Fast Five with Travis Pastrana

Lat34 caught up with Travis Pastrana for an exclusive interview as he arrived in California for a series of engagements leading up to the Arby’s Action Sports Awartds ceremony to talk about his achievements and rivalries in FMX, his notorious double backflip, and his new obsession with rally car racing.

Lat34: You’ve got four nominations for the Arby’s Action Sports Awards, which means you’ll probably pick up something to add to the three X Games gold medals and two Dew Tour trophies you won this summer, not to mention the Rally Car stuff. Is there anything you wanted to do this year that didn’t get done?

The big thing for me this year was really getting started right in rally car racing, but then on the first stop of the Dew Tour this year Nate Adams came out and beat me at FMX. That really made me step back and say, “Wow.” It was like he was calling me out, you know, saying “If you want this, you’re going to have to come and take it from me, because I’m not just going to let you have it.” I didn’t realize I’d gotten so complacent! Anything I got done in FMX this year on the Dew Tour or at the X Games, I have Nate Adams to thank for it because he made me realize if I’m going to be out here, I need to step up.  I went right out and won the next two Dew Tour events after that, and committed to doing the double backflip in Los Angeles. Thanks, Nate!

I’m on my bike and working out over a foam pit almost every day when I’m at home – always working on something, trying to see what works out – but I don’t have any big projects like the double backflip right now. I’m going to have to leave some of that progression to other athletes and other sports: If I have a new itch to scratch, it’s rally car racing. I had an opportunity to drive race cars come up, and I’ve really thrown myself into it.

It became clear in the middle of the Dew Tour that if I was going to really make a go of rally racing, I was going to have to choose. After X Games, with the double backflip and everything else, I felt like I’d accomplished everything I needed to accomplish in FMX, and I called Nate up before the next two Dew Tour stops and said, “Don’t kill yourself, man. It’s yours.” That’s what FMX has come to: to take it much further, the risk level is just going to go up and up. I needed to stay healthy for rally car racing. Jumping bikes is hard on your back, your shoulders, your knees, everything. It was just time to change things up a bit.

I like it because it’s fast and it’s a thrill. It’s everything I love, and it also feels like something I can push really far without killing myself. It’s not safe, by any means, but you know, it’s not FMX either. You’re probably not going to kill yourself unless you drive off a cliff or something… which, don’t get me wrong, that could actually happen, which is also part of the thrill of it. I’m still going to be on a bike every day because it I love it too much to give it up, but I’m going to have to leave it up to Nate Adams and the other guys to really take it from here for a while.

Lat34: I have to confess. I didn’t really know anything about rally car racing before seeing it at X Games, but now I’m intrigued. What would you say to action sports fans and other American viewers who haven’t heard much about it but ought to check it out?

From an audience perspective it’s tough, because the hard thing about rally car racing is that it’s very hard to follow unless it’s televised properly. It’s not on a closed-circuit course and it’s not the kind of racing people are used to seeing. But from a driver’s perspective, I think it’s something that a lot of people could get into because it’s so fast, it’s so unpredictable. A lot of people ask me, “Why don’t you get into Nascar racing instead?” But to me, the rally car set-up is so much more interesting: It’s just you and your co-driver out there against everybody else, trying to find your way while you’re doing like 150 miles per hour over rocks and dirt and going all over the place, as opposed to driving around and around on the same paved circle. There’s a reason why guys like Kenny Bartram and Carey Hart are getting into rally racing now, and I think it will find its American audience as it builds.

My co-driver Chris Edstrom and I just won the 2006 Rally America National Championship after winning three of the events and placing second in four other events. We only crashed out once, which is a really huge accomplishment in rally racing. Now that I’ve kind of proven myself over here, it’s time to try racing in Europe. I haven’t really raced over there yet because it’s a whole other league: The cars are like $750,000 just to get started, so I needed to prove to myself and to Subaru and my other ponsors that it was worth it.  So far I have three European events lined up for next year. They’ll have to make a new category for it here at the Action Sports Awards ceremony next year! I’ll probably be taking some time off from FMX competition, but then again, it’s hard to leave something you love.