Pastrana...what can't he do? © Sarah Henderson

Pastrana Takes Gold in Rally Car Racing Finals

The inaugural X Games Rally Car Racing Finals was definitely one that will go down in the action sports history books.  Fresh off the heels of his Gold medal win in FMX Best Trick for the awe-inspiring double backflip, Travis Pastrana won it all today along with co-driver Christian Edstrom and is X Games' first-ever Gold medalist in the new event.  However, Pastrana's win was no easy feat.  With cars catching on fire, flipping over and narrowly missing the barriers in the tight  hairpin turns, the competition was intense to say the least and forced every team to push themselves and their cars to the absolute limit.

Things started off with Team Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb holding the lead solid, but it all quickly changed as Team Foust/Crouch stole first with insane rally prowess in their tricked-out Mitsubishi.  That didn't last for long as Team Lagemann/Fennell followed next and snagged the lead, leaving the Home Depot Center in a huge cloud of dirt and cheering for more.  What happened next kept the energy level rising; Team Iorio/Holter came flying down into the dirt and slammed the front end of their car hard – leaving a trail of oil as well as flames shooting out from under the car!  Managing to keep it all together, they made their way around the final turns and cruised through the finish line unscathed.

Just when things couldn't get any more intense, the heat kept rising with Team Richard/Richard, Team Choiniere/Becker, Team O'Sullivan/Putnam, Team Block/Gelsomino and Team Pastrana/Edstrom all knocking each other out of first place and leaving everyone in attendance in a total frenzy.  The level of driving kept getting better with every lap, but the action was still far from over.

With Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom in first place with an outstanding time of 1:56:49, Rally Car veteran Colin McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist were up next and were not planning to go out without a fight.  Sliding through the S-turns and airing over the jumps with insane precision, they were leading Pastrana's time during most of their run and that's when the highlight of the entire finals happened.  Coming down into the dirt and airing over the hit, McRae's
car flipped over upon landing and miraculously landed right-side up! Totally unfazed, McRae kept his cool and crossed the finish line; taking the Silver medal only a few seconds behind Pastrana with Ken Block of DC Shoe Company taking Bronze.

With electricity sending shockwaves through the air, the history-making X Games 12 Rally Car Final was complete and Travis Pastrana was proclaimed the Gold medal winner.  Things could not have been more perfect for a finals event and the win was truly icing on the cake for Pastrana, who is clearly on his game here in Los Angeles.

Congrats Travis and Christian on your outstanding win!

-Glen Braunsdorf