Subaru Rally Team USA will tackle the legendary Rally Argentina, round six of the World Rally Championship, and the 2nd event on team’s Production World Rally Championship (P-WRC) program this weekend, May 3-6. This will be only the second WRC event in Pastrana’s young career, after his debut at Corona Rally Mexico in March where he finished an impressive 5th overall in the P-WRC. Subaru Rally Team USA will attend Rally Argentina with the same American based team of mechanics and management that handle their assault on the Rally America National Championship, where Pastrana reigns as the defending national champion. Pastrana and his co-driver Christian Edstrom will pilot a Group N Class 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STI in Argentina, rather than his usual Open Class ride in the USA. Subaru Rally Team USA will compete in three WRC events this year in preparation of a full P-WRC calendar of six global events in 2008 and 2009.
Rally Argentina is based in Villa Carlos Paz – a small lakeside town near the large city of Cordoba. The all gravel event is known for rough roads and dramatic water crossings. Several of the stages are run at high altitude, some approaching 2200meters, where the thin air will sap the cars of power. Speeds are typically high, but the stages feature numerous bumps and dips that will test the rally car’s suspension and the driver’s mettle. Drivers must also contend with large rocks embedded in the hard road surface that have been known to tear wheels off! These challenges are all compounded by the highly unpredictable weather.
“We will take the same approach here as in Mexico,” stated Pastrana. “This year is all about practice with making our own stage notes and adjusting to everything, so we absolutely must finish! The roads here are real car breakers and there will be a huge amount of competition in the P-WRC, but we want to just drive our own rally at our own pace. The fans here are great, the rally is still a few days ahead of us but there are already thousands of people everywhere screaming my name!”
A highlight this year will be a new Super Special Stage held at the River Plate Soccer Stadium in the capital city of Buenos Aires on Thursday evening. Two other similar stages will be held in the Soccer Stadium in Cordoba on Friday and on Sunday. These stadium based stages will attract even more fans to Rally Argentina, which typically enjoys well over one million spectators!
Subaru Rally Team USA will be posting daily news and photos at www.subaru.com/rally , as well as a daily photo blog from Pastrana’s co-driver Christian Edstrom. Updates will occur daily throughout this week as the team conducts pre-event testing and reconnaissance prior to the rally start on Thursday evening.
Subaru Rally Team USA is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), DC Shoes, BFGoodrich Tires, Boost Mobile, Recaro, Alpinestars, Motul, Exedy, PIAA and Vermont SportsCar. Visit www.subaru.com/rally for Subaru Rally Team USA photo galleries, news and team information. Rally Argentina can be followed live at www.wrc.com with live split times and video.