Travis Pastrana won the Ojibwe Forest Rally this weekend and now finds himself pretty much assured of taking home the Rally America title for the third consecutive year.  Pastrana took the win this weekend after Ken Block crashed, knocking himself out of the race.  Block was thick in the race for the title, ranked third overall in the points standings, before the crash.  Read more below…

Travis Pastrana takes Ojibwe win, extends championship lead

Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana won the Ojibwe Forest Rally this weekend, after teammate Ken Block suffered a heartbreaking crash on the final stage of the rally.

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino led the rally from the start, ending Day 1 with a 20 second lead. Pastrana and co-driver Derek Ringer fought hard on Saturday to make up time, but were only able to claw back one second — until Block struck a tree on the final stage.

“We were out-driven all day today, and yesterday,” said Pastrana late Saturday. “It really sucks to see him on the side of the stage right at the end.”

Block and Gelsomino were unharmed, but it is believed their competition Subaru WRX STi took heavy damage.

The victory all but assures Pastrana the 2008 Rally America title. He would have to fail to finish both of the next two rounds, while either Block or Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard took both wins – an unlikely scenario for Pastrana, who has developed a maturity this season that has earned him a series of reliable top results.

Second place went to Kyle Sarasin, who battled through a host of mechanical problems to finish on the podium.

“We’re excited,” said Sarasin. “We had a ton of problems at this rally and to finish on the podium — and in second, no less — we’re pretty happy.”

Sarasin and co-driver Mikael Johansson fought through a turbocharger failure on Friday and transmission failure on Saturday.

Australian Andy Pinker and co-driver Robbie Durant earned the third spot on the podium. The duo had not been optimistic for such a strong finish, after they struck a rock on Day 1, and took damage to their car that dropped him to 11th place.

“The two Subaru drivers were pushing hard all day and I thought one might make a mistake today – I just didn’t know who.”

After Round 7, the top three in the championship standings remain unchanged. Pastrana extended his lead over second-place Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard – who opted to sit out this event after his end-over-end flip at the X Games earlier this month. Block remains in third place.

Comrie-Picard was not the only top driver absent from the contest after a brutal X Games competition that saw many series frontrunners take heavy damage to their competition cars. Tanner Foust, Matthew Johnson and Pat Moro also chose not to enter this event.

“It’s too bad for the championship to see so many guys had cars that couldn’t be repaired in time to be here and compete,” said Pastrana.

Heath Nunnemacher and co-driver Kim DeMotte drove a strong event to take the Production GT class win, while veteran Doug Shepherd and co-driver Karen Wagner set the fastest two-wheel drive time in their Group 5 Dodge SRT 4. The Production class win went to brothers Jan and Jody Zedril in their Mitsubishi Lancer, and the sole finishers in the Group 2 class were Silvio Alva and co-driver Ben Slocum.

The Ojibwe Forests Rally began Friday afternoon with a spectator stage at the Bemidji Speedway, where teams kicked up the dust for roaring spectators on a quarter-mile oval course, before moving to the sandy forest stages.

The event opened Thursday night with a crowd-pleasing freestyle motocross exhibition from “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram and Pastrana at the Bemidji Speedway. Bartram, a two-time X Games gold medalist in moto events, has been a regular threat on the U.S. rally scene since his 2006 series debut. He finished the event in fifth-place overall.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2008 Rally America National Championship series consists of nine exciting events that take place in a range of challenging weather and road conditions in a season that extends from February to October. Throughout the year, teams take on everything from the forest logging roads in Minnesota, to the high-altitude Yampa River Valley in Northwest Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest forest and coast paths.

The series moves west to Steamboat Springs on September 13 and 14 for the next round, Rally Colorado.

Pastrana and Carolyn Bosley | cr. CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/SHAZAMM/ESPN IMAGES

As a rally car driver, you have to depend a lot on your co-driver.  So when Travis Pastrana lost his co-driver Jim DeChamp after he crashed during his Moto X Best Trick contest appearance on Friday, he turned to one of the best.  Carolyn Bosley was the co-driver to the late Rally Car legend Colin McRae, and no doubt she was a big part of why Pastrana was able to cinch the gold medal Sunday in the Rally Car Racing Super Special event.

Pastrana was up against last year’s winner, Tanner Foust, who gave a good fight and had the lead until hitting some safety barriers (though he was able to finish the race).

There was a tie for third-place after both racers, BMX rider Dave Mirra and DC Shoes founder Ken Block, could not drive in the match due to mechanical problems.  A tie was called, and Mirra went home with a bronze medal and a record 23rd X Games medal.

