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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Pastrana double flips Baja 1000

UPDATED February 23, 2009

CLICK HERE FOR THE BAJA RACING NEWS.com UPDATE!





First Pic: Pastrana wins the Maverick of the year from FuelTV, aired Sunday, just after the Baja 1000 aired.

Second Pic: More carnage, the Pastrana destroyed Subaru, VIDEO.

Third Pic: Mas carnage, the Class One destroyed at the Baja 1000, Pastrana driving.

Fourth Pic: The massive, huge, incredible...little nothing bump that Pastrana had to hit over 80 MPH plus to make it double flip and burn to the ground.

Fifth & Sixth Pic: What the vehicle looked like before utter destruction.

Seventh Pic: Utter Pastrana destruction.

What did Pastrana do to destroy this killer rig? ""The car did not do a rollover but did an Endo or a front 180. The car hit the first hole around 80 MPH and the rear end kicked up and landed on the front wheels doing a nose wheelie. The rear of the car at this point was in the air and they were looking at the ground out the front windshield of the car, Also at this point they still thought that the car might have came back down on its wheels. Then the front tires hit a second hole snap flipping the car inverted and the rear of the car digging in motor first upside down. Case was stuck in his in one of his shoulder belts upside down and had a hard time getting out of the car. The design of the car allowing them to be able to exit from the sides and not from the roof is a big improvement in safety of the HMS. The car was just fueled a few miles down the road in the Bay of LA and had 50 gallons of fuel on board. They where very lucky to have some ones pit crew there at the scene to help to them exit from the car. Should of-Could of-Would of, Is the words of attorneys. Screw the car they both walked away from the BBQ! It all happens in a flash.An oil pressure switch on the motor then wired to a relay switch on hot lead to the fuel pump. When an engine would lose oil pressure or stop it would shut down the fuel pump. The fuel pump switch inside the car could be an off, on and then momentary to bypass the oil switch to start the car.
Travis rolled the car. Pastrana failed to switch off the power, the lights were on as the rig burned to the ground. Car caught on fire. No one was hurt or killed. Thank God. A racecar burnt to the ground. BIG DEAL! At least SCORE doesnt have to be the ice breaker that has to tell the World that the worlds best moto-x freestyle rider was killed in a crash at the Baja 1000. Think about how bad of a black mark that would be on SCORE's resume! No Bueno!Could this accident be avoided? NO! C'mon, its racing! Nothing is predictable! It could of happenend to anybody! Cars and trucks these days are built with the best tools and materials in the world and the safety of these cars are incredible! I think the best thing to do about this incident is to be thankful that no one was hurt or killed. In BajaFlo 2, B.J Baldwin says "when you get in a car that can do 130 mph and 800 hp, you are taking a risk. I dont care who you are, you are taking a risk." He is 100% right!TP is a great guy! I had the honor to meet with him and talk to him at the drivers meeting and I could tell he was stoked to be a part of this adventure. yeah, I am sure he didnt plan on rolling the car, but it happend. water under the bridge. This accident is going to teach and only help Travis' racing future. Now, for people on the boards to call him a kid. I dont know many "kids" that can do a double back-flip, in a class one! That takes the wuevos of a man! LOLAnyways, thats my whole take on this situation.

