Subaru Rally Team USA has once again swept the podium in a Rally America National Championship event. Ken Block and Travis Pastrana held their top placement from yesterday and finished first and second respectively. The threatening rain held off and the stage roads were dry and fast for day two of the 2008 Olympus Rally. Both teams ran an excellent rally and have been rewarded with valuable Championship points.

Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino piloted their #43 Subaru WRX STI to victory in a most impressive manner. Throughout the course of the rally, they suffered three flat tires, but were free of any hindering mechanical issues. Although their winning margin was twenty-four seconds over SRT USA teammates Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer, their performance was far beyond that required to win this rally. "It's about having confidence in my car setup and knowing how to drive in these conditions," said Block before the rally. Spectators noted that in a right-hand turn at the spectator area on stage 14, the team kept it pinned at 120 miles per hour, where other competitors chose to lift and take the turn at a slower speed. Ken and Alex hit a top speed of 134 miles per hour today. Yesterday they hit 121 miles per hour on only three tires after incurring a flat half-way through a twelve mile stage. "You really have to love going that fast," said Block. Because of a rule limiting the average speed per stage to eighty miles per hour, their overall time of 1:30:34.8 is revised from their actual, much faster time. Their total commitment to going as fast as possible on every stage has been rewarded with definitive wins in the last two Rally America events. This is Ken's third rally win in a row, after he won an all tarmac event in New York.

On day two, Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer were second in the starting lineup. With Ken and Alex ahead of them to clear loose gravel off the road, the duo were able to utilize their traction advantage to hold their second place ranking and start setting faster times. They won stage 13 by seven seconds and tied for first on two stages where competitors' average speeds were capped at 80 miles per hour. Team #199's second place finish at this rally has earned them much needed championship points. Now at fourth place in the Rally America National Championship standings, the team is making a steady recovery from their unfortunate retirement at Sno*Drift when an errant deer leapt in front of their car and crushed their massive lead.

In the Production GT class, today's finishing order partially echoed that of day one. Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouch took first place. Verdier and Crouch, in car #429, were able to keep Patrick Moro and Mike Rossey at bay with "no real strategy except to go as fast as we can and see where we sit after SS3," as described by driver Verdier yesterday morning. In car #59, Moro and Rossey took second place, two minutes and twenty-seven seconds behind their victors. Late yesterday, Nathan and Brandye Conley—in car #116—surged ahead to third place in PGT. By the end of the rally, they beat team #811 (Jaroslaw Sozanski and Bartosz Sawicki ) to the podium my a mere 3.3 seconds. This podium finish for the Conleys puts them at fourth place in the Production GT National Championship, only four championship points behind Sozanski and Sawicki.

Next month, Subaru Rally Team USA returns to the northwest for the Oregon Trail Rally. As a slower and much more technical rally, Oregon Trail will be a challenging and suspenseful rally. It may be a chance for Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer to gain a lead over their teammates Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino. It may also be a venue for Ken and Alex to prove that they are an indomitable and versatile team with a lock on the 2008 Rally America Championship.

This year's Olympus rally was an incredibly fast event held in a gorgeous location. The open, dusty roads of Pomeroy, Washington set the stage for a truly spectacular rally. For photographs of the breathtaking scenery and phenomenal action, click here for the event's photo gallery.

Saturday: Race Day One
Weather: Sunny, dry, brief snow flurry
Temperature: Mid 30s to low 40s
Road Surface: Dry, loose gravel

The 2008 Olympus rally has begun and SRT USA is off to an impressive start. Due to an issue of road availabilty, the Olympus Rally has been temporarily moved to Pomeroy, Washington. Pastures and crop fields blanket the beautiful rolling terrain, and excellent gravel rally roads run from hilltops to gulches. This rally is the first all-gravel event in the 2008 Rally America National Championship and contains some of the season's fastest roads.

Demonstrating once again that they know how to handle a fast rally, Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino have stayed at the top of the scoreboard all day. There are a few factors to which this success can be attributed. For one, the Subaru Rally Team USA cars are excellent vehicles. Much to the chagrin of their rivals, the SRT USA Subaru WRX Impreza STIs are brutally powerful yet superbly nimble. The other primary factors are the vehicles' operators. In this case, Ken Block's total confidence on fast gravel roads is putting him far ahead of the competition. In the previous event, the 100 Acre Wood Rally, Ken and Alex established an insurmountable lead on the first day and followed through for their first win this year. Now that they are in first place in the championship standings, they must continue to win as such and stave off the competition and keep their lead. Their strategy for doing so seems to rely on going extremely fast. In fact, team #43 were going so fast today that within the first three stages they exceeded the maximum allowable average speed. As a result, their time was capped to reflect an 80 MPH average, putting them slightly closer to the competition. Ken and Alex still have a thirty second lead over their closest competitors, Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer in car #199.

Two-time Rally America National Champion Travis Pastrana and his co-driver, World Rally Champion Derek Ringer, tackled fresh gravel to secure a second place standing at the end of the day. Thirty seconds down from Ken and Alex, Travis and Derek are fighting for a first place win and the valuable championship points they would earn as a result. With no mechanical issues and increasingly better stage times, team #199 is on track to contend with Block and Gelsomino for first place tomorrow.

In the Production GT class, team #429 Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouch lead by more than a minute and a half over second place team #59 Patrick Moro and Mike Rossey. Prior to stage five, there had been fierce competition for the top three spots in the PGT class. However, on stage five, team #523 of Hanson and Hanson went into a field and sustained damage which may force them to retire from the event.

The weather forecast for tomorrow calls for showers starting at 10 AM. If that prediction holds, the road conditions could change. Todays rally was extremely dry and dusty and a bit of rain may only suppress the dust. Given the loose condition of the gravel covering the stage roads, significant mud is a probably ineffectual possibility: unlikely to become an issue in the four stages left tomorrow. Although the majority of the stages were run today, the race is certainly not decided. As we learned at Sno*Drift, the outcome of a rally can change drastically in a single stage. Stay tuned tomorrow for the final results of the 2008 Olympus Rally, the third event in the Rally America National Championship.

Although the 2008 Olympus Rally has yet to start, SRT USA has been busy. Thursday night Travis Pastrana and the rest of SRT USA attended the release of 199 Lives at a Spokane Theater. 199 Lives – The Travis Pastrana Story is an unreal collection of championship wins, crashes and other moments in Travis’ life. It’s a must see and positively entertaining! Go to www.199lives.com for more information.

Friday morning race teams completed the second day of recce on the rally course surrounding Pomeroy, Washington. The roads are currently quite dusty with mixed surfaces, but mostly very lose gravel and medium sized stones. The course is fast and there is no question rally cars will see top speed figures on most if not all stages. Weather reports are forecasting possible snow and the chance of record cold daytime high temperatures on Saturday and Sunday. Precipitation is not expected to be heavy; however, snow or rain in any amount could radically affect the road surfaces and grip.

On Friday evening a staggering amount of people had gathered at Tyler & Kelly Subaru in Lewiston, Idaho to meet Travis & Ken. The dealership was actually overflowing with fans. No official count is available, but a thousand people or even more could have passed through the large dealership. Check out the photo gallery to see for yourself!

Stage 1 starts at 10:30AM Saturday morning with #199 first on the road. Results, fresh photos and an updated summary will be available late Saturday night. See pre-race & press stage photo gallery here.