Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana and his co-driver Christian Edstrom overcame treacherously icy conditions to take a dominating win at this weekend’s Sno*Drift Rally, round one of the 2010 Rally America National Championship. Pastrana, the defending four-time Rally America National Champion, won by over one minute and thirty seconds driving an open class rally specification 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. In an amazing show of determination and grit, Pastrana completed the event nursing an extremely sore collarbone which he broke in a motocross accident less than a week ago.
The 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI with EXEDY racing clutch
His Subaru Rally Team USA teammate, BMX legend turned rally pro Dave Mirra, finished 6th overall with co-driver Derek Ringer.
The Sno*Drift Rally was held on over 130 miles of snow and ice-covered roads in northern Michigan. Constantly changing weather and road conditions historically make this rally extremely challenging. This year’s event featured forest roads that were a virtual skating rink after recent warm weather melted the snow cover which then refroze this past week, leaving the roads covered in a thick sheet of ice. Rally America rules prohibit the use of spiked or studded ice-tires, placing a high premium on traction. Many competitors commented that conditions were the most treacherous they have ever experienced due to the lack of snow cover over the ice as well as the extremely small snow banks, which when present, help keep errant rally cars on the road and away from the trees.
Pastrana led from the second stage and never looked back, advancing his lead to nearly fifty-five seconds after only the first of two days of competition. With a healthy lead in-hand, Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom spent the second day focusing on a safe and conservative driving strategy but were still able to extend their lead even further, eventually winning by one minute and thirty-seven seconds over former Canadian Rally Champion Antoine L’Estage. Thirteen of the event’s twenty stages were won by Pastrana.
“I drove as smoothly as I could because my shoulder was so sore,” said Pastrana at the finish. “We didn’t put a wheel wrong all weekend and really the key to the victory was the perfect setup of my Subaru for the conditions. It enabled me to stay calm, smooth and mistake-free.” Pastrana had broken his collarbone last Sunday during a motocross ride and had to undergo surgery this week to plate it back together before he could drive.
”Travis really put in one of his best driving performances given his recent injury and the very challenging stage conditions at this year’s Sno*Drift Rally,” acknowledged James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc. “An incredible effort by our team helped support our winning result, from the car preparation and development made by the staff at Vermont SportsCar to the time dedicated in testing and car setup performed by Dave [Mirra]. Our team cars, based on the 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, maximized traction via their Subaru symmetrical all-wheel drive systems even in these slick roads.”
EXEDY supplies Subaru Rally Team USA with high performance racing clutches
Subaru Rally Team USA heads next to the second round in the Rally America championship, the 100 Acre Wood Rally, scheduled on February 26 – 27 in southern Missouri.
Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and the NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution won the North American Rally Championship this past weekend with a podium finish in the season-ending Rally of the Tall Pines. The win represents the first championship for the Mitsubishi Evolution X, and the first rally championship for NOS Energy Drink.
“This is a terrific result, especially given that we were working on developing the new rally car throughout this first competition season for the Evolution X,” said Comrie-Picard. “But our sponsors and our team came through and we won a very tight championship race.”
A late-season push, including a win at Rally Colorado and a second-place finish at the Rally of the Tall Pines, sealed the driver’s title for Comrie-Picard. Co-driver Jeremy Wimpey joined the team to secure both of these top finishes.
ACP wins the North American Rally Championship
The season-ender was unusually dry and warm and made for very fast speeds and intense competition. Fans and media at the contest noted Comrie-Picard’s aggressive driving throughout the event — which saw him tearing off bumpers, bending bodywork, and even taking out a finish board — in contrast to his normally tidy style.
“We told ACP to win the championship or leave it in the woods,” said crew chief Eric Vlasic. “He actually did leave some of the car in the woods, but he brought in the championship!”
“We had this car wide-open the whole time,” added Comrie-Picard. “I just wasn’t lifting in most corners or over crests and fortunately, the Ohlins TTX shocks were amazing, the Yokohama tires took the super-high sideloads at 200 km/h (120 mph), and our K&N filter kept the engine safe even through some deep water splashes.”
