No Luck For The Irish At X-Games 14

By Neil McDaid

After three days of intense competition on skate boards, BMX bicycles and motorcycles at the 2008 Summer X-Games, it come down to the grand finale, one final chance for an X-Games gold medal.

In only its third year the popularity of the Rally competition has grown in leaps and bounds with the X-Games set.

As we had reported over the past few weeks Irish rally driver Niall McShea, had earned a wild card place at X-Games14 by taking the overall victory at The New England Forest Rally in Maine in early July.

After Maine Niall and his co-driver Marshall Clark went back to Ireland for a short stay.

Before they knew it they were back on a plane again heading for Los Angeles.

Being a former production car world rally champion, Niall had rallied on stages all over the world, but the X-Games format offered up some unique challenges, and they had to get in as much practice as possible.

The format for the X-Games rally would be a side by side battle on a super special stage run as an eliminator on the clay covered main field of the Home Depot Center arena.

After a series of turns, one of the two cars had to make a massive jump across a 70 foot gap, while the other crossed underneath.

Both cars would climb separate ramps up and out of the arena into a large car park.

The car park had been lined with water filled barriers to form the two separate tarmac sections of the stage.

The cars would twist and turn, often side by side, with only the barrier keeping them apart then back into the stadium.

The design of the course would allow the cars to pass under each other and basically change direction, forcing the second car over the massive jump.

Both cars would complete one pass on each section of the course and the first home moved forward to the next round.

With his impressive credentials behind him, McShea was quickly branded one of the top contenders.

After the first two days of tarmac testing in his 2008 open class Subaru STI, McShea proved his worth by setting fastest times over his team mates Ken Block and Travis Pastrana.

With a larger turbo fitted Block did edge out McShea on the last day of practice.

Unfortunately, because of the "Speed and Style" and also the Moto-X competitions being held in the arena on Saturday they had no chance to practice the jump much the less see it as it was not formed until Sunday morning just an hour prior to live competition.

Of the 12 teams competing for the Gold, five of the teams had been here last year giving them an advantage of knowing what to expect.

Speaking with Niall on Saturday he told me that his only true concern was the "Gap" as it know at X-Games "It's critical that you hit the first ramp at exactly the right speed, Too slow you kiss the front of the landing ramp, too fast you run the risk of landing on your bumper and flipping over, you're about 30-35 feet off the ground at one point; it's no picnic", McShea went on to say, "Travis, Ken and Tanner Foust are going to be hard to beat here. They seem to have this format down. I expect it to be no cake walk. Lance Smith and his team at Vermont Sports Car have turned out a world class car for me to drive here at the Games; it's all on me now."

After somewhat of a delay in getting the track ready the teams would finally get a chance for one practice run each on the entire course.

Ken Block lead the way. His first run over the jump resulted in a hard landing knocking a few parts of his new Subaru.

Both Matt Johnson and Kyle Sarisin would also take heavy hits to the front of their cars the first time over.

Both cars needed some quick repairs before the actual competition time rolled around.

Jeff Moyle in his Aaron's sponsored Subaru would not come off as lucky on his practice run; he would attack fast over the gap resulting in a hard landing that ruptured an oil line.

After the short run around the tarmac course he re-entered the stadium on fire.

Some quick action by the officials and the situation was brought under control; Moyle was the first to drop out.

After all Niall's concerns about the gap, he was one of few to clear it in practice without problems.

With last year's X-Games medalists, along with the point's leader at midpoint of the 2008 Rally America Champion all receiving an automatic pass to the quarter finals, the other eight teams had to battle through an elimination process to grab their place in the quarter finals.

When the actual elimination battles finally got going, Matt Johnson would easily eliminate a banged up Pat Morro.

Despite the heavy front end damage that he sustained on the practice lap, Kyle Sarisin the 2007 Rally America Rookie of the Year, managed to eliminate Kenny Bartman to move to the quarter finals.

Known around the X-Games circles as the "Miracle Man," Dave Mirra the multi-time X-Games BMX Gold medal champion now turned rally driver would pull off an upset.

He beat Canadian Rally Champion Antoine L'Estage to the line, therefore eliminating him.

With Moyle out of the competition Niall McShea was matched up against the standby father and son team of Travis and Terry Hanson.

McShea would be first to tackle the section with the jump while the Hanson's crossed under him to take on their section.

The Hanson's were clearly no match for Niall as he was ahead by four seconds on his first tarmac section. Then disaster.

McShea would cut too tight to one of the few concrete jersey barriers on the course, causing the right front wheel to get pushed back against the body of the car.

It was a tough sight for those of us there and I'm sure for many more watching on live TV to see the Subaru with the Irish flag on the roof limp down into the arena, It was all over for a clearly devastated McShea.

The quarter finals were set. First up last year's Gold medalist Tanner Foust would bring the Hanson's back to earth as he was just too fast for them ending their fairy tale X-Games.

Nonetheless the Hanson's will always have the story to tell about the time they beat a World Rally Champion at the X-Games.

Up next, Dave Mirra took on another Canadian, Andrew Comrie-Picard known simply as ACP.

Andrew was the only non Subaru driver in the competition. He was driving a Mitsubishi Evo 7.

In 2007, Andrew just about cleared the gap, landing and heavily damaging his rear suspension which forced his retirement from the games.

This year he would suffer a much worse fate. On his first attempt at crossing the gap, he again come up short.

The car rolled end over end coming to rest at the bottom of the ramp.

After a few tense moments Andrew and his co-driver emerged from the car on their own power.

Needless to say the car was a wreck. Mirra had his own troubles hitting the wall on the way out of the arena. But he managed to the limp back to finish securing a place in the semi-finals.

More drama as Ken Block and Matt Johnson attacked the stage in their semi final.

Block also nose-dived his Subaru into the landing ramp, but somehow managed to get it back on four wheels without rolling it like ACP. However he did not get a way unharmed.

The intercooler and the radiator were both badly damaged. He pushed on; with steam billowing out from under the hood Ken somehow managed to just about edge out Matt Johnson to secure his spot in the semi finals.

The last quarter final would see Mr. X-Games himself Travis Pastrana, take care of Kyle Sarisin.

In the semi finals, Dave Mirra and Tanner Foust were first up, where the now infamous gap would claim another victim in Mirra.

He slightly over shot the landing and slid off into a barrier, ending his medal hopes.

Or did it? Tanner Foust would advance to the final.

Subaru teammates Ken Block and Travis Pastrana were lined up to do battle in the other semi final.

As the starting light turned green, Travis launched but Block never moved.

Apparently his car had had enough and died on the line, Pastrana easily advanced to the final.

It would all come down to Tanner Foust against Travis Pastrana for the gold.

They were too well matched drivers, with maybe a slight tarmac advantage going to Foust.

Both drivers got away well, with Foust over the gap first. As he exited the arena, Tanner would make a costly mistake and tag one of the same barriers that took McShea out.

Pastrana moved ahead and never looked back until he had the gold medal around his neck.

Foust would take the silver, but there was no clarity as to who would get the bronze.

The problem was that neither of the other two semi finalists finished the course. Mirra crashed and did not finish the course, Block never left the start line.

In the end, it was decided to award both with the bronze.

Travis commented how he was disappointed not to have gotten a crack at McShea as he was clearly quickest on the tarmac practice during the week leading up to the games.

Speaking with Niall after the dust settled he was feeling that he had let down all those who supported him, "The boys from New York have helped me so much with getting to the X-Games.

"This has been a great opportunity for me. I just wanted so bad to get them a medal, it was a stupid mistake."