Travis Pastrana has responded to ARA National points leader Barry McKenna’s advances on the Ojibwe Forests Rally by winning all three of Saturday’s first three stages to double his rally lead.
Pastrana is in need of a strong result this weekend after skipping January’s Sno* Drift Rally – which Subaru Motorsports USA always elects to do – and retiring from Southern Ohio Forest Rally when his Subaru WRX STI set on fire.
But with a brand new chassis for round three and a new stand-in co-driver in Rhianon Gelsomino – with regular navigator Robbie Durant unable to fly to the US because of COVID-19 – Pastrana was unfazed and quickly opened up a lead over McKenna’s Škoda Fabia Rally2.
However it was McKenna that was quicker on the latter half of Friday’s first day of action, winning four stages in a row to close to within 19.2s of Pastrana heading into day two.
But Saturday’s first stage, Strawberry Mountain, belonged to Pastrana who was looking to press home an advantage on the first pass of Saturday’s stages.
Setting a time five seconds quicker than McKenna, Pastrana set off into SS8 Height o’Land with a similar vengeance and pulled another eight seconds clear of McKenna to boost his lead to over half a minute.
The final stage of the loop, Sugar Bush, proved to be another happy hunting ground for Pastrana who heads into Saturday’s first service halt with a strong lead of 42.8s over McKenna.
Subaru Motorsports USA’s Brandon Semenuk is looking increasingly comfortable in third place after outpacing Fiesta R5 rival Ryan Booth throughout Saturday morning. In turn, Booth was unchallenged from behind with Piotr Fetela occupying a steady fifth with Jeff Seehorn’s Subaru falling further behind in sixth.
John Coyne surrendered 40s to two-wheel-drive leader Seamus Burke on Saturday’s first test, but the Fiesta R5 restored his pace on the next two tests to hold seventh overall over Burke’s Ford Escort.
Chris Greenhouse is now well over a minute behind Burke in the two-wheel-drive class but remains ninth overall, one spot ahead of Robert Sanders’ Subaru which is 10th.
The Strawberry Mountain, Height o’Land and Sugar Bush stages will now all be repeated before the rally concludes with a third pass of the Strawberry Mountain and Height o’Land tests later this evening.
Results after SS8
1 Pastrana (Subaru) 1h07m17.1s
2 McKenna (Škoda) +32.0s
3 Semenuk (Subaru) +1m26.9s
4 Booth (Ford) +2m05.7s
5 Fetela (Ford) +4m54.5s
6 Seehorn (Subaru) +5m44.1s
7 Coyne (Ford) +9m24.7s
8 Burke (Ford) +9m26.9s
9 Greenhouse (Dodge) +10m32.3s
10 Sanders (Subaru) +12m08.5s