The team is already preparing for 2010 and looks forward to defending the championship and competing at the X Games for a fifth time. The NOS Energy Drink motorsports team has had an exceptionally successful year, winning four major racing titles: the North American Rally Championship, the Formula Drift Championship, the Redline Time Attack Series, and the NASCAR Nationwide series.
Travis Pastrana put an authoritative stamp on his fourth consecutive Rally America National Championship with a dominating win at the 2009 Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR). Pastrana, from Davidsonville, MD, mathematically won the 2009 Rally America Championship at the Ojibwe Forests Rally in late August. With nothing to lose and no pressure, Pastrana entered LSPR stating he was intent on simply driving to dominate, taking risks and putting on a proper show for the fans. He lived up to his claims by leading from the start at the wheel of his 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car and finishing fastest on fifteen of LSPR’s seventeen stages. Pastrana, with co-driver Christian Edstrom, won by a comfortable margin of over four minutes. The win at LSPR is Pastrana’s 6th of the nine-event 2009 Rally America National Championship and caps the most successful season of his rally career.
Pastrana's Subaru Impreza WRX STI
Pastrana’s Subaru teammate Ken Block, with co-driver Alex Gelsomino, finished in third position overall and won the Super Production class.
The Lake Superior Performance Rally is headquartered in Houghton, at the northern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The rally is revered by rally drivers for its difficult conditions, which typically include high speeds on tree-lined roads with variable weather making stages a white-knuckled affair. Adding to the challenge are over seventy miles of night stages where visibility can be in short supply.
“I drove flat out, took some risks and had a lot fun,” explained Pastrana at the podium ceremony. “Christian [Edstrom] and I wanted to win as many stages as possible and really show how fast we can go, its definitely a different strategy when the points and the championship don’t matter!”
Pastrana’s goal of winning all of the event’s seventeen stages was interrupted only by former Canadian Rally Champion Antoine L’Estage who narrowly beat Pastrana on two stages on the first day of competition. Pastrana went on to win all eight competitive stages on the second and final day of LSPR cruising to a victory of over four minutes.
The AMS/NOS Energy Drink Time Attack Team headed to the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Nevada for the 7th round of the Redline Time Attack series. The team hopes that the saying “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” rings true as the weekend was filled with unusual and unexpected problems.
This was Paul Gerard’s first time driving the new race car and the team was hoping to give him a lot of practice time to acclimate to the car. From the very first practice session the problems started and continued throughout the weekend. From brake master cylinders, shifter cables, to alternators breaking off the car, it was challenge just to keep the car running.
The car has been very reliable this year and the team was surprised but worked through all the strange issues that came up. The car severely overheated on Saturday when the alternator bracket broke causing the belt and water pump to stop running.
After patching things together for Sunday it was determined that the engine was running on 3 cylinders due to the overheating on Saturday. Having traveled almost 2000 miles the AMS/NOS Energy Drink Team wasn’t about to give up. Tuner Martin Musial tweaked the tune trying to extract more power out of the hurt engine and a fresh set of BFG tires were put on for the first timed session.
Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and his NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX took a decisive win this weekend at Rally Colorado, the 8th round of the national Rally America series.
“I love it when it’s a battle,” said Comrie-Picard. “We were fighting tooth-and-nail with Travis (Pastrana) early in the rally and that’s really satisfying.”
ACP at Rally Colorado
The challenging Colorado rally through the high-desert roads around the Yampa Valley is fast and often features widely variable weather. This year was no exception. Dry, dusty conditions on Day 1 were replaced by driving rain that turned the roads slick with mud on Day 2. The rally ended under a rainbow. A ferocious early battle shifted gears on Day 2. Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey found themselves holding position at the front of the pack for the second half of the rally after Subaru Rally Team USA rival Pastrana barreled through a chicane – taking huge penalties.
“We would have preferred to have raced hard in a close fight right to the end,” said Comrie-Picard. “But to finish a minute and 46 seconds in the lead is an accomplishment to be proud of after 100 miles of racing.”
