X GAMES 13 RALLY PREVIEW
Photos: Lars Gange, rally.subaru.com Tanner Foust, driving a Subaru of America factory team car, getting big air in The Home Depot Center. |
ON AUGUST 5, X GAMES SPECTATORS AND TELEVISION VIEWERS AROUND THE WORLD WILL WITNESS
THE SECOND “INSTALLMENT” OF RALLY RACING IN X GAMES COMPETITION.
The X Games Rally competition will be unique, even for the teams invited to participate. Everything is to take place in and around The Home Depot Center in Los Angeles on the 5th of August.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Last year’s X Games Rally introduced the sport of rally racing to enumerable spectators and television viewers who previously had little exposure to it. On site, the Friday and Saturday practice sessions gave the stadium’s announcer Bill Wood the opportunity to explain who the drivers and co-drivers were, what they did, and what was unique about the rally cars.
Subaru Rally Team USA (SRT USA) driver Travis Pastrana excited many attendees simply by the history of his presence at the Games. His legendary motorcycle jumps and tricks have fascinated millions, and he has set the undisputed benchmark in that arena.
 Travis Pastrana, Colin McRae, and Ken Block proceeded from the desert stages to finish X Games Rally 12 with gold, silver, and bronze in 2006. |
Now Pastrana was doing something different – driving a rally car – and fans wanted to see what rally is all about.
X Games and rally were a perfect match.
The competing teams were chosen by virtue of their performances in the Rally America National Championship. In addition, World Rally Championship (WRC) fans were excited by the special appearance of Colin McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist in one of four cars officially supported by Subaru of America (SOA) and prepared by Vermont SportsCar (SOA’s partner in SRT USA).
In traditional rally fashion, eight stages were run in the California desert in the middle of the week. Times were close between the leading cars of Travis Pastrana/Christian Edstrom and Colin McRae/Nicky Grist at the end of those stages, and the competition promised to be intense heading into Saturday’s special stage. The teams ran in order from slowest to quickest times, and the crowd witnessed shorter and shorter times from the teams. Pastrana/Edstrom, who were behind the leading team of McRae/Grist by only a second – electrified the audience with its time, throwing down the gauntlet to the top team. McRae/Grist set an even faster pace in sections around the course, then went into the stadium’s largest jump for the second and final time. That led to the famous X Games roll.
 Colin McRae/Nicky Grist begin to roll as they land during the second jump of their run at The Home Depot Center.  The rally course was laid out between motorcycle jumps that temporarily formed The Home Depot Center’s landscape. |
“We just tried to turn too sharply in the air,” said Nicky Grist afterwards. “This was definitely the fast way around the track, and we had tried it before in practice. In fact, it would have worked this time except the tire rolled off the wheel and caused us to flip.” Rolling back onto four wheels, McRae/Grist took off and won silver – only 0.52 seconds behind Pastrana/Edstrom. SRT USA teammates Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino secured the bronze.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR X GAMES 13
There’s no reason to think that this year’s action won’t be as exciting.
Sunday, August 5 will be rally day for X Games 13 with The Home Depot Center hosting this intense event again.
The top six teams in the Rally America National Championship will be part of the competition along with two “wild card” guests. As of this writing, the guests have yet to be announced. The stage actually will be two courses – nearly mirror images of each other. Competitors will race side-by-side on the two tracks at certain sections, with the winner advancing to the next round, bracket-style, until there’s an ultimate winner.
PREPARATION FOR X GAMES
Several initiatives are geared to raising awareness of this year’s X Games Rally.
One is the X Games Web site – www.expn.com. News and information concerning X Games 13 were available from mid-July.
Another initiative is a tour of X Games 12’s gold-medal-winning car – the #199 STI of Travis Pastrana/Christian Edstrom. The car was scheduled for visits to approximately 11 dealerships in southern California in the days preceding X Games. As part of the visit, dealers were offering a limited number of free admission tickets.
 The 2006 X Games gold-winning WRX STI. |
In addition, various Subaru partners planned to be part of the build-up to the X Games 13 Rally:
- Maxim magazine sweepstakes offers a winner entry to the 2007 X Games 13 Maxim VIP After Party in Los Angeles (link through www.subaru.com)
- Rally America is promoting a family VIP trip to X Games (www.rally-america.com)
- The Gold prize includes a ride with either Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, or Tanner Foust
- The Silver prize consists of a pair of DC Pro_spec 1.0 shoes autographed by Travis Pastrana
- The Bronze prize is a prize package from Rally America
- Hot Import Nights promoted X Games 13 at its events
- Codemasters planned shipment of DIRT™ on June 19, 2007, for Xbox 360™ and for PLAYSTATION® 3 shortly thereafter; DIRT features competition with Colin McRae in a pair of Subaru Impreza WRX STIs – McRae’s car in the No Fear graphics from last year’s X Games 12
X GAMES RALLY RESULTS
Tune in to see what happens! Will Travis Pastrana/Christian Edstrom repeat for X Games gold?
Follow X Games Rally live on ESPN from 2:00-3:30 p.m. (PDT) on August 5, 2007. (Subject to change without notice based on ESPN discretion. Check your local listings.)
ADDED X GAMES RALLY BONUS!
The 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX was introduced at the New York International Auto Show in April. What will it look like when SRT USA rallies it next year? Vermont SportsCar has been working on the car, and spectators at X Games 13 will have a chance to see it live!