Travis Pastrana Wins Rally America Season Opener At Sno*Drift

Travis Pastrana scored the first victory of the 2009 Rally America Championship with a decisive win at Sno*Drift in northern Michigan.

“It’s a great way to start the season, with points under my belt,” said Pastrana. “But every mailbox looked like a deer on that last stage.”

Deer has special meaning for Pastrana and Edstrom at Sno*Drift. Last year’s event is best remembered for how Pastrana and Edstrom lost their lead when they struck a deer on the second-to-last stage and were unable to finish.

Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom drove their Subaru Rally Team USA WRX Sti to a vigorous lead from the very start, ending the first day with a 52-second lead over their closest challenger Tanner Foust. The reigning Rally America Champions extended the gap to a minute and 49 seconds by the end of the second and final day.

Foust and co-driver Chrissie Beavis moved up to second as they picked up the pace from yesterday as they became more familiar with the Rockstar Energy 2003 Hyundai Tiburon they were campaigning for the first time at this event.

“Getting used to a new car takes time and there will be that learning curve for us again at the next round,” said Foust, who is expected to campaign a Mitsubishi at 100 Acre Wood in February. “But I’m excited about this year.”

Third place went to of Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb took third place in their NOS Energy team Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X overcoming handling problems to pull into the last podium position late on Day two.

“It was a classic snow rally,” said Comrie-Picard at the finish. “We stayed in it and didn’t make any mistakes.”

Bill Bacon and Bill Watt experienced a heartbreaking event as they were in strong contention for a podium position when they spun off the road late on the second day winding up in fifth-place overall behind Polish driver Andi Mancin and co-driver Maciej Wislawski.

The event was an even bigger disappointment for Pastrana’s Subaru Rally Team USA teammates Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino. They were in contention for the lead Friday when they went off the road, then suffered mechanical problems that ended their rally. Block’s flat-out style is not suited to winter conditions.

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

Bryan Pepp and Jerry Stang had the honor of scoring the first national victory in the new Super Production class in a Subaru WRX. The class features lightly modified performance vehicles and is expected to attract new competitors.

“It feels pretty darn good to be here,” said Pepp. “We managed to come out ahead by being consistent and steady and staying in control; that’s what it takes.”

Mechanical trouble put an end to a promising start by young driver Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Alexander Kihurani in the new combined two-wheel drive class. They had to settle for second in class behind Chris Greenhouse and Don DeRose.

The Rally America Championship next moves to Missouri for Round 2, the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, February 27-28.