Travis Pastrana shined like no other during the third Nitro Rallycross weekend at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsport Park, guiding Subaru to its second win in the championship while Pastrana’s first triumph puts the American in contention for the title.
This round was special as NASCAR Cup driver Kyle Busch had his first go on dirt with a rallycross supercar, evolving little by little during the weekend and actually finishing it with a good result.
Heat 1 would start fine if the race wasn’t red flagged after seeing Liam Doran and Ronalds Baldins roll in the early moments. When things got going, Travis Pastrana was leading Kevin Eriksson and then Scott Speed going to the Joker really early. With Pastrana and Speed protecting each other while being class of the field, they dominated the race.
Heat 2 had Steve Arpin holding the first position from the Hansen Peugeots, but with two cars pressing the GRX/Loenbro driver, he had to let Timmy Hansen go. While Timmy had clear way to push and win, Arpin exchanged blows with Kevin Hansen, getting second place when Kevin slowed due to issues in the car, which also let Tanner Foust and Cabot Bigham go past the Swedish driver.
Semifinal 1 had Scott Speed leading but then caught napping by Kevin Eriksson, only to see the Olsbergs Erikssons take each other out of contention in front of him, meaning that the Subaru driver retook the lead. The race became a Speed vs. Foust affair with the former having the upper hand, while Foust got the Final ticket from second place.
Semifinal 2 had Arpin leading the pack while being chased by Robin Larsson, and the Swede was taking no prisoners, passing Arpin and holding the top spot despite the pressure, and this sealed the deal for the race, while Kyle Busch was left knocking the door of the two in front from third place. Due to some excessive contact in Turn 1, Larsson took a five second penalty, which actually promoted Busch to the Final.
On LCQ 1, Cabot Bigham compensated for the lost time to Fraser McConnell with aggressive corner entries, eventually taking first place away with him as neither the Jamaican not Baldins had the pace to even close down on the Dreyer & Reinbold Audi S1.
On LCQ 2, Kevin Hansen departed on top but had to deal with an aggressive Oliver Eriksson while keeping an eye on third placed Robin Larsson. With Larsson and Eriksson too busy battling with each other, what looked good for Kevin Hansen was almost a walk in the park for the Hansen Peugeot, securing the last Final spot.
The Final had Pastrana holding off Timmy Hansen for first, but not without someone else joining the party, in this case being Steve Arpin. Speed tried his luck and got second for a brief moment, being put at the back of the pack by Hansen and Arpin two corners later on Lap 3. From Lap 4 onwards it was Hansen chasing Pastrana, but the Peugeot 208 WRX wasn’t gaining everywhere to close down on the Subaru WRX STi, so Pastrana just had to keep his performance high and run to the checkered.
Timmy Hansen still leads the standings with 134 points, but he now had two Subaru drivers behind, with Pastrana having 129 points and Speed having 128, so anything will matter in the final two round of the season, starting the fourth one at Glen Helen on 20-21 November.
PHOTO: Subaru Motorsports USA
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