The Subaru Blog

Subaru of America, Inc. announced today that reigning fourtime
Rally America National Champion Travis Pastrana and BMX Freestyle legend Dave Mirra
are both returning as factory team drivers for Subaru Rally Team USA in 2010. Pastrana and
Mirra will each pilot a 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car prepared by Subaru technical
partner Vermont SportsCar.
Subaru Rally Team USA will compete in the entire 2010 Rally America National Championship
and ESPN’s X Games 16 Rally Car Racing event, and it will also participate in Rally America’s
new European-style Rally Cross exhibition events.
“Rally car racing presents unique challenges that place a premium on traction and drivability,”
said Tim Mahoney, senior vice president and CMO for Subaru of America, Inc. “Subaru’s
participation in the Rally America National Championship successfully serves to showcase the
performance of our Impreza platform through core technologies rooted in our Subaru
Symmetrical All Wheel Drive and boxer engine.”
Action sports icon and rally champion Pastrana has driven exclusively for the Subaru brand
since he began rally competition in 2004. Dominating rallying in the United States since 2006,
Pastrana has amassed 18 overall victories and 36 podiums, along with two gold medals, a
bronze and silver at the ESPN X Games Rally Car events.
Subaru Rally Team USA 2010 Drivers / 2
“The sport has grown and the competition in 2010 will be better than ever, and so I’m glad to be
in the best car with the best team again to go for my fifth championship,” said Pastrana. As in
2009, Christian Edstrom will be Pastrana’s co-driver.
Pastrana dramatically closed out 2009 by setting the world record for longest distance jump in a
rally car on New Year’s Eve in Long Beach, Calif. He soared his Vermont SportsCar-prepared
Subaru Impreza STI rally car 269 feet over Rainbow Harbor, landing on a floating barge and
surpassing the previous record by 98 feet.
Mirra, who became a pro BMX rider in 1992, holds the record for most X Games medals
(including most gold medals) and has medaled in every X Games since their inception in 1995.
Credited with bringing freestyle BMX into the mainstream, Mirra began a transition to rally racing
in late 2007 and joined Subaru Rally Team USA in 2008. He earned Rally America’s “Rookie of
the Year” that year. “It’s great having the support of Subaru to race with the best drivers in North
America and allowing me to develop as a rally driver,” said Mirra.
Mirra will move up to an Open Class Subaru WRX STI from the lower specification Super
Production Class Subaru that he campaigned in 2009. He will again team with former WRC
champion co-driver Derek Ringer, who has been instrumental in Mirra’s rapid ascension to a top
driver in the Rally America Championship.