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Bill Wood
RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com
RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com
12/12/2006 - 07:00 PM
Los Angeles, Calif.
Travis Pastrana (Andrew Harvey/Rally America photo) » More Photos
Any moment now, Subaru USA will announce a 2007 Production Car World Rally Championship program for Travis Pastrana, America's Extreme Sports master who won this year's Rally America National Championship, maybe his first of many.
There was some talk that the program would be announced at the L.A. Auto Show but that was taken off the table by Subaru. The announcement opportunity actually gets better this week, as Pastrana is representing Team USA in Paris at the Michelin Race of Champions. Breaking the news on an international stage could be advantageous in the long run. Curiously, there are rules and deadlines governing this as there always are with international motorsports. The FIA rules say an application must come by December 15 (Friday) or entries could be left at "the discretion of the FIA and subject to availability."
Without confusing applications and press releases, I understand Pastrana will enter three P-WRC events in 2007 in Mexico, Argentina and Great Britain. For the uninitiated, the Production Car WRC is made up of Group N production-based cars with 2000cc engines. Generally they're a step faster than the North American cars Travis is driving now, but not the purpose-built rockets used in the full-fledged WRC.
In Mexico, Argentina and Great Britain, Pastrana will run in front of the WRC teams and officials and Subaru will get a chance to compare his times on the same roads used by former WRC champions such as 2006 title winner Sebastian Loeb, 2000 and 2002 winner Marcus Gronholm and, perhaps more to the point, Petter Solberg, the Subaru factory driver who won the title in 2003.and was the runner-up to Loeb in '04 and '05.
Travis Pastrana (Andrew Harvey/Rally America photo) » More Photos
"Definitely I'm the new kid on the block," Pastrana said in a radio interview. "I have a lot to learn. I'm trying to be a sponge. Colin McRae (the 1995 WRC champion), who came to the X Games this year, has really been helping me a lot telling me where I should go and what I should do. We're going for this thing and see what happens."
Travis is ready for this step now, where he wasn't before his mentoring began with McRae this summer. Even he admits to being "out of control" at the beginning of the 2006 U.S. season, even the beginning of the X Games in August. In fact, in those BC (Before Colin) rounds, Travis had never won a Rally America event. After Colin, Travis' only loss came when he (shall we say) didn't feel good at Lake Superior in Upper Michigan, thus allowing Subaru teammate Ken Block to win and solidify second place in the championship.
The difference in the "After Colin" Pastrana was his recognition that "you can go a little bit slower in the car. It's not like a motorcycle where you can keep charging with your body inputs. There's a technique to be learned. I learned a lot this year but I definitely have a lot more to go."
In addition to McRae's advice, Pastrana is also getting input from John Buffum, the most successful American rally driver ever and the first and only American to win a European Championship event (1983 Sachs Rally in Germany and the 1984 ERC event in Cyprus). Buffum is also a part of the Vermont Sports Car program that prepares the Subarus used by Travis and Block on the Rally America Championship and the ones that will be used when Pastrana – and now full-time co-driver Christian Edstrom – take on the world starting next year.
"The sport survives because it is unique," said Lance Smith, president of Vermont Sports Car and a former rally competitor himself. "One of the drawbacks is that it happens in remote areas of the country. It just changes. Something is different all the time.
Smith's commitment to taking his business to a WRC standard is complete. He hired former Mitsubishi WRC team manager Derek Dauncey late in 2005 to spearhead the effort to reach the WRC and, of course, be successful there. Dauncey worked his way to team manager of the Mitsubishi factory effort that made Tommi Makinen a WRC champion from 1996-'99. Curiously enough, the next four WRC titles after McRae!
Being a businessman, Smith has a different take on rallying's success or survival in the U.S. when compared with Sport Compact drag racing or drifting. Smith believes rallying attracts a different kind of tuner fan who loves the excitement of automobiles. He said that fan is attracted to rallying's real-world driving in Southern California or Northern Michigan.
"The person that we're attracting to the sport when compared to the 1980s is a younger person who is more interested in being outdoors and is willing to travel down a wet gravel road to see the cars. This is not your father's form of motorsports. This younger generation is involved in the Internet. I explained to Subaru that this is the mountain bike, Gore-Tex crowd. They're very serious. They buy the car that they want."
Maybe Lance's passion doesn't translate to 1's and 0's on the computer screen you're reading, but it translated to me when I heard it and, apparently, to Subaru when they heard it. He's put his money where his passion is and built a very successful business within an industry – rallying – that's remaking itself again in Madonna-like fashion. Only this time, instead of a Madonna, the sport has a Travis Pastrana, who's going through a personal makeover from motorcycles to motorcars.
Travis Pastrana (Andrew Harvey/Rally America photo) » More Photos
Make no mistake, Pastrana isn't giving up the spotlight of motorcycles, double back flips and the X Games. I'd argue that stage is where he gets the juice to drink in his passion, which is becoming rallying. Travis admitted to me that it's the dirt that floats his boat. And I believe he'd go into rallying full time if he could make the cake that's pushed his way by sponsors in the motorcycle world.
This move to the P-WRC next year is a step in that direction for Pastrana, Smith and American rallying in general. Two former WRC champions, Bloomquist and McRae, came to America the last two years and experienced not winning for a host of reasons. Now it's time to see if the American form of the sport is ready for the major leagues of the current WRC.
Pastrana will start answering that question this weekend at the Race of Champions in Paris. He'll continue answering it next year in his three P-WRC events in Mexico, Argentina and Great Britain. The real matriculation, though, may come in 2008 and 2009 when Subaru, Pastrana and Vermont Sports Car take on the P-WRC full-time in addition to the Rally America schedule. Who knows, perhaps regular, full-time WRC-level competition could follow?
What's definite is Pastrana's diminishing presence in the world of extreme motorcycles as he engages his passion for rallying. Also definite is the change that's happening in a maturing American national rally championship. A 23-year-old kid who wasn't born when the sport was formed here in the U.S. is invigorating it and its fan base. That kid could lead American rallying out of the wilderness and onto a Super Special Stage or television screen near you.
Automotive journalist Bill Wood covers the tuner/sport compact scene for RACER magazine. Click here for subscription information.
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