22 Apr Travis Pastrana and Robbie Durant lead Oregon Trail Rally after Day 1

Article written for American Rally Association here.

Dufur, Oregon (April 22, 2017) ‘

Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana finished the first day of the Oregon Trail Rally with a 12.7 second lead over teammate David Higgins. The national teams only ran stages 3 and 4 last night after an incident involving a lower seeded competitor forced the cancellation of the night’s first loop.

“At PIR, the racetrack portion has always been good to me,” said Pastrana,” David and Craig are such a great team unit, but we were able to go with a different tire setup and I think it paid off.”

Day 1 of OTR features four super special stages, totaling 9.06 miles, in front of the crowd at Portland International Raceway. A favorite of fans and drivers, the stages mix portions of the tarmac racing circuit with the support roads surrounding the track.

Slotting in behind the Subaru drivers is Barry McKenna, in his new Fiesta S2000 turbo. McKenna suffered engine cooling issues early in the day and was forced to drive conservatively. Others in Open class weren’t so fortunate. David Nickel damaged his front skid plate going over the spectator jump. It fell off later in the stage, impacting the Crosstrek’s oil sump on the way out. He was able to super rally and will be out on stage Saturday. “Yeah, we’re gonna need some duct tape,” said Nickel.

Unfortunately, the skid plate didn’t find its way off line and the next car through, Boris Djordjevic, collected it, ending his night. Both drivers were unhurt and in good spirits at the end of the night. “What are you gonna do? It’s out of our control,” said Djordjevic, “we usually race as fast as we can, that’s what we do.”

Jeff Seehorn currently currently leads Restricted Open 4WD over Travis Nease by 21.1 seconds. James Rimmer is close behind Nease, an additional 4 seconds back. In 2WD Ryan Millen pulled a 7.1 second lead over rival Cameron Steely in Portland. Dave Wallingford is in third, 10.1 seconds behind Steely.

Be sure to check out our live timing and scoring page to follow competitors on stage and download the ARA Rally App. Don’t forget to download the Oregon Trail Rally Spectator Guide.

About American Rally Association (ARA)

We are a member driven organization dedicated to the sport of stage rally by providing a transparent and inclusive sanctioning body. A 501 (c)(3) non-profit, ARA is lead by elected and appointed board members who deliver a framework for safety, competition, promotion, and educational forums for all aspects of the sport. The common goal of our members, volunteers, and organization is a thriving stage rally program in America.