22 year-old Travis Pastrana is a Supercross and Motocross Champion as well as multi-time X-Games Gold Medalist. He pioneered the sport of Freestyle Motocross while inventing many of the sports tricks. In 2004 Pastrana began pursuing his love of rally racing, which he describes as "motocross with a roll cage". Driving for the Subaru backed Vermont SportsCar rally team Pastrana finished 4th Overall and 3rd in Group N at his FIRST gravel rally.
2005 marked Pastrana's first full season of rallying and he proved himself as one of the fastest North American drivers. From 7 Rally America National Championship events Travis finished on the Overall podium three times, including two 2nd Overall finishes. He finished the 2005 season 4th in his class and 5th Overall in the standings.
The following crash took place at the Colorado Cog Rally, Round 7 of the 2005 Rally America National Championship. The crash occurred on stage 10 during the 2nd day of competition. At the start of this stage Pastrana and his co-driver Christian Edstrom 3rd Overall just 16.5 seconds out of the lead. Pastrana was uninjured in the crash and went on to finish the next rally in 2nd place Overall.
"Coming off a long fast straight, into a left 5- over crest, i knew the second we could see the corner that we were carrying more speed than I had talent. We pitched it in and I put the pedal to the floor but it didn't pull inside hard enough so I decided to try cutting the next corner, an immediate right, through the grass. It might have been ok had there not been a huge ditch. It started rolling fast and I can remember looking out the window and seeing my arm pulled out the broken window from the inertia of the roll. Christian and I both thought it was over after about 4 rotations but we were just airborne, then we landed and did another two or three before stopping. I have never been in a crash before that took so long. I actually had time to wonder if it would ever end and it even crossed my mind how glad I was to be in such a nicely prepared (strong) Vermont SportsCar built roll cage. We had not even stopped rolling when I looked over to see how Christian was doing and it was a huge relief that he was fine. I am glad he is in such good shape as he felt better than I did the day after. It was a hell of a ride but I don't plan on doing it again any time soon!"
"After the spectator area on the first Sunday morning stage, we approached a !L5-/Cr -> R4. We came in a little hot and Travis tried to cut the exit of the L5- to get set up better for the R4. If the shoulder had been smooth, we might just barely have gotten away with it, but as it was, the exit of the corner had a deep ditch with a culvert under the road, and the right front tire hit the ditch. I just barely had time to see the ditch, and think, "Oh, sh*t, we're not going to makethis!" when the car pitched upwards and it was clear we were going to have more than just a little accident. When we hit the ditch, the car turns sideways, and I pinch my eyes shut, hard. For the first few moments, I feel only one violent hit, but then I notice a rolling sensation and think, "Oh, shit this is what a REAL rally roll feels like." Almost at the same instant I notice that the stage notebook is not in my hands and
that my arms are just flopping in front of my chest. I cross my arms across my chest and blink my eyes open to see the windshield is cracked and the world is going 'round. Pinning my eyes shut and properly scared now, I feel the car go over once or twice more, and my head bobs like a pinball between the side bolsters on my seat. Then there's a sudden hit and silence, and I think, "Oh, it's over, I'd best check on Trav..." when the car again hits the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me and rolling three more times, these rolls much quicker. There is one last bang, which shoves me hard to the right with my shoulder and hip jamming into the seat, and we seem to be stopped for good this time. We're stopped on the co-driver side, so there's no way I can get out. I hear Morgan (the photographer you can see running out of the way in the video!) ask "Are you guys
ok? Do you want me to roll it back over?" and I yell, "No, no, no, no, no!" thinking that if for any reason I've hurt myself, I don't want to aggravate any injury by rolling more. I think it's nice that Morgan is there. I wiggle my fingers and toes and realize that not only am I alive, I think I'm 100% fine, just a bit scrambled.
"As I tracked the car through my long lens, I could see from the
approach that Travis was not slowing down enough to navigate the corners. As he went through the first corner, it appeared like he might save it, albeit with a little drama. Click.....Click......Click. I remember thinking to myself, "cool, this is going to make for some interesting shots" which quickly turned to "holy crap! they're rolling!" Money shot!
Click....Click...Click
When looking through a long lens, the image is compressed which makes it difficult to judge the distance and speed of the subject. I was pretty far out in the middle of a field and far from the corner, so I did not consider that I might be in danger. Additionally, I could not tell how fast the car was going and figured it would do one-maybe two rolls and come to a stop
Click......Click.....Click.
After the third roll the car suddenly got REAL BIG in the viewfinder and it occurred to me that it was not stopping and it was going really fast and coming right for me! I lowered the camera and began to run my ass off. The car was chasing me! The noise unbelievable! I can hear the metal twisting and the car bouncing, glass breaking! As I am running shrapnel is landing all around me. Suddenly, in front of
me, lands a wheel with a strut attached to it. The noise stops, I look over to see the twisted hulk of a Subaru about 20 feet from me. My friends are inside, are they OK? I drop my cameras and start running to the car and then I hear from inside the car "Holy shit that was one hell of a ride!" What a nut! "
