SALEM, MO. — Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block was holding onto the lead of the 100 Acre Wood Rally on Saturday, despite a push by teammate Travis Pastrana.

Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino were the easy favorites for the win entering this event. The team has claimed victory here in each of the two previous years, and say the character of the roads suits their style.

“The roads here are fast, faster, and fast with jumps,” said Block early Saturday.

Pastrana and new co-driver Derek Ringer ended Friday’s first four stages 30 seconds off the lead and, after four more on Saturday, the team was struggling to make up time.

Pastrana retired while leading the first round of the championship in January and is hunting for championship points at this event. With six stages remaining, he said