When two WRC Champions, Pastrana and Block competed against each other!

It has been 15 years since we witnessed WRC champion Travis Pastrana compete in WRC.

That first outing was at Rally México in 2007, when he competed in the P-WRC category in a customised Rally America Group N Subaru Impreza WRX STI with Christian Björn Edström in the passenger seat. Pastrana would be joined by a yet-to-Gymkhana Ken Block, who was also competing in the P-WRC class in a Vermont SportsCar WRX STI.

It is still the only time the two American legends have competed in a world championship round.

Pastrana finished 15th overall and sixth in class, demonstrating that he had what it took to compete against the top names on the world stage. Ken Block ended 13 places farther behind in 28th position but would go on to finish seventh overall in México six years later.

Pastrana had said at the time, “What an amazing event, I had the time of my life, and to finish fifth in the P-WRC is just amazing. This is our first WRC event and there are so many new things to learn here that are different than our events in the USA. So we just wanted to finish and learn. But this event is very rough on the cars and so I’ve got to thank Subaru and my team for providing me with a car that withstood such a harsh beating!”

Harsh is an accurate description. WRC México in 2007 had a total distance of 227 stage miles, which was approximately double the average rally length in Rally America at the time.

A small group of US rallyists has long been drawn to the stages of Rally México. The famed urban city stages, the challenging mountain roads, and, of course, the thrilling El Brinco all bring something different to the table than other US rallies. Pastrana has yet to race in México again, but Block has – four times in a Ford WRC car and most recently in his Ford Escort “Cossie” V2 in 2020, where he had an overheated engine.

When Rally of Nations was last used as a format in 2009, four American teams competed, with Pat Moro, Kenny Bartram, Piotr Wiktorczyk, and Matthew Johnson each driving a Subaru Impreza – although only Johnson finished in a respectable ninth place overall.

Wyeth Gubleman, the late Karl Scheible, and Barry McKenna are just a few of the many well-known US rally drivers who have succumbed to the fascination of Rally México.

This year, the United States is sending a squad of two drivers to the Rally of Nations Guanajuato, both from the Black Rifle Coffee Company Rally Team. Texas Dave Carapetyan has been racing for 20 years, but this weekend’s Race of Nations will be his first rally outside of the United States.

Mike Glover, the inventor of Field Craft Survival and a former US Special Forces member, will join him at the rally. Glover will be competing in his second rally, using a Subaru WRX STI N14 similar to his teammate.