), we even tied on a stage to the tenth of a second" explained Pastrana. "But I managed to pull out a small lead and keep it for most of the day, then charged hard on the last few stages for the win. It's a great feeling to win with such strong competition."
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Having secured two wins from three events, Pastrana now sits tied for 2nd Overall in the Rally America National Championship points standings.
Ken Block leapt into the lead at the start of the Olympus Rally, winning half of Day One's eight stages to amass a lead of over twenty seconds. However, Block's impressive run was halted early the next day when his Subaru experienced engine trouble, forcing him out of the event. "Although we hit some bad luck my confidence is boosted from our stage times on the first day where the competition was so good and everyone was going flat-out. The next round in Oregon has roads similar to Olympus so I'm sure we will have the speed again there" said Block.
Subaru Rally Team USA will visit the Pacific Northwest again next month for the Oregon Trail Rally, based in Portland, Oregon and Hood River to the east on May 15-17.
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