- [Narrator] On this episode. - The biggest challenge about
Olympus Rally is everything. It is straight grease. I mean, it's 40% chance to rain today, 40% evidently means 100. We got all of it. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - On the rally cross side, Subaru's never been in a better position than they are now. (engines revving) - This is gonna be my rally
to win one if there's any. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - Oh (beep). - [Narrator] This is "Launch Control." (engine revs) Two events are complete in the ARA Championship. Two victories for Travis Pastrana and the Subaru team. They couldn't ask for a
better start to the season. (car engine revs) - This is a really exciting moment for the sport of rally in general because it is important
for any for any sport not just to have quality drivers but also quality drivers who
bring attention to the sport. - You know, this is so good
to get one of these here 'cause this guy over here
usually takes all these. But this time he's got a second place 'cause I got four second place to four- - Congratulations, finally did it. - Thanks, man. I finally did it! - [Narrator] With the
pressure from McKenna in the World Rally Car building the championship dynamic
is about to change again. - Put us on our back
heels again, thanks Ken. But you gonna be in rallies this year? - We'll see - Hope so. - Maybe. (triumphant music) - [Narrator] A few weeks
later in Washington State, Subaru is testing before the Olympus Rally when the news breaks. Ken Block will continue
his championship hunt in a Vermont Sportscar Subaru. - It's a complicated deal. He's not part of Subaru Motorsports USA. He is part of Vermont Sportscar. So he is in an identical car to Travis and Brandon. He started with us. It was a Ken and Travis team, '05, '06, '07, '08. That was like the golden years of rallying back then in the US. We got rally in the X-Games and Ken and Travis and Colin McRae, like, those were like the amazing years. - [Narrator] Ken remains a privateer. As fans rejoice, a critical turn of events
in the championship occurs. The defending champion, Barry McKenna, is forced to miss the Olympus Rally. The news leaves an open door for Subaru. - The chief title rival
is out of the picture. So there's a perfect opportunity to really bring it home for Subaru. - [Narrator] For Semenuk, the wet weather reinforces
his expectations. - Olympus is definitely one of the events I'm targeting for the season. Like McKenna didn't end up showing up due to some family issues. It's Pacific Northwest event. It can get slippery. It's technical. I just really like the roads. They just suit my style. - Fortunately, picked first on the road, not the fastest but couldn't take the chance of the rain, that 40% not coming, but I know Olympus. It's, you know, it's gonna be a wet one. This is always a really
a tough one for us. This is a great rally for Semenuk. Hell, yeah! It was dry all through testing, let's see how wet it is today. Well. - [Narrator] Pastrana knows
that with the champ sidelined, it's a huge opportunity to strike. But no one is going to give an inch. - [Rhianon] Okay, this is stage one. DeckaVille reverse. - Good luck, Skippy. - Good luck, buddy. - [Rhianon] ] 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go! (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (car engine revs by) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (engine revs) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - [Pastrana] So slick. - I'm starting to figure out that Travis just comes into the first stage hot, like he targets that
first stage every rally. And he just wants to create a gap on all the competitors. - [Narrator] Despite
the adverse conditions, Pastrana comes out swinging. He takes the opening stage win by one second over Ken Block. - Ken Block, he's fast, but when it comes down
to driving a tidy line, when it comes down to pinpointing
the breaking, everything, Semenuk is phenomenal. - Like this is gonna
be my rally to win one, if there's any. (engine revs) We've got some really slippery stages compared to some of the
previous Olympus roads. You gotta be pick and choose where you can slide the car and be more aggressive. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (car engine revving) - [Narrator] Semenuk strikes back, winning the second stage. The stage victory bolsters his confidence and puts the others on notice, that he's out for blood. - [John] Finish 100. Good job. - [Narrator] At service, the three Subaru are within
seconds of each other. - At least they can see
where we hit the brakes, it just slides off. But it's slick as crap. - Okay. - It's straight grease. I mean, I chose first
on the road thinking, "Oh it's gonna be dusty." I mean, it's 40% chance to rain today, but Olympus 40% evidently means 100. We got all of it. It's gonna be a heck of a race and all of us need this win. It's good for me to win. Brandon, this is a rally he came in having a
little check mark saying, "We want the championship.