The team took the most stage wins of any team, winning eight of the 16 stages. The first-place finish moves Comrie-Picard into the top-three in the overall Rally America series — ahead of Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block — and extends his lead in the North American Championship. With one round remaining in US competition, the driver is assured to at least tie Block for third place in the 2009 season.
Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block will not be behind the wheel of his usual Open Class 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI at this weekend’s Rally Colorado and instead will pilot the Super Production class Subaru Impreza WRX STI of fellow Subaru teammate Dave Mirra. Mirra will not be competing at Rally Colorado due to a schedule conflict with this weekend’s Dew Tour BMX event in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Block crashed his Open Class Subaru heavily at the previous event, The Ojibwe Forests Rally. Although Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino walked away unharmed their Subaru rally car was terminally damaged. With insufficient time to prepare a spare rally car, SRT USA has opted to provide Block with the team’s Super Production class Subaru in Mirra’s absence at Rally Colorado.
The Super Production (SP) class, a new category in the 2009 Rally America series, features minimally modified, production-based cars. The SP class features much more restrictive regulations on modifications than the Open Class, where Block has been driving for the past three seasons.
Rally Driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and his NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX will make a return to U.S.
rally competition this coming weekend, following a tough event in Canada. Comrie-Picard is in a tight battle for the top three in the 2009 Rally America championship as the series winds up. He is currently in fourth place, just two points behind Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block, but he is confident he can move up.
“There’s going to be some great racing in the final two rounds,” said Comrie-Picard. “We’re playing catch-up to the other guys, but we’re going to make every round count this season and claw up the rankings.”
Rally America allows two event drops in the season, counting seven of nine rallies toward the championship. While some teams, like the factory-backed Subaru Rally Team USA, run all nine events, the ACP Rally Team is able to contest seven rounds in 2009 — so every rally counts for the team’s points standings. Comrie-Picard will be accompanied by guest co-driver Jeremy Wimpey in Colorado.
The AMS/NOS Team has been anxious to break the world record once again for the quickest EVO 8 after the last outing in Englishtown. With the crank trigger repaired the AMS/NOS Drag EVO was ready for action. The team headed to their home track, Great Lakes Dragaway (Da’ Grove) in Union Grove Wisconsin on Labor Day to make another attempt to break their record. The team met friends and customers at the track and the weather was beautiful.
On its first run the Drag EVO left the line hard but when shifting into 2nd gear driver Eric Jones realized the clutch was slipping and aborted the run but rolled through the traps at 11.5 @ 100mph. Eric brought the car back to the pits where a quick clutch adjustment was made.
The second run was being made as a test on the clutch adjustment. After an easy launch Eric continued down the track shifting easier than normal to test the clutch. As he short shifted into 3rd Eric was confident that the EXEDY clutch was holding and he charged on down the track.
AMS Performance traveled east for the 7th race in the Redline Time Attack Series. Englishtown is host to a short 1.35 mile technical road course that is quite different than what the team is used to. The track is relatively new but it’s known for its bumpy surface and rough transitions.
Saturday’s practice started with a slight drizzle that turned into a heavy downpour. The weather for Sunday was looking good with sunny skies in the forecast so practice was abandoned as there was nothing to be gained from running the wet conditions. The rain continued into the night but as the weathermen predicted Sunday morning brought clear skies.
The team opted from running its traditional aero package as the front splitter would be damaged by the rough track conditions. The first practice session went well but after a few laps Mark Daddio brought the car in complaining of a loss in power steering. A quick diagnosis revealed a ruptured high pressure power steering line. The team moved into action and found a quick fix by splicing the line with a barbed hose fitting.
In the second practice session the line developed a leak again and the team found that the high pressure line was too much for the fixed connection. It was a risk to run the car because losing the line meant an oil leak that would get on the track and rear tires along with a loss of power steering. This already caused a pucker moment when Mark lost the line coming out of a corner and had to fight a sliding car without power assist. The team knew that the AMS/NOS Energy Drink EVO X only had a limited run time to set a fast lap in competition.