Glad the guys we able to get out and all that’s lost is some hardware. We lost a new 7 truck in the mid 80’s in about the same spot when tranny fluid ignited on the header after a roll-over.History shows that rule changes that cost the racers money are not well received. Remember the helmet thread when SCORE tried to quit allowing M rated motorcycle helmets? I’m not sure how long the guys were exposed to the heat of the fire, but the 3 layer Alpinestars suit Travis is wearing probably has TPP rating of 24 to 28. This means he would have about 15 seconds to get away from the heat before a 3rd degree burn. If he was wearing the standard single layer suit that meets the SFI minimum the most time he would have had was about 3 seconds.Most sanctioning bodies requires suits to be rated at SFI 3.2a/5. This would mean that there would be no more single layer suits, only 2 and 3 layer.I also think everyone should wear Nomex Gloves and shoes, if your hands and feet are burning our not going to get out of the car as fast.As far as the fire system goes, AFF works but I feel that Halon is better. The AFF systems spray soapy water that makes everything slippery so it’s more difficult to escape, and could possible get on your shield make it difficult to see. It sounds like everybody understands that you can’t put out a fuel fire, so don’t waste a nozzle from a fire system trying. On nozzle on the top of the motor, 2 nozzles in the driver compartment are what I would recommend.To clean out the line on a fire system nozzles, put a Schrader valve inline and blow it out before each race.The car should have a decal marking where the fire system nozzle is located so a person outside of the car can activate it. The decal goes for the master cut off as well, which should also be accessible form the outside of the car. I also think that the window nets should be latched not zip tied to the buggies. It wouldn’t be hard to believe that a car could be in a position after a crash where the top and front exits would be blocked.You can’t race a quarter midget anymore with the safety gear that is allowed in off road racing, I think it’s time for a change.
What is this supposed to mean?????????We were only here for the trucks and buggys, the bikes came through before we even got there. I agree that the mexican villagers should have slowed the bikes but do they ever????? If you are implying that we could have prevented this, than you are an idiot. If you think i was trying to get some good pictures than you are wrong, I am not even a photographer, i just happen to own a badass camera. I didn't even get it out of the case until I had already pulled Cassey out of the burning car !!!!!F**k you for trying to put any blame on our race crew!!!!!!!!! So what about Curtis Guise at Laughlin, in DP3 he should stand in the middle of the road with a caution sign like when you drive through a construction area.... This is racing, I am not going to hold Travis Pastranas, Robby Gordons, jesse jones, or anyone elses hand down the baja. That is what Prerunning is for and this is what seperates winners and losers, Robby Wins, Travis looses and Robby had much more difficult conditions than Travis did 4 hrs. later......
hey,,,lets stop talking about, driver error or car design or ages,, this was a F***ing mexican booby trap.............we pre-ran three times last one on friday before raceday...the wash wasnt even big enough for a small dip..the med dip was back about a 1/4 mile..just enough time for me to tell the driver CLEAR, HIT IT..we were fith tt across the washout and it was HUGE .....barely made it across with only a flat tire to show for a huge booby trap...why do you think we saw 20 to 30 people 8 miles away from BLOA not in the med dip area but in the washout, i bet there was a backhoe parked in the bushes...so lets remember it must have been like hitting a brick wall,,80 mph to 0,,glad they are okay,, parts break on cars and trucks at that speed of impact.""

Yea, a booby trap!?! Just like that Rally car booby trap from 2005! C'mon, SPEED KILLS and inexperienced racers with vehicles over their driving capabilities are lethal.

From Racer Magazine:

Any moment now, Subaru USA will announce a 2007 Production Car World Rally Championship program for Travis Pastrana, America’s Extreme Sports master who won this year’s Rally America National Championship, maybe his first of many.There was some talk that the program would be announced at the L.A. Auto Show but that was taken off the table by Subaru. The announcement opportunity actually gets better this week, as Pastrana is representing Team USA in Paris at the Michelin Race of Champions. Breaking the news on an international stage could be advantageous in the long run. Curiously, there are rules and deadlines governing this as there always are with international motorsports. The FIA rules say an application must come by December 15 (Friday) or entries could be left at “the discretion of the FIA and subject to availability.” Without confusing applications and press releases, I understand Pastrana will enter three P-WRC events in 2007 in Mexico, Argentina and Great Britain. For the uninitiated, the Production Car WRC is made up of Group N production-based cars with 2000cc engines. Generally they’re a step faster than the North American cars Travis is driving now, but not the purpose-built rockets used in the full-fledged WRC. In Mexico, Argentina and Great Britain, Pastrana will run in front of the WRC teams and officials and Subaru will get a chance to compare his times on the same roads used by former WRC champions such as 2006 title winner Sebastian Loeb, 2000 and 2002 winner Marcus Gronholm and, perhaps more to the point, Petter Solberg, the Subaru factory driver who won the title in 2003.and was the runner-up to Loeb in ’04 and ’05.

Travis Pastrana , “Definitely I’m the new kid on the block,” Pastrana said in a radio interview. “I have a lot to learn. I’m trying to be a sponge. Colin McRae (the 1995 WRC champion), who came to the X Games this year, has really been helping me a lot telling me where I should go and what I should do. We’re going for this thing and see what happens.”Travis is ready for this step now, where he wasn’t before his mentoring began with McRae this summer. Even he admits to being “out of control” at the beginning of the 2006 U.S. season, even the beginning of the X Games in August. In fact, in those BC (Before Colin) rounds, Travis had never won a Rally America event. After Colin, Travis’ only loss came when he (shall we say) didn’t feel good at Lake Superior in Upper Michigan, thus allowing Subaru teammate Ken Block to win and solidify second place in the championship. The difference in the “After Colin” Pastrana was his recognition that “you can go a little bit slower in the car. It’s not like a motorcycle where you can keep charging with your body inputs. There’s a technique to be learned. I learned a lot this year but I definitely have a lot more to go.”

Pastrana, a racer in training.
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