Travis Pastrana Leads After Day One at Rally America Sno*Drift

Day one ended at Sno*Drift as the competition began to heat up at the first round of the 2009 Rally America championship season with three teams were within striking distance of the lead.

Current Rally America rules do not allow studded ice tires, which makes finding traction an art form for teams.

Conditions are a combination of fresh snow and glazed ice, with increasingly heavy snow falling as the event progressed on Friday evening, which made the stages all the more treacherous.

Pastrana, once again teamed up with co-driver Christian Edstrom after his year-long hiatus from the sport, said he was looking forward to an exciting contest.

“The top three teams are very close, so this should be a good rally,” said Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana, the defending champion, who held a slim lead after four stages.

Close behind are their Subaru Rally Team USA teammates Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino, treading carefully in the slick conditions.

“Ice and snow rallies are lotteries. We don’t want to mess with this stuff anymore,” said Gelsomino.

Block and Gelsomino have previously struggled in winter conditions—often crashing off the road while pushing hard for an early lead.  This time the duo deliberately changed their strategy to reach the podium.

Rockstar Energy driver Tanner Foust finished the day in third place after the opening stages but is expected to pick up the pace as he becomes accustomed to the Hyundai Tiburon he is running for the first time at this event.
 
Prepared by rally legend John Buffum, the 2003 Tiburon is considered very competitive although it has recently begun to show its age. Canadian Antoine L’Estage piloted the car to the win at this event last year.

With four stages remaining, NOS Energy driver Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard is in fourth place said he was finding his legs in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX after the off-season break.

Series newcomer Andi Mancin was close behind him. A Polish rally and road race driver, Mancin is expected to contest the series for the first time this year in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

New for 2009 is the Super Production (SP) class that features lightly modified high performance vehicles leading the charge in SP were Pitor Wiktorczyk and co-driver Robbie Durant, sitting in a more than respectable sixth place overall—less than 30 seconds behind Mancin.

Twelve minutes ahead of the next-fastest two-wheel drive car and 13th overall was Young driver Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Alex Kihurani in the new 2WD class.

Sarasin is returning to his two-wheel drive roots for this event after last year's third-place finish overall in the open class.