Travis Pastrana is out in front on the Ojibwe Forests Rally, heading to the first service with a six second lead.
The rally has already proven to be a crazy ride for all involved after only four stages.
SS1 started off with Pastrana taking an incredible nine seconds out of competitors Ken Block and Brandon Semenuk after just hours earlier describing himself as off-pace this season. Block landed in second place with Semenuk sitting just over half a second behind him in third
Ojibwe has historically been on of Pastrana’s best rallies with seven wins to boot, but the recent rain made him unsure if he had what it took coming into the rally, as the dry sandy roans fit his aggressive driving style, but when they’re slick it can cause huge issues.
SS2 started to bite back at Pastrana though, as the last section of the stage was significantly muddy, and caused Pastrana to fall back in pace, but maintain the lead.
Block took the stage by just a few seconds while Semenuk fell back about 20 seconds to his competition.
The second stage also brought with it an SOS in the form of Patrick Gruzska’s car catching fire. Gruszka and co-driver Florian Barral were OK and able to put the fire out themselves, but most of the field ended up with notional times as it was unclear to competitors if the RallySafe SOS had been cleared or not.
While the battle for championship points has stayed heated at the front of the field, the LN4 and 2WD category has already suffered from a few eligible competitors dropping out, with current LN4 leader Phil Wearn suffering a retirement on SS2, and 2WD leader Micah Nickelson retiring out of SS1.
The third and fourth stages went much smoother all around, and ended with Pastrana leading over Block by six seconds, but with Block chipping fractions off his deficit each stage. Semenuk remains in third about 30 seconds off Pastrana’s pace.
The top five is completed by Dave Carapetyan leading the LN4 class in fourth overall, while Klim Fedoff sits 13s off of Carapetyan, also battling for the LN4 class lead.
Seamus Burke and Micheal Hooper are the two battling for 2WD honors after four stages, Burke currently leads the class, but Hooper is 20s back, and staying close to Burke’s pace on most stages.
The Regional rally is currently led by Alejandro Perusina in the AP4 Rav4, who sits far ahead of second place’s Stephen Gingras.
