A lot of people do not realize how much history is in powersports. Today they are bigger than ever and speed junkies worldwide avidly seek the adventurous style of these sports. The art of powersports wouldn’t be half of what it is today if not for the legends who defined each sport. Men of true grit and fearless gusto, who suspended the lines between reality and impossibility. One Stop Motors would like to honor these men for their contribution to the extreme way of life. Today, we would like to honor one of the newer, but well established men of legend; Travis Pastrana.
Anyone familiar with Motocross or the X Games will know who Travis Pastrana is. Those avid followers of the sport will know that Pastrana has not had an extensively successful A.M.A. career. While he has won a few events and has some success like the 2000 A.M.A. (American Motorcyclist Association) National Champion in the 125cc engine classification. Pastrana’s talents as a rider were more solidified during the initial growth of ESPN’s X Games in the late 1990′s, early 2000′s. It was there that Pastrana not only made a name for himself, but aided in the expansion of the now biggest extreme sports competition in the world.
Pastrana’s X Games statistics is staggering at a glance. He is the first person to win the X-Games MotoX Freestyle when it was introduced in 1999. His score of 99.00 points is the highest ever run score to date and he did so at the ridiculously young age of 15. In fact, he was the only person to win the event for three strait years (not having competed in 2002). When he returned in 2003, he took the gold once more, but crashed in 2004 attempting a 360 at 50ft in the air and sustained a concussion. He was able to return the next day and took home the silver, losing the event for the first time. Pastrana continued to win successfully for the next few years, taking home a combination of silver, gold and bronze medals.
The thing that made him special was his fearlessness and ground breaking tricks that had never been attempted in competition before. This include the first ever attempted backflip on a motorcycle to win his second gold in the MotoX Freestyle. He is also the second person to complete a 360 in competition. He was the first person to attempt the backflip barspin, but failed. In 2006, Pastrana became the 3rd athlete in X Games history to win three gold medals in a single event. That same year he also attempted the first ever double backflip in competition, landed it and scored a 98.60 score (the highest score in the Best Trick category to date). He has also taken golds in the Rally competition and won consistently up to the present day.
Pastrana is a maverick of motor sports, as he also has a strong knack for Rally racing. From 2006 to 2009 (4 strait years) he won the Rally America Drivers Championship with 15 1st place and 16 more top three finishes in only 36 races. That’s 29 of 36 in the top three, with the other seven races ending with DNFs (did not finish). He has never finished a season under 4th place in the standings in the six years he’s competed. In light of Pastrana’s success in the Rally world, he was set to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut this past year, but was in an accident that delayed his arrival until 2012.
As you can see, Travis Pastrana is a proven jack of all trades when it comes to the dirt track, but that is not the only reason we selected him as a Founding Father. He has a large following due to his personable persona and modest winning attitude. More than all this, he personifies the sort of high octane life that powersports is all about. For example, he once jumped out of a plane with no parachute, only to meet up with someone mid-air and latch on for a tandem decent. You can’t learn that kind of fearlessness; it’s something you are born with. Pastrana has been a significant factor in building the X Games brand because of his willingness to take risks and try never before tricks on a national stage. He does all this while maintaining a healthy personality.
You don’t see Pastrana hoping out of his car and punching another driver like you do with Carl Edwards or intentionally rubbing another car into the wall like Kyle Busch. He goes out there and competes at a high level without all the trash talk and bad blood aspects. It is this kind of attitude that X Games needed to grow as an industry. It’s something you see with many riders in motocross; a healthy respect for one another. Pastrana is no different in that regard. Of course, when it comes to pure talent and raw courage, Travis Pastrana stands ahead of the pack.
Tyler Baker; OSM Writer
You can see a timeline of Travis Pastrana’s amazing career at his website. ( TravisPastrana.com )
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