Steamboat Springs, CO — Rally America Championship positions are up for grabs at Rally Colorado here in Steamboat Springs. Three of the top four drivers will start the rally tomorrow with a chance to move into second place in the Rally America Championship. Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block, Rockstar Energy Drink driver Andy Pinker, and Oakley sponsored hotshoe Kyle Sarasin are all going to be going flat out to win the maximum number of championship points before the final round of the season in Michigan in October.

Travis Pastrana, who leads the points heading into Rally Colorado has the ability to secure his championship here. Despite the comfortable points lead, a rally ending mistake here will leave the title up in the air down to the final event. Pastrana and co-driver Derek Ringer will need to finish in the top six here to secure the title, and a trouble free run should make that possible, but with varied road conditions in today’s practice, and conflicting reports of the road conditions for tomorrow, nothing here in Colorado is certain.

“We got to chose start position here at Rally Colorado, so we took third on the road,” explained Pastrana at today’s Parc Expose in downtown Steamboat Springs. “It will hopefully mean we will see the mistakes the drivers ahead of us make, and avoid the same problems.”

The two drivers ahead are Andy Pinker and Ken Block, with Pinker running first on the road.

“Being first on the road is hopefully not going to hurt us too much, but we’ll find out tomorrow,” offered Pinker, adding “we would have picked third on the road if we’d had the choice.”

X games 14 competitor, Kyle Sarasin, is one of the few drivers who has lots to gain with a good result here in Colorado. Kyle, driver of the number 55 CPD racing Subaru, currently sits 6th in the overall standings. A top three result could see him as high as second overall in the Rally America championship when the dust settles. When asked about his plan of attack, his response was simply, “I go flat out.”

Lauchlin O’Sullivan will be driving the Flatiron Tuning Subaru, co-driven by Scott Crouch. Though running in PGT trim, the former Mitsubishi USA driver will no doubt be putting pressure on the teams at the top of the order. Carl Jardevall is also expected to be very fast, sometimes surprising fans who don’t know the Norwegian. Though he has never run a complete championship, Jardevall is very fast in any event he enters. For Rally Colorado, Jardevall is co-driven by Chrissie Beavis, normally co-driver to Tanner Foust. Foust is away this weekend due to a conflicting schedule.

The area has seen extensive rains over the days leading up to the event that have made the roads very slick. Teams out for recce were prevented from checking over two stages to prevent road conditions from worsening – two stages that teams without experience will have to run blind.

Rally Colorado also marks the final event in the Colorado Rally Cup, a series meant to grow the feeder sports to rally. The series includes two rallycross events and three hill climbs and finishes off here in Steamboat Springs this weekend. The result is a number of new names on the start order, many of whom are running a rally for the very first time.

Rally Colorado is the first national rally for the Subaru of Jimmy Keeney. A veteran hill climb driver and Group 2 rally driver, Keeney has recently switched over to all wheel drive, and is hoping to make his mark on the Rally America series at this event. “I’ll be running Sno*Drift next year, and hopefully the whole Rally America series,” said Keeney.

The Colorado-based team of John Conley and Keith Rudolph in a Dodge Neon SRT-4 reports that all is well.

“The recce went smoothly on Thursday, and the roads look to be fast,” said John. “We are hoping for dry conditions as to better put the power down.” The team has some concern if the conditions turn slippery. “There are certainly a few Group 2 VWs to look out for so I guess we will have to wait and see how the weather plays out.”

The Group 2 VW driven by Michel Hoche-Mong is looking for a good result here this weekend. The team is currently leading the Southwest Rally Series and is excited to test themselves against some of the higher horsepower cars.

“The car is ready to go,” states Michel. “With our new motor work it seems to really run well in the higher altitudes at this event. And we like it muddy so we will have to see how much the roads dry out over the next day or so.”

Starting in the final spot is the only all women’s entry of Alissa Williams and Brittany Kilpatrick. The two are competing in a 1984 VW Rabbit GTI in Group 2.

“We both got tired of just watching our husbands compete, and decided we’d have more fun if we ran too,” explained Williams. This is the very first rally for the pair, though co-driver Brittany Kilpatrick has done some rallycross events.

The rally has already gotten off to a poor start for Mitch Williams and Alix Hakala. On today’s shakedown stage, the pair blew the engine in their 2004 Subaru Impreza STI and have foregone Parc Expose to repair the car.

Also new to this event and to the Rally America team are the crew bringing you these news stories and live updates. Dean Campbell will be writing the news stories and helping with the live updates. Forest Duplessis and Leigh Mastin will be taking on the live updates for the Rally America website through the event. We hope you enjoy our take on the 2008 Rally Colorado.