At the moment, Travis Pastrana leads the Ojibwe Forests Rally by just five seconds over Ken Block. Following the last stage, Pastrana told DirtFish, “It is my first time leading after day one in over a year.” Everyone feels out of the first stage, and I have driven it 14 times.
A bunch of stages later, we have a five-second lead after losing a bunch by less than a second, so we're in the hunt!“I think these guys are doing a great job, we learned a bit about the front splitter, and we're just glad we're going into tomorrow with a good chance.
“During Day 2, Ken was able to keep some time out of me because of the Hyundai's better performance in ruts whereas we can take more time away from him where the rally is smoother.
“We're going to fight like hell to win, we're going to do whatever it takes.” Stage five brought good fortune to Pastrana and Block, who again fell back 11 seconds.“When I entered stage five, I knew Travis beat me by 10 seconds earlier today, and I decided to drive hard.
As a result, I probably drove three miles on a rim. We just put in our best drive, and I went for it, and I only lost nine seconds to Travis. 'The championship is on the line, so we're doing everything we can to be as fast as possible.'
The fifth stage featured a left-hand rut, and it was inevitable, that Brandon could do nothing about it. It must have been a low branch or something, enough to break the hinges on the rear wing when we punctured the wheel and it pulled us to the side.
We were just trying to hold it all together and manage the issue. It was a challenging day, but we're still in third place, and we're still in the hunt for points. To win this championship, we must be smart. We will just be smart and see what tomorrow brings.'
Semenuk's lead is contested by Klim Fedoff, who lost read brakes on the first loop and was trying to catch Texas Dave Carapetyan.In Fedoff's case, the team was able to repair the car at service and get it back out on track.
The final stage of the day cost Carapetyan nearly ten seconds, with most of that time lost to Fedoff. Burke's V6 Escort and Hooper's Lexus IS350 are still battling for the 2WD win after the first day, with Hooper taking chunks out of Burke on the last stages.
As a result of Alex Ramos' hard wreck on the fourth stage, Lucy Block, Spencer Sherman, and Chris Sladek complete the top 10 in that order, with Nathan Odle finishing 11th, and being the lone L2WD National entry left.
As a result of a fire on Stage 2, Pat Gruzska retired from the rally, but he can rejoin the rally today under Super Rally conditions. Alejandro Perusina and Andres Bautista are piloting the AP4 Toyota Rav4 in the regional rally.
As a team, they are in a league of their own, with their machine 3m31s faster than second place Jacob and Michael Despain's. Through the eight stages, the Despains gained time on competition and kept the car running while other competitors attrited.
As far as third is concerned, Chris Barribeau, who held second most of the day before losing it to Mark Williams and regaining it before being overtaken by the Designs. Ryan George’s M3 is over three minutes ahead of Nicholas Bukky in the 2WD Regional.
As a whole, the rally's story has been one of attrition so far, as only 30 of the 43 entries have been able to finish the first day without having to retire.
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