Pastrana and Gelsomino take third consecutive victory at Olympus Rally

Shelton, Washington, April 25th, Travis Pastrana has maintained his 100% start to the 2021 American Rally Association presented by DirtFish National season by winning round three, the DirtFish Olympus Rally. 

The Subaru Motorsports USA driver, co-driven by Rhianon Gelsomino, won both the Sno*Drift and 100 Acre Wood Rallies before sealing the perfect hat-trick in Washington, triumphing over Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino by 1m07.4s. 

 It was Block’s first rally back in a Subaru since 2009 and his second consecutive second place to Pastrana, having been the 100AW Rally runner-up in a Škoda Fabia R5+. Hyundai Motorsport junior driver Josh McErlean, 21, finished third and top of the RC2 class, winning the notorious Wildcat stage – the first ever overall stage win of his rallying career – to also net his first ever outright podium. Brandon Semenuk had been a major factor in the battle too, pushing his team-mate Pastrana hard to head into the opening day’s final test – the aforementioned Wildcat – just 3.6s behind the five-time US rally champion. 

 But the Candaian was caught out in the treacherous conditions, clipped a bridge and retired his WRX STI from the rally. The damage proved too great for him to play any further part on Sunday. Reigning ARA National Champion Barry McKenna was supposed to contest his second event in his new Ford Fiesta WRC but withdrew on the eve of the rally for personal reasons. 

 These non-scores, coupled to Pastrana’s third victory for as many rounds, give the Subaru driver a commanding lead in the series standings. He won six of the Olympus Rally’s 11 stages with Semenuk scoring three and McErlean and Block both grabbing one apiece. After a run of four straight retirements, Ryan Booth brought his McKenna Motorsports Ford Fiesta Rally2 home in fourth place, albeit over three-and-a-half minutes down on class rival McErlean. 

 Booth was content with his performance though on his first time out in the latest-generation Fiesta, but did profit from the misfortune of his team-mate Callum Devine who, like McErlean, was sampling US rallying for the first time. 

 Devine had been running within 20s of his Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy stablemate on the opening day but was battling with a mechanical issue aboard his Ford. The problem eventually proved to be insurmountable and Devine called it a day after the first of Sunday’s stages, retiring from what was fourth position. 

 Jeff Seehorn was another retiree, exiting the event from seventh place on Saturday’s final test when an outer tie rod broke on his Subaru and pitched him straight off the road and into a tree. All the calamities allowed John Coyne to grab fifth spot in his Ford Fiesta R5, two minutes ahead of two-wheel-drive winner Seamus Burke in his Ford Escort Mk2. Seventh place went to Matthew Brassfield, who was penalized a minute in his Subaru Impreza but still finished over a minute clear of Derik Nelson’s Subaru BRZ. 

Nelson had been leading the 2WD class throughout Saturday but ran into trouble on Sunday. He performed valiantly on the final stage of the rally though to vault up from 11th to eighth, surging past Travis Nease, Ace Robey and André D’Orazio and profiting from George Plsek’s non-apperance in the final stage to claim the position. 

 Nease slid outside of the top 10 but Robey finished just a single second behind Nelson and D’Orazio was only another 3.2s in arrears. 

 The ARA National series now takes a seven-week break with the next round, the Southern Ohio Forest Rally, running on June 11-12.

Source info: ARA 

Picture: Rhianon Gelsomino

Ken Block Doesn’t often Go To Missouri, But When he Does, Locals Ask Him for Directions!

 February 18th, 2014, Park City, UT:  After their horrific wreck at final round of the 2013 Rally America Championship, Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino are back in the rally car  this morning for two days of testing in preparation for The 100 Acre Wood Rally, one of the two rounds that the team will compete in this year. The car has been fully rebuilt and the Hoonigan Racing team are also debuting their new  2014 livery, the team also 

announced Blocks full race schedule for the year, making him one of the busiest drivers in Rally..

 “I’m stoked with how the new liveries for my Ford Fiestas have turned out, as well as the race schedule we’ve been able to put together for 2014,” said Block. “Once again I’ve been fortunate enough to put together a highly diverse schedule that has me going around the world. I’m competing in the full Global RallyCross Championship, doing a handful of Rally America events, competing in a WRC round in Spain, doing the Monza Rally Sprint for the first time ever with Valentino Rossi as a teammate, returning to the Monster Energy Gymkhana GRID finale in Madrid, heading back to Japan to do more Gymkhana demos and, most interestingly, racing in three of the World RallyCross Championship rounds for the first time ever. I’m pretty sure nobody has a better job than me this year!”

 

 

In addition to having an action-packed year planned, Block has once again reinvented his race look for the 2014 season with a graphics package that will be incorporated across a full line of signature product including apparel from Hoonigan, sunglasses from SPY and RC cars from HPI.

“Every year I’m challenged with outdoing my livery from the season before,” said Block. “Luckily, I think we were able to do it once again. This year’s livery mixes animal pattern and 8-bit, which I love. We’ve come up with a sort of digital zebra graphic that I think is awesome and also brings me back into that familiar black and white color scheme I had starting back in 2010. I think the fans are going to enjoy this look.”

 

To catch Block and his all-new livery in action, be sure to follow along this coming weekend as he takes part in Rally America’s Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, where Block will be looking to reignite his winning streak for that event.

Block’s 2014 schedule:

 

Global RallyCross Championship:

• -    GRC Barbados: 5/18/14
• -    GRC X Games Austin: 6/17/14
• -    GRC Washington D.C.: 6/22/14
• -    GRC New York: 7/20/14
• -    GRC Charlotte: 7/26/14
• -    GRC Detroit: 8/3/14
• -    GRC Daytona: 8/23/14
• -    GRC Los Angeles: 9/20/14
• -    GRC Seattle: 9/27/14
• -    GRC Las Vegas: 11/5/14

 

Stage Rally:

• -    Rally America Rally in the 100 Acre Wood: 2/21-22
• -    Rally America Suesquehannock Trail Performance Rally: 5/30-31
• -    WRC Spain: 10/24-26
• -    Monza Rally Show: 11/22-24

 

World RallyCross Championship:

• -    WRxC Norway: 6/14-15
• -    WRxC France: 9/6-7
• -    WRxC Turkey: 10/11-12

 

Gymkhana demos:

• -    Japan: 7/5-6
• -    Gymkhana GRID, Madrid: 11/1-2

Source: Hoonigan Racing

SPEED WINS THE BATTLE AT THE DIRT TRACK, BUT HEIKKINEN WINS THE WAR

Toomas "Topi" Heikkinen clinched the 2013 Global Rallycross Championship at The Dirt Track, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, along with a cool twenty thousand dollars for also winning the Sylvania SilverStar zXe Cup.



Another 1-2-3 for Ford. Heikkinen may have won the war, but third overall was the best he could manage in a tough final battle. Scott Speed (center) took the overall victory at Charlotte, with Brian Deegan rounding out the podium.



Yet another classic first turn pile up in the GRC final at Charlotte. We find it hard to understand, other than it makes for an exciting TV show for the fans, how the manufactures can continue to let  destruction and hard hitting continue. Scott Speed got the hole shot on the restart and basically cruised to victory, while others continued to battle it out behind.

 

Subaru continues to make great improvements in power and reliability in their Rallycross program, but getting a clean run in the final is still a massive challenge for all involved.  GRC seems to loose the black flag when the TV schedule tightens up. Despite a lot of rough driving in the final only one black flag was displayed.



If all GRC finals were like this!! Far and away the best battle of the day was between Brian Deegan in the Rockstar Ford Fiesta and Sverre Isachsen in the Puma Subaru. Deegan and Isachsen went door to door throughout their heat, with Sverre nipping Deegan on the line for the victory for Subaru.

 

Brian Deegan scored a fine second place in the final but it could have been an overall victory had he not been barged from behind and turned around by Scott Speed in the first try at the final.

 

One of the top privateers to compete in the Global Rallycross since it inception, Stephan Verdier made a return to the action in Charlotte behind the wheel if a Rhys Millen Racing prepared Hyundai. Stephan was quick through the heats, and despite a little tangle with Ken Block in the final he still managed a top five finish. Stephan is one of those quick privateer drivers that we truly hope can get a chance to prove his worth in a factory backed car for 2014.

 



Ken Block would again dominate in the heats posting fastest times in both of his heats. Ken continues to struggle with his reaction time off the line in the final.



Hoonigan Racing's Ken Block would have pole position for the final, but he would be lose his advantage off the line by the F1 reaction speed of  Scott Speed, which left Block getting caught up in the first turn carnage. Despite a front tire puncture in the opening laps Block would charge on and eventually finish 7th overall.



Travis Pastrana's Red Bull / Discount Tire sponsored Dodge team are suffering a very similar fate as Subaru had earlier in the year. Despite some good speed from Travis in the heats, the Dodge was crippled in the final by what seemed like minimal contact. The cars need some more development to make them a little more durable for the tight, tough racing in the GRC.

After a long development phase, Pat Morro final took the wraps of his new Chevrolet Sonic. As with any new car, Pat and his team would work on bugs throughout the weekend. Although Morro does not have the full backing from Chevrolet on the project, this first outing shows that the Sonic has potential. Morro is also in development of a second Sonic for 2014. Pat will be back in action in Las Vegas in the final round of the 2014 Global Rallycross Championship.  The mostly asphalt course in Vegas will be better suited to the Sonic which lacked suspension travel for The Dirt Track.

Dave Mirra started his Rally career in 2008 with Subaru. He has competed in both the Rally America Championship and battling in the Global Rallycross Championship since it inception. Despite some challenging moments along the way Dave has got on the podium in both series on more than one occasion. In the weeks leading up to the penultimate round of the GRC in Charlotte an announcement hit the newswire that Mirra and Subaru were parting ways, thus leaving Dave without a drive for the final GRC rounds. With the support of PUMA, Dave would work out a deal with Liam Doran to drive his Prodrive prepared Mini in Charlotte. Dave's transition to the Mini was seamless. A quick change of livery and Mirra was throwing down some impressive lap times in practice. Onto the heats, Dave would get a controversial black flag for what seemed to the officials as a jump start. Despite a stop and go penalty Mirra was able to battle back to within striking distance of Pastrana who was leading the heat.  Unfortunately, Mirra would tag a barrier while on Pastrana's rear bumper which resulted in a spin..

Mirra would not make it to the final after he was barged off  the track by Tanner Foust who struggled with a jammed throttle. 

after the event Mirra told GRC "First and foremost, I want to thank PUMA, Liam Doran, and Prodrive for the MINI. It was an unbelievable car, super fast. I won practice yesterday, qualified second today, clearly was reeling in some other heat drivers in the other races, but things just didn’t go right. I got called for a jump start—Joey (Mancari) came back and reviewed it and said it wasn’t a jump start. We went to the LCQ and all hell broke loose. I’m pretty bummed about the race. It kind of stinks, because I know I was very fast.”

Despite not getting a chance to battle for the victory in the final, Mirra showed some great potential in the Mini. We have some unconfirmed reports that Mirra could be in a second Mini in Las Vegas. We hope to see Mirra back in a permanent ride for 2014.

 

Tanner Foust was not on his game in Charlotte. He got caught up in a first corner wreck in the heats which would result in the first red flag of the day. Fans and fellow competitors were concerned as Foust did not emerge from the car until it was turned upright. We would find out later that Tanner was pleading with the safety crew to roll the car onto his wheels so he could take the restart. Despite the fact that Foust was un injured in the soft roll, the rules state that he needed to go to the medical center after an accident. Foust would return for the LCQ, but mechanical issues would ground him for the final. 

"Just call me Joni"

Joni Wiman [center] remains perfect in GRC Lites competition, winning his fifth consecutive race at The Dirt Track on Charlotte. This victory, over Geoff Sykes [left] and Sebastian Eriksson, extended Wiman’s points lead to 29—clinching him the inaugural series title.

Although the GRC Lites are a far cry from an affordable entry point in the Global Rallycross Championship, they definitely are an exciting addition to the series. It will be interesting to see how the GRC Lite will roll out in 2014 and who will be driving.  

 

For the second race in a row, Wiman failed to secure the hole shot in the final, this time falling behind Kevin Eriksson as a rough start dropped deJong through the field. But Eriksson’s good luck faded fairly quickly, as a cut right rear tire dropped him through the field like a stone until he eventually ended up seventh.

 

Geoff Sykes managed to avoid trouble at the start to coast to an easy second place, while jostling between the rest of the field allowed Sebastian Eriksson, who had missed his second heat race, to climb from ninth to fourth in the first lap. He battled with deJong once again, reminiscent of their duel in Atlanta, but held third place.

SUPERCAR FINAL RESULTS;

1.   Scott Speed, #77 OMSE2 Ford Fiesta

2.   Brian Deegan, #38 OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta ST

3.   Toomas Heikkinen, #57 OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta ST0

4.   Stephan Verdier, #4 Rhys Millen Racing Hyundai Veloster

5.   Steve Arpin, #32 OMSE2 Ford Fiesta

6.   Bucky Lasek, #81 Subaru PUMA Rallycross WRX STI

7.   Ken Block, #43 Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Fiesta ST

8.   Sverre Isachsen, #11 Subaru PUMA Rallycross WRX STI

9.   Travis Pastrana, #199 Pastrana Racing Dodge Dart

10.                Tanner Foust, #34 OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta ST



Photos; Neil McDAID / RALLYWORLDNEWS