This is our rally." And I have a little check saying, "I'd like to take that from you," so we'll see. - Like a harder compound tire would've been a little better, right at the end of the stage. But that is the tire for these stages. It's all just like, this like super fine loose film on top. And it's slippery everywhere, so yeah, I mean we had a couple wild moments and I'm sure Travis and Ken did too, but I'm sitting in second behind Travis. There's probably same gap
from me to Travis as there is from me to Ken. So everyone's pretty close, but we're, you know, everyone's trying to create a bit of distance from each other. - Dude, I thought it couldn't get slicker than the first run and it poured in between. It's like snot. It's like, dude, it's gnarly. So that long stage is gonna be brutal. - [Narrator] With another
leg of stages to run in the heavy rain, Travis's road position is
going to be a challenge. Standing water and grip
levels are unknown. And he's the Guinea pig. - [Rhianon] 3, 2, 1 go. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (engine revs) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (engine revs) - [Narrator] Semenuk starts second and knows this is an advantage. He can see Travis's breaking points and lines offering
clues to the conditions. - I had a really good feeling in the car and going into the next set of stages, we just pushed super hard and managed to make up
a ton of time on Travis. Like probably some of the biggest gaps stage wins that I've
created against Travis. And then even Ken too, like, we were putting double digits
on Ken in one stage, so. We were feeling really good in the car and then it's like Wildcat. Like Wildcat is the stage
to make time on someone. - The longest stage of the day, getting dark, in the rain, we knew we were gonna have fog, we knew we were gonna have
all the worst conditions. We recce that stage in the dry. So we know there's gonna
be sections that we hit and we're like, we're on ice. We're going off and we gotta make the best of the worst. That's a rally stage. - [Semenuk] Alright, Big one, John. [John] Yeah. - Get that good rhythm going. Mega focus. - Yep. - I went into that stage saying, we're not going to win the stage. We're probably not gonna
be able to catch Brandon but it's so easy to be
caught out on this one, so let's just back it
down just a little bit. I was like, I'll bet you anything that before car six, someone's off. - [Narrator] With a game plan set, Pastrana enters the stage. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - [Narrator] The pace is very high. Semenuk expects nothing less and attacks. (car engine revs) Back with Travis, his reserved pace is
still uncomfortably quick. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (suspenseful music) - [Rhianon] Keep right. - [Travis] Oh (beep)! There we go! There we go! - [Rhianon] That's were you would've, yep. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - [Narrator] They miss the bridge by an inch and carry on. Semenuk is up at the split and gaining. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (car engine revs) - Me and John are feeling
really good in the car. We're getting through
all the technical bits. Everything's going smooth, like I feel like I've got
a really good pace going. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - And then there's like one tricky kind of downhill
section into a bridge. I know I'm gonna make time if I get across this bridge, like the next part of this stage is gonna be like all me. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (car rattles) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - [John] slippy two narrows over bridge and two right drive. - [Brandon] Oh (beep)! (car smashes) That was bad. Well, we're done. (car rattles) (beep) sorry, John. - It's fine.
- (beep) (car engine revs by) - I can't believe that (beep). I should start this. - Are we off the road? - Yeah, I think so. You know, we're like sitting
on the side of the road just obviously like so bummed, like looking at the split times and like we had the fastest split. We're like, man, like that
was gonna be our rally. Like, Olympus was gonna
be the start of like a really good season for us. And then not even to score a single point is just heartbreaking. Yeah, I thought it was going great and then I knew this was a tricky bit and I thought I slowed up a lot. And then just, car just stepped out, like right before you got on the bridge. It's a place where you
can lose the whole rally but it's also a place you
can gain a lot of time. You know, rally is risk versus reward. That's what it is like. That's why Travis is so
dominant in a rally car. It's like, he's the ultimate like, brain of like, risk taking. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - [Travis] Oh (beep), it's gonna be a tough one. - [Rhianon] Good job. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (engine revs) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) Well done, mate. That was tough. Good job.
