Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana sits comfortably in 2nd
place overall going into the final day of the Oregon Trail Rally,
Round 3 of the Rally America Championship. Meanwhile, Pastrana's
teammate Ken Block is locked in a tight battle for the final podium
position, tied for 3rd overall on total time. Nearly sixty
competition miles, on technical gravel roads west of Portland, Oregon
await the drivers on the final day of the rally. The Northwest U.S. is
a popular one for Subaru rally cars, which dominate the leaderboard;
Nine of the top ten cars are Subaru rally cars.

Pastrana was admittedly driving at a conservative pace on the first
half of the rally, ignoring the steadily growing lead of veteran
Australian driver Andrew Pinker, driving a similar Open Class Subaru
WRX STI. Pastrana and his co-driver Christian Edstrom sit just over
one minute behind Pinker and they have no plans to try and close the
gap on the final day. "I'm making a real effort to avoid any risks at
this rally, we have the Rally America National Championship to worry
about, so winning takes a backseat to gaining experience and points,"
explained Pastrana. "It is hard to restrain myself from pushing but
I'm doing it, and we have had a totally clean run thus far."

Coming off his first ever rally win last month at Round 2 of the
Championship, Ken Block leads the Rally America National Championship
points standings. However, Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino are
taking the same conservative strategy as Pastrana this weekend.
"Everything feels good, we are driving carefully with the aim to
finish," explained Block. The only issue for Block was a flat tire on
the longest stage of the day. Rather than stop and change the tire
on-stage, Block decided to push on for the final five miles. "It was
definitely scary driving on that flat, but we certainly lost less time
than if we had stopped on the stage to change the tire!"

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www.rally.subaru.com and read live event updates at
www.rally-america.com.