Travis Pastrana rounded out his 2024 ARA campaign in the best possible fashion, clinching a hat-trick of American wins aboard his Subaru WRX. There was, however, a subplot at the season-closing Lake Superior Performance Rally.
Way out west, near the town of Virgin, Utah, this year’s American champion was also winning. Having clinched this year’s ARA crown (his third straight), Brandon Semenuk took the weekend off to contest Red Bull Rampage – the world’s wildest mountain bike event – which he won for the fifth time.
Pastrana was happy to celebrate his third victory in a second half of the year which contrasted starkly with what had proved to be a troubled return to the sport at the top of ’24. Typically and selflessly Pastrana pointed to his team-mate’s efforts on two wheels.
“I’m excited about this whole weekend,” he told DirtFish. “But Brandon is a superhuman guy. Not only did he kick our butts over here [in ARA], but he just went and won Rampage. I’m so proud of that guy.
Three-timeARA champion Brandon Semenuk won a fifth Red Bull Rampage in Utah on Saturday
“The fact that he can do the craziest stuff in the world… I watch his in-car. This guy comes through stages, he’s on two wheels, he’s backing it in, he’s touching trees. It’s like the craziest thing you’ve ever seen. But if you consistently get lucky, it’s not luck anymore. It’s so great to see him come over to rallying and all the fans he’s bringing in – but at the same time, I’m very proud of him and I cannot wait to, hopefully, beat him sometime.”
Talking about the competition in Michigan, Pastrana admitted his Vermont SportsCar stablemate Conner Martell’s ability to beat him through some stages would deliver a change of appearance. Losing that particular bet meant a mullet and moustache would soon be in place.
A turbo problem left Pastrana’s Subaru without forced induction for the final two stages, but he was still able to head Martell’s older-specification WRX STI by 46.8 seconds.
In just his fourth event in the car, Martell led after Friday’s opener and went on to win half of day two’s stages.
“We started off pretty strong,” Martell said, “and then just kept getting more comfortable as it went on. After that last service, we just tried to kind of take it easy, get the car home. It was super rough out there, we were running in the ruts on some stages, but it was a lot of fun.”
The third VSC-built entry, Semenuk’s vacated factory Subaru, was in the trees on the first Saturday morning stage. Lia Block got off line and couldn’t slow the WRX down in time for the next left.
“We just came into this braking zone and it’s quite loose,” Block told DirtFish. “We just locked up in the beginning and got off line and somehow we ended up sideways in between two trees. I’m very disappointed. But we were running third. it’s a fast car, the fastest I’ve ever driven. Mistakes happen and you just have to learn from it.”
Javier Olivares scored a fifth podium from this year’s eight ARA rounds. Having secured back-to-back L4WD titles in Ojibwe, Olivares enjoyed his second outing a Ford Fiesta Rally2.
He said: “It’s been a long weekend, a long season, a long year, but was great to lock up the championship kind of early this year. We’ll be back next season.
Chris Sladek finished top-six and won L2WD aboard his Acura Integra
Ryan Booth delivered a stellar performance and a crushing O2WD win, placing his Ford Escort Mk2 fourth overall. That result was enough to win the ARA title, but he was quick to pay tribute to his rival Michael Hooper.
“It was cool that it came down to the wire,” he said. “I missed a bunch of events, Hooper missed a bunch and we’ve had some mechanicals this year – I’ll take what I get. I’ve been working for it this season. We’ll definitely be back next season.”
Tim Rooney (Subaru WRX STI) and Chris Sladek (Acura Integra) won L4WD and L2WD respectively to round out the top six on the National event. Andrew Didorosi recovered from going off the road on Friday to beat fellow Subaru Impreza RS driver Madelyn Tabor to the NA4WD LSPR class win and the title.
Subarus topped the Regional event overall with John Farrow edging Jimmy Pelizzari in a tight fight.
“Jim was fairly close going into the last stage,” said Farrow, “so we went pretty hard. The rocks were terrible, but it was super-fun. We’re ready to party now.”
John Farrow scored a great Regional win after an event-long battle with rival Jimmy Pelizzari
After winning O2WD and placing his BMW in a third-placed podium, Matthew Nykanen was in a similar mood. Sam Jacques (Subaru) took NA4WD in Regional with Gabriel Nieves (Honda Civic) and Bradley Hayosh (Subaru) clinching L2WD and O4WD respectively.
As the party started in the Upper Peninsula, Semenuk was starting to take in what he’d achieved on two wheels.
“I missed Rampage [because of competing at LSPR] last year,” he said, “and that made it seem mellower this year. I wanted to put on a show for the fans and people watching. I’m so happy I got to put the run down.”
Different time, different place, different ride, same result.