- [Pastrana] We didn't really- - [Rhianon] Holy moly! - [Pastrana] Make a big mistake so good job. - [Rhianon] Good job, mate. Man, that's so hard. - [Pastrana] That bridge, we gotta go back and write the bridge. I didn't drive it like I needed to but if we were driving 10 tenths, we would've gone, that bridge is gonna get somebody. We got lucky. - [Narrator] With so much
early season action in rally, it's easy to forget the challenge ahead of this team in Rallycross. - On the Rallycross side, Subaru has never been in a better position than they are now. And the manufacturer has
been incredibly patient. They've worked hard. They've improved every year, but the titles always evaded them. But now they're in a position where they're expecting to win it and they're expected to win it by us on the outside. - [Narrator] In America, Subaru was a dominant team. (crowd cheers) - So we know the Subarus
were fast back in 2019. They were right up at the
front of the ARX Series. They were the same pace
as the World RX drivers. And then COVID happened and everything just
went on the back burner. - [Narrator] This team's
last head to head competition was in 2019. Since then, world teams
have continued to compete, continued to measure themselves against the competition. Subaru quietly tested on its own, waiting for the new Nitro
Rallycross Championship to emerge. - The teams never stand still. It's just develop, develop, develop, the whole time. Little tweaks at the minute because the manufacturers
aren't so involved but that's pretty tough for Subaru because they don't know where they are. - The development has been focused on what we knew in the past really and items we think we need
to get ahead for Nitro but we don't quite know
until we're into it. - [Narrator] With a full season, finally ahead of them, they have a clear target. - It's gonna be the perfect reward for that patience, that hard work, because it's been almost a decade of toil and hard work to get
to where they are now. And now they're at the
peak of their power. - So Subaru have kind
of got this thing where they wanna win. You know, they kinda need to win. They've got a lot of backing behind them and everything looks amazing. - They've got the best car. They've got a great driver lineup, but until they win it they're still gonna be
the team that nearly did. - [Narrator] To get there, they find themselves testing in Minnesota as part of their long
term development program. - Now we're really
looking forward to Nitro, but Nitro is also gonna provide
some different challenges. It's more gravel based, more jumps, versus what we ran before
was more circuit based. (engine revs) - With Scott and Travis, the two of them working together, if you look at their skill sets, you could argue that Scott's
background is tarmac. But Scott, you know, he's a very well rounded Rallycross driver but the jump side of things, that's Travis's specialty. So I can see maybe
Scott working on tactics but Travis, with the jumps and the dirt experiences, the two of them work together, it could be a really
formidable partnership. - [Narrator] This team has
waited nearly two years to continue their quest for a Rallycross driver's title. With a season now just a few months away, it's just a matter of time
before they measure themselves against the best in the world. (car engine revs) (lively music) - Yeah, we're a little
disappointed, obviously, starting day two here at Olympus. Brandon's had to retire. There was some damage
to his car last night that we felt was potentially concerning from a safety standpoint. So basically, we made the decision that they were gonna retire
for the rest of the event. We'll take the car back to VSC. We'll repair it, make sure that it's safe and ready to go for Southern
Ohio in a a month or two. And in the meantime, Travis is still in first place. He's got a good battle going with Ken, who's in second. So we're hoping for Subarus
on the first two spots on the podium and for Travis to get a
third straight victory today. (car engine idles) - At the end of the day, there's no driver in the world that I want to beat more than Ken Block. - Yeah, I've seen their rivalry
develop since what, '07. And Travis has that
championship consistency. And Ken has that per mile pace. - There's the Subaru team
with Travis and Brandon. And then there's the Ken team, Hoonigan Racing Division with Ken. So even though it's a thrilling situation for rally as a sport, looking at it from a team perspective, we want to kick Ken's ass. We want to do it every single
time we get on the stages. - [Rhianon] One, go. (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - Ken, same team, kinda not the same team, rather see a Subaru
win than anything else. And we're all working
together in the long run to beat McKenna, but it's really the pair
of Subaru Motorsports USA versus Ken Block versus the world. That rivalry is what drives racing. It's what drives me. It's what drives
competition and pick a side. Pick a team. It's gonna be a good battle. (gravel sprays) (car engine revs) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) (car engine revs) (Co-Driver calling pace notes) - Hey, Rhianon, this is Bill. Just wanted to say congratulations and well done. Three for three way to go. - [Pastrana] Hell, yeah boys! Thank you! - [Narrator] Three
events, three victories, Pastrana and Gelsomino
extend their dominance in the points race. - Three for three is a awesome start. I mean, with the drop rounds, basically first one to
five wins and a finish, you know, gets a championship and we got three of 'em. So that's a really good
start to the season. - Having three wins is going
to be a key for this season because it's not gonna get
easier from here on out. As you know, the competition rises and Barry gets more familiar with his car, it's gonna be an interesting season. It's gonna be a really, really great. And I think it's gonna come
down to the wire again. - [Narrator] Next time
on "Launch Control." - [Announcer] Here at the
Mount Washington Auto Road. - This Air Slayer is the
ultimate hill climb car. - Here we go, boys! (car engine revs) - If you go off, it is literally a life
and death situation. That is scary. - If you make a mistake,
you put a wheel off. You're not gonna hit anything for a while cause you're gonna be falling. - [Narrator] That's next
time on "Launch Control." (car engine revs) (upbeat techno music)
