Subaru Rally Team USA announced today that they will be teaming up again with action sports icon Travis Pastrana to contend in the Rallycross competition at X Games 17 this summer. Pastrana will pilot one of the team’s new 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rallycross cars on the streets of LA as part of X Games 17 Rallycross competition. Pastrana, who drove for Subaru from the very start of his rally career had amassed four consecutive Rally America driver’s championships and over twenty victories at the wheel of a Subaru before leaving the sport at the end of 2010 to try his talents in NASCAR.
Pastrana will pilot the latest evolution of the team’s new STI Rallycross car which has been tested and developed extensively by Subaru Rally Team USA drivers David Higgins and Dave Mirra this season in the Global RallyCross Championship. Subaru team driver David Higgins recently finished 2nd Overall this past weekend at the third round of the Global RallyCross Championship held at Pikes Peak International Raceway near Colorado Springs.
Pastrana’s X Games week will be a busy one as he plans on competing in Freestyle Motocross at the X Games in Los Angeles July 28 and July 29, then he’ll fly to Indianapolis for his NASCAR Nationwide debut, then return to Los Angeles for the X Games Rallycross competition on Sunday July 30th. Pastrana’s STI livery for X Games 17 was recently revealed online in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNnLNf0OZrE
“We’re pleased that Travis will be driving one of our Subaru Impreza WRX STI cars at X Games later this summer,” noted James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America, Inc. “As a four-time Rally America champion with SRT USA and X Games gold medalist many times over, he’s well-equipped to make a run for gold in the RallyCross event. Certainly, his fitness level and athletic versatility will be put to the test that weekend, but I doubt Travis would want to have it any other way.”
For the first time at X Games the rallycross competition will be held on the streets of downtown Los Angeles in front of the Staples Center. A dirt and tarmac course featuring X Games’ 70-ft gap jump is planned. In its ninth year in Los Angeles, X Games 17 will feature more than 200 athletes at competition venues and event spaces including STAPLES Center and Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in an effort to further consolidate events to one area and better enable fans to catch all the X Games action from downtown Los Angeles.
Subaru Rally Team USA is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), BFGoodrich Tires, RECARO, Vision X, Alpinestars, Motul, Exedy, VP Fuels and Vermont SportsCar. For more information on Subaru Rally Team USA, as well as exclusive photo and video galleries visit subaru.com/rally and for the latest news follow the team on Twitter: twitter.com/srtusa.
