Travis Pastrana, the extreme sports superstar and former regular in the NASCAR Gander RV Truck Series, has studded his motorsports crown yet again by claiming the 2021 American Rally Association season championship for Subaru, cementing the iconoclastic Japanese automaker’s status as a genuine player in global motorsports yet again. Specifically, the 2021 title marks the sixth such accolade for Pastrana, and his first ARA crown since 2017. Pastrana and co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino rocked the rally world by winning four ARA events – three of them consecutive – aboard a WRX STI entered by Subaru Motorsports USA and prepped by the fine folks at Vermont SportsCar in Milton, Vermont, near Burlington, which is Subaru’s performance partner for the ARA schedule.
As the photo makes clear, ARA performance rallies can hold their own with World of Outlaws Sprint cars or NHRA Top Fuel when it comes to all-out purity and pure muscle. VSC builds the Subaru rally fleet from the ground up at its surgically clean assembly facility, machining engine blocks, cylinder heads and crankshafts from billet aluminum, totally trick stuff that allows them to wring an honest 600 horsepower out of a Subaru flat-four design. Pastrana and Gelsomino’s teammates at Subaru Motorsports USA, Brandon Semenuk and John Hall, had an event win on their way to third in the overall ARA standings. Subaru has won a stunning 16 overall rally titles since 2006.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 