Pastrana gets screwed again at the 2012 X Games
Travis Pastrana had high hopes for the 2012 X Games
RallyCross class after turning in the second fastest qualifying lap (behind
only Ken Block) but his X Games were over almost as soon as they started when
Saab racer Andy Scott ran Pastrana hard into the wall as the field of four cars
in the heat race entered the first turn.
This marks the second time in the brief Global RallyCross season where
Pastrana has been wrecked out of the race by the dirty driving of one of his
competitors.
As the third heat race of the 2012 X Games RallyCross round
1 began , the field was made up of Travis Pastrana in his #199 Red Bull Racing
Dodge Dart, Andy Scott in a Saab 9-3, David Binks in his Ford Fiesta and David
Higgins in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
When the race began, Travis got a great launch in his Dart rally car and
led the field into the first turn when Andy Scott drove in too deep – ramming Pastrana
from behind and propelling him nose-first into the outside wall. With Scott’s Saab pushing Pastrana’s Dart at
high speed, Travis had no chance of preventing the impact that took the #199 Dart
out of the race.
Needless to say, Pastrana was pretty heated after Scott ran
him into the wall and while the other drivers returned back to the starting
line for restart – Pastrana rode in a
golf cart back to the garage area as his crew and Global RallyCross officials
prevented him from heading out onto the track to confront Andy Scott.
Andy Scott was quickly removed from the field
as well, allowing David Binks and David Higgins to effortlessly claim the two
transfer spots into the final race.
Pastrana was unable to get his badly damaged car back together for the
Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) and he was done for the weekend. Although the Global RallyCross and X Games
officials ruled that Scott’s clearly deliberate contact was not avoidable, Andy
Scott showed how outclassed he is in the LCQ race when he first false started
en route to a second place finish out of three cars. Because of this, Andy Scott failed to qualify
for the X Games RallyCross finals – instead taking his ugly ass Saab back to the
hauler where it belongs.
While rally racing comes with a certain level of contact,
Andy Scott made it very clear that his mission was to take Travis Pastrana out
of the race as quickly as possible.
Scott made no attempt to stop shoving the Red Bull Racing Dodge Dart
into the first turn wall and with any luck – Travis will return the favor in
one of the future races. Saab sucked as
a car company until being forced into bankruptcy and Scott has done about as
well as the Saab brand this season in Global RallyCross. As a fan of the GRC, I look forward to seeing
him continue to fail during the last two events of the 2012 season as he is
badly outclassed by the rest of the field.
Unfortunately, Brian Menzies ran into mechanical troubles
during his LCQ race, blowing out a tire and damaging the suspension as he came
over one of the dirt jumps on the track.
Menzies was forced to rely on the LCQ after being squeezed out as the
four cars headed into the first turn.
Menzies slowed as the four cars began bumping and he was unable to overcome
the ground that he lost early in his first round heat race.
Rally racing legend Sebastian Loeb made RallyCross look easy
in his debut at the 2012 X Games in his Citroen C4 , walking away from the
field in the Finals in the same manner that he did in his heat race – allowing him
to claim his first X Games gold medal.
Ford driver Ken Block finished second to claim the silver and 2011 X
Games gold medalist Brian Deegan finished third to claim the 2012 bronze.
