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Pastrana looks forward to his RallyCross adventure in Charlotte

Taken from SRT Motorsports press release

Travis Pastrana with his Dodge Dart Rally Cross car

Travis Pastrana with his Dodge Dart Rally Cross car

Travis Pastrana

Travis Pastrana on his new adventure in Global RallyCross

Dodge is making its inaugural entry into the Global RallyCross Series with the all-new Dodge Dart, partnering with Pastrana199 Racing to field an entry for action sports star Travis Pastrana.

“This weekend is going to be absolutely awesome. Everyone at Dodge and this new Dodge Dart has been so enthusiastic. You know, we haven’t had a lot of time in the car but I really think we’ve got a great platform to work with. So, I’m definitely excited to get out there. With the new GRC [Global RallyCross], there’s definitely no way that you couldn’t go out there. Everyone was like ‘Oh, it’s taking your focus off of NASCAR’ but no, definitely not. But coming out here and having an opportunity to race against the best guys in the world of RallyCross and also the top Americans on American soil and driving a Dodge Dart is going to be awesome.”

Travis Pastrana for the USA team in 2011 Race of Champions
Travis Pastrana for the USA team in 2011 Race of Champions

Photo by: Race of Champions

Pastrana is an X Game star and enjoys challenges. He looks forward to the GRC event at Charlotte: “Saturday is going to be awesome because you’ve got a lot of guys coming from the World Championship, you’ve got a lot of guys that have done Rally and RallyCross in the United States with X Games and they have a good Rally program. But really, this is the first RallyCross event that’s been on the level in the U.S. You have a lot of manufacturers involved. You have all the best drivers in the world that are coming over and it’s going to be really interesting to see who comes out on this course and can actually adapt pretty quick. As much as we know about the course, the course has been changing all the time, so we’re just trying to figure out how we can adapt to it as well as we can. There’s going to be a jump on the frontstretch, we’ve got a water hazard, basically, on pit road. These cars are made to go off-road, but now with the first round we’ve just got the pavement which is actually going to be real exciting because the tires cool down when they hit the dirt so without that chance to cool down, there’s so many variables, there’s so much new for us coming out with a new car. It’s going to be real exciting to see where we stand.”

“I like the format. You get a point for the heat race wins, which is really cool because it motivates everyone to get out there. We kind of saw Jimmie Johnson, he kind of sat back after getting that first heat race win on this last race. Every race means something. It’s neat because we’ve got a good format in place but being how this is the first year, first race for GRC, we’re going to learn from the mistakes that are probably going to be made. It’s going to be action, carnage, chaos and fun and that’s what RallyCross is all about. I’m definitely excited to put that Dodge Dart, hopefully on top of that podium at the end of the week.

“You’re going to look for zero to 60 in under three seconds, which is absolutely ridiculous. They’re running similar horsepower as the NASCAR cars, but they’re so much lighter and with all-wheel drive, they take off like a rocket ship. Wherever your front-end tires are aimed, that’s where you’re going. It’s definitely a very well-handling machine; I’m looking forward to getting out there.”

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