Subaru Motorsports USA driver and extreme sports legend Travis Pastrana took the win at the 2024 Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR), the final event of the 2024 American Rally Association (ARA) season. The win closes out a great return year in particularly strong fashion for Pastrana and co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino, with their winning the last three events and finishing the season just a point behind now three-time consecutive ARA champions Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Williams.
“Three in a row to end the season is awesome,” said Pastrana after the win. “If you would’ve said at the beginning of the season that we were gonna win the last three I’d say ‘You’re crazy,’ but I found that passion again, got healthy, worked with Rhi and the team and here we are.”
With the 2024 ARA championship locked up, Semenuk took time during LSPR weekend to compete in – and win – the Red Bull Rampage freeride mountain biking competition. Filling his seat in the WRX ARA24 was the 18-year-old racing phenom Lia Block, who drew huge crowds and made for some thrilling viewing through the autumn leaves in Michigan’s upper peninsula.
Currently in her rookie F1 Academy season, Block quickly found her footing back in the dirt despite it having been a year since she’d been in a rally car. Along with co-driver Keaton Williams, she held impressive pace that kept them solidly in third place after the longer first day of competition. On Saturday the duo ran wide on a left while on stage 10, forcing them into a reluctant retirement.
“I got to do my first rally in over a year, drive in the top class, drive a Subaru WRX rally car,” said Block. “It didn’t end how we wanted it to, but it’s rally. I learned so much and I’m proud of my pace and what I achieved in my limited time in the car.”
