Pastrana Is The Rally America National Champion!

Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana has secured the Overall Driver's title of 2006 Rally America National Championship this evening at the Lake Superior Performance Rally. Pastrana held a strong lead in the championship coming into the penultimate round this weekend and needed only a 6 th place or better to mathematically secure the title. However, Pastrana's chief rival Matt Iorio crashed out of the rally early on Friday thus handing Pastrana the title with day two of the rally, as well as the final round of the season still to come.

"This is amazing, its been a great year for us, everything has just worked so well, the car, the team and my co-driver Christian Edstrom have all just clicked together perfectly," exclaimed Pastrana. "We can't celebrate yet, as we are in the middle of a rally fighting for another win, but the pressure is really off now and we can have some fun!"

X Games and Motocross star Travis Pastrana, at only 23 years-old and in only his second season of rallying, now becomes the youngest ever title winner in American rally history. Pastrana has dominated rallying in the USA this year driving his BFGoodrich Tire's shod 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STI prepared by Vermont SportsCar. He has earned three rally victories, four 2nd place finishes and a Gold medal at the inaugural X Games Rally event where he narrowly beat out his hero and WRC legend Colin McRae.

The attention now focuses on Pastrana's Subaru Rally Team USA teammates Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino who are fighting for 2nd Overall in the championship. After day one of the rally Block is 2nd Overall, nearly 30 seconds behind Pastrana. "A win here would put us just one point out of 2nd in the standings going into the final round," explained Block.   "We'll really go for it tomorrow to catch Travis!"

Day two of the Lake Superior Performance Rally begins in earnest Saturday morning with forty stage miles remaining.  Follow the rally live at www.rally-america.com, and browse daily photo updates at www.rally.subaru.com.

Subaru Rally Team USA is proudly supported by DC Shoes, BFGoodrich Tires, STI (Subaru Tecnica International), SPT (Subaru Performance Tuning), Alpinestars, Motul, PIAA, Recaro, Meguiars and Vermont SportsCar.