Keep reading for more about the final…

Travis Pastrana and Co-Driver Carolyn Bosley Make a Great Team; Win the Rally Car Racing Super Special Final
Dave Mirra is Unstoppable as He Wins Yet Another Medal

LOS ANGELES – It was an electrifying head-to-head race against X Games veteran Pastrana and last year’s Rally Car Super Special champion Tanner Foust. Pastrana was forced to make an eleventh hour swap in his co-driver, choosing the late Rally Car legend Colin McRae’s former co-driver Bosley. The decision was ultimately fruitful as the two took the final and seized the gold.

“It’s tough because it’s single round elimination. You have to really push. It’s all about going for it,” Pastrana said about his winning rally.

Foust came out of the gate blazing and cleared the immense dirt jump with no problem, but ran into trouble as he exited the arena and drove onto the tarmac, sideswiping his car against the safety barriers. It was at that point Pastrana seized upon the moment to take the lead. Foust finished the course successfully, but still behind Pastrana to take home the silver medal.

“Now that we’ve had two years in this event we feel we can build a car that better suits this event and come back even stronger,” Foust said.

Perhaps one of the most unexpected occurrences in the Super Special final was Mirra tying for bronze with Ken Block. Both qualified into the bronze medal match, but both experienced mechanical problems that kept both of them from driving in the match. A tie was declared which subsequently awarded Mirra his 23rd X Games medal, a seemingly untouchable record for most medals ever won at X Games.

“Just to be here to try and do this is great. Medaling after less than a year of doing this is amazing,” Mirra said. Mirra began practicing and competing in rally in late 2007. This is his first X Games Rally Car Racing appearance and his 13th X Games.

RALLY CAR RACING SUPER SPECIAL
FINAL RESULTS Results from ESPN X GAMES 14 at The Home Center in Carson, Calf. on Sunday, August 3, 2008. (Final Standings)

Driver / Driver / Hometown / Hometown

1. Travis Pastrana / Carolyn Bosley / Annapolis, Md. / South Burlington, Vt.
2. Tanner Foust / Chrissie Beavis / Capistrano, Calif. / San Diego, Calif.
3. Dave Mirra / Alex Kihurani / Greenville, N.C. / Philadelphia, Pa.
3. Ken Block / Alex Gelsomino / Rancho Santa Fe, Calif / Los Angeles, Calif. /

Already invited are such action sports stalwarts like Travis Pastrana, Kenny Bartram and Dave Mirra along with Tanner Foust and Ken Block.

Check out the following press release to learn more about the event and the latest standings for the 2008 Rally America National Championship.

Rally Stars Battle for X Games Wildcard Spot at NEFR

GOLDEN VALLEY, MINNESOTA (Rally America Media) –The top rally drivers on the continent are set to take on the rugged forest terrain of Maine and New Hampshire when the Rally America National Championship Series moves to the East Coast for the New England Forest Rally on July 11 and 12.

Heading into Round 6, the top three drivers in the series are separated by just three points and it is expected to be an exciting battle.

Andrew Comrie-Picard is leading the standings in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. One point behind is Subaru Rally Team USA’s Travis Pastrana in his Subaru WRX STi, with Ken Block another two points behind him.

In addition to the 2008 Rally America National Championship title, New England Forest Rally competitors are vying for the Last Chance Qualifier entry into X Games 14, to be held in Los Angeles this August 3rd.

The event’s top-finishing driver who has not already earned an invitation to the X Games will earn the coveted last-chance spot.

Among the contenders for the final position are Rockstar Energy’s Andy Pinker, who is sitting in 11th overall in the standings after being dogged by mechanical trouble all season.

Wildcard driver Niall McShea, a former Production World Rally Champion, will also be a contender. The Irish driver has yet to battle the current crop of Rally America competitors, but it’s expected he has the talent to walk away with a win.

For the third consecutive year, rally racing will be featured in the Summer X Games, with the first six races of the 2007 Rally America season serving as qualifying events for the popular action-sport competition.

Already confirmed as invited X Games drivers are: Tanner Foust, Ken Block and Travis Pastrana — the three medalists from last year’s race — and Andrew Comrie-Picard, Matthew Johnson, Antoine L’Estage, Kyle Sarasin, Patrick Moro, and Nathan Conley. Two others will be selected from the rally community at large.

Challenging logging roads with some of the longest stages on the circuit set the tone for the New England Forest Rally. Always a favorite with drivers due to the technical demands of the course, this rally is also a crowd pleaser because of its stunning scenery and wildlife.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

Six vehicle classes, ranging from stock to highly modified, compete under the Rally America banner. Eleven different automobile manufacturers are represented in Rally America events, led by Subaru, Mitsubishi, Dodge, Ford and Volkswagen.

Based in Golden Valley, Minn., Rally America sanctions the premier rally racing series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series.