Travis Alan Pastrana (born October 8, 1983, in Annapolis, Maryland) is a motorsports competitor who has won championships and X Games gold medals in several events, including supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing.
Freestyle MotoX
Pastrana invented many of the young sport's tricks and became the sport's world champion at age 14. He landed a double backflip in his film Nitro Circus 3. On August 4, 2006, at X Games 12 in Los Angeles, he became the first rider to land a double backflip in competition, winning his first Moto X Best Trick Gold Medal. It is believed that only one judge did not rate the run 100/100, making the final score a 98.60 Pastrana said after the competition that he has no plans to attempt the trick again. Travis' X Games participation ended when he injured his knee while walking to see his friends in the stands, so he could not perform a glory run for his Moto X Freestyle Gold Medal.
In 2007, Travis came out of retirement from FMX and will compete in the Red Bull X-Fighters tour.
Motocross/Supercross
Pastrana has earned two Dirtbike racing championships: the 2000 AMA 125cc National championship, and the 2001 125cc East Coast Supercross Championship. His hard-charging, go-for-broke attitude makes him a podium threat in any race he enters. Pastrana's stand-up style, ability to spot jump combinations and great speed through the whoops make him easy to spot on the track.
Pastrana has always raced and competed on Suzuki motorcycles, and remains fiercely loyal to the brand. His motorcycles and rally cars carry the number 199.
In a recent interview, Pastrana said he will stop racing supercross races due to problems he has had in his knees.
Rallying
In 2003, Pastrana opened a rallying career in the Race of Champions, and began driving for the Subaru-backed Vermont SportsCar rally team in 2004. Starting in 2006, Travis was signed by Subaru to lead their new Subaru Rally Team USA, being paired once again with veteran co-driver Christian Edstrom. On August 5, 2006 Travis won the gold medal in the first Rally Car competition at the X Games, edging out rally legend Colin McRae by 0.53 seconds after McRae rolled his car through the last jump.
Pastrana and Edstrom clinched the 2006 Rally America National Series Overall and Open Class Championship on October 20, 2006 during day one of the Lake Superior Performance Rally. The team finished out the 2006 series with another first-place victory at the Wild West Rally in Olympia, Washington on December 3, 2006.
On December 16, 2006, Travis competed at the 2006 Race of Champions at the Stade de France in Paris. He represented the United States in the Nations Cup by himself, after injuries forced teammate Jimmie Johnson and his replacement Scott Speed to withdraw. Driving alone, Pastrana finished in second place to the team of Heikki Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm from Finland.
