Travis Pastrana

[tribefiend]

So, I guess it will be wise for Pastrana's fans to keep quite for a while and let the guy prove himself by results, not by media.

Yeah you're right...all of us Pastrana fans should be quiet and not express any emotion for his potential. After all nobody can be a fan of somebody who hasn't proven himself yet. I'll check back with his progress in 3 or 4 years when he may have reached the WRC, but he might not be competitive in WRC for another 3 or 4 years after that...so I'll just forget about him til about 2015. Sorry Travis.

[jparker]

Yeah you're right...all of us Pastrana fans should be quiet and not express any emotion for his potential. After all nobody can be a fan of somebody who hasn't proven himself yet. I'll check back with his progress in 3 or 4 years when he may have reached the WRC, but he might not be competitive in WRC for another 3 or 4 years after that...so I'll just forget about him til about 2015. Sorry Travis.

Well, I didn't mean that much quite
I bet you don't want to see Pastrana in Mattew's position, is that right?

[Bjorn240]

The only place people whinge about Matthew Wilson is on this forum. In real life, Matthew is an absolutely fantastic guy who is very serious about becoming a future rally champion and who has put together a smart program to do so, especially given the restriction that he basically has to drive Fords. Both he and Michael deserve the very best. (Unless of course, Travis and I are racing in the same class as them - then we wish to beat them soundly!)

As for Travis and I, I'm afraid you'll all just have to wait a few years to see what potential we have; suffice to say we learned a lot in Mexico, and that the split times we've received were encouraging in terms of our speed and extremely instructive in where we are losing time. We have already identified two specific areas we need to work on, in addition to refining our notes a little. Look for slightly more speed in Argentina, while we'll still be driving to ensure a finish. The real speed won't come until the end of 2008 and all of 2009.

- Christian

[jparker]

The only place people whinge about Matthew Wilson is on this forum. In real life, Matthew is an absolutely fantastic guy who is very serious about becoming a future rally champion and who has put together a smart program to do so, especially given the restriction that he basically has to drive Fords. Both he and Michael deserve the very best. (Unless of course, Travis and I are racing in the same class as them - then we wish to beat them soundly!)

As for Travis and I, I'm afraid you'll all just have to wait a few years to see what potential we have; suffice to say we learned a lot in Mexico, and that the split times we've received were encouraging in terms of our speed and extremely instructive in where we are losing time. We have already identified two specific areas we need to work on, in addition to refining our notes a little. Look for slightly more speed in Argentina, while we'll still be driving to ensure a finish. The real speed won't come until the end of 2008 and all of 2009.

- Christian

About Mattew Wilson and this forum, your comment is not true. Please read the links on that topic properly. Also, I don't think anyone questions Mattew's personality, I read his interview and yes he sonds like fantastic guy. You are just putting my commet out of contecst, which is not so kind of you.

Good luck with the rest

[Mickey T]

I just can't help but wonder about Travis, though.

even if you look at the Australian championship, the top guys in it have consistently traded split times, stage times, and often won rallies, against the top PWRC guys.

Check the times of Dean Herridge and Cody Crocker in the WRC rounds in Australia, New Zealand and even Japan (or even Chris when he was in Group N in Finland - when he had all-wheel drive) and you'll see what i mean.

historically, too, Ed Ordynski has repeatedly won the group n class at rally oz and in new zealand, and Ross Dunkerton has mixed it up front in Group A.

I hope he's the great white hope of US rallying, because that's something the sport can only benefit from. That he's a character only adds to that hope.

I just can't see his career being furthered by remaining in the US. Half of the sport's world champions have come from Finland, and all of them have come from Europe. Would have thought the link was obvious...

[koko0703]

The only place people whinge about Matthew Wilson is on this forum. In real life, Matthew is an absolutely fantastic guy who is very serious about becoming a future rally champion and who has put together a smart program to do so, especially given the restriction that he basically has to drive Fords. Both he and Michael deserve the very best. (Unless of course, Travis and I are racing in the same class as them - then we wish to beat them soundly!)

As for Travis and I, I'm afraid you'll all just have to wait a few years to see what potential we have; suffice to say we learned a lot in Mexico, and that the split times we've received were encouraging in terms of our speed and extremely instructive in where we are losing time. We have already identified two specific areas we need to work on, in addition to refining our notes a little. Look for slightly more speed in Argentina, while we'll still be driving to ensure a finish. The real speed won't come until the end of 2008 and all of 2009.

- Christian

First congulaturations on a solid point finish in Mexico, and I'm looking forward to seeing you and Travis making further progress in Argentina.

About Matthew Wilson, I think the problem is not Matthew himself but his program. I mean he jumped into WRCar with almost no WRC experience, and considering how young he is, Matthew could've done JWRC or PWRC to develop himself before stepping up to the top level. There are lots of criticism on Matthew because many fans doubt whether he is actually ready to compete in top level at this point, and so far he hasn't shown what the fans expect to see from the top WRC drivers.

I think it's both fortunate and unfortunate to have father who happens to run Ford WRC program.... Many fans will be happy to see Matthew on top of the podium, but his program is rushing him way too much. I really think he should've competed in JWRC at least for 1 or 2 seasons with limited WRC program.

[LastDitchRacing]

Public congrats for Travis and Christian and the Subaru US rally team in general for their Corona Rally performance.

Expectations from the interational community were low, and conversely high from those of us involved directly in the sport in the US and Canada.

As someone who jumped from an Open class WRX in the Canadian/US series to a 2WD Peugeot 206 XS 2WD in the Corona Rally Mexico last year, we were also concerned with how we'd stack up against the usual 206 pilotes.

Turns out we did quite well(until I drove us into a tree), as well as some other mis-adventures!

I'll be the first to agree that our depth of competition at the sharp end may not be that deep, but it is fairly quick. Most who have come over from Europe in recent years have been pleasantly surprised. I'm not saying that anyone here can win in an international PWRC field..yet. :-) More development is needed.

We have several issues here in North America. We have no driver development programmes in place and it is very difficult to attact sponsorship as the sport is still relatively unknown in mainstream media.

Travis' impact on the visability of the sport via the ROC, X-Games and now the PWRC have been the most significant events since Mitsubishi and Subaru fielded, "factory teams," here in the US and Canada.

As far as notes go, we've had a combination of blind rallies, Jemba notes, Jemba with a single, "familiarization," pass as well as two pass recce events.

Cheers! John

[J.Lindstroem]

jparker currently gets his ass kicked on this forum.

Funny.

[Doon]

We have several issues here in North America. We have no driver development programmes in place and it is very difficult to attact sponsorship as the sport is still relatively unknown in mainstream media.

I feel that is much like that in British Rallying at the moment, the only driver development is for the guys with serious cash and sponsorship is impossible to find unless you know someone who is willing to throw away alot of cash! Again, rallying is almost invisible to the Britsh media and the majority of the public. Sadly i dont think we'll ever get away from the fact that there are other forms of motorsport and general sport that are more exciting to the majority of the british public. Why? I dont know, its totally bizarre!

[jparker]

jparker currently gets his ass kicked on this forum.

Funny.

So what? I don't care.
The time will tell who is right on that one.
Of course, I would love to be wrong. After all I can't go to Europe every month to enjoy rallying.