Subaru and Pastrana capture third rally win
27 Apr 2021|1,074 views
Subaru Motorsports U.S.A Driver Travis Pastrana and Co-Driver Rhianon Gelsomino took their third straight overall victory to open the 2021 American Rally Association (ARA) season at the DirtFish Olympus Rally, giving the #199 crew a commanding lead in the ARA championship chase.
Pastrana and Subaru teammate Brandon Semenuk now sit first and third in the season standings with three rounds of the nine-event calendar complete.
With defending champion Barry McKenna and his Ford Fiesta WRC unfortunately sidelined due to a family issue, the fight for Open Class honours was between the two blue and gold Subaru Motorsports U.S.A entries of Pastrana and Semenuk and the newly debuted #43 Hoonigan Racing Division WRX STI of Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino.
With weather on day one shifting between drizzle and hard rain, Pastrana won SS1 and SS3 to open a lead of just under seven seconds over Semenuk and John Hall on the first stage loop. The Canadian crew struck back quickly on the second loop, taking SS5 and SS6 and cutting the lead to 3.6 seconds, but the 29km Wildcat stage would bring misfortune for the pair. After taking a full second out of Pastrana through the first sector of the stage to put the outright lead into reach, Semenuk was caught out by a slippery transition onto a bridge which left the car with a hard hit on the driver's side.
With the hard-charging #180 out, Pastrana was left with a lead of 47.3 seconds over Ken Block with only four stages left to run on day two. A smart day two drive highlighted by two more stage wins gave Pastrana and Rhianon Gelsomino a win of just under a minute. Block's second-place finish in his first rally in a Subaru since 2009 moved him past both McKenna and Semenuk and into second in the driver's championship, while Rhianon Gelsomino now leads husband Alex in first and second positions in the co-driver's title hunt.
Subaru Motorsports U.S.A Driver Travis Pastrana and Co-Driver Rhianon Gelsomino took their third straight overall victory to open the 2021 American Rally Association (ARA) season at the DirtFish Olympus Rally, giving the #199 crew a commanding lead in the ARA championship chase.
Pastrana and Subaru teammate Brandon Semenuk now sit first and third in the season standings with three rounds of the nine-event calendar complete.
With defending champion Barry McKenna and his Ford Fiesta WRC unfortunately sidelined due to a family issue, the fight for Open Class honours was between the two blue and gold Subaru Motorsports U.S.A entries of Pastrana and Semenuk and the newly debuted #43 Hoonigan Racing Division WRX STI of Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino.
With weather on day one shifting between drizzle and hard rain, Pastrana won SS1 and SS3 to open a lead of just under seven seconds over Semenuk and John Hall on the first stage loop. The Canadian crew struck back quickly on the second loop, taking SS5 and SS6 and cutting the lead to 3.6 seconds, but the 29km Wildcat stage would bring misfortune for the pair. After taking a full second out of Pastrana through the first sector of the stage to put the outright lead into reach, Semenuk was caught out by a slippery transition onto a bridge which left the car with a hard hit on the driver's side.
With the hard-charging #180 out, Pastrana was left with a lead of 47.3 seconds over Ken Block with only four stages left to run on day two. A smart day two drive highlighted by two more stage wins gave Pastrana and Rhianon Gelsomino a win of just under a minute. Block's second-place finish in his first rally in a Subaru since 2009 moved him past both McKenna and Semenuk and into second in the driver's championship, while Rhianon Gelsomino now leads husband Alex in first and second positions in the co-driver's title hunt.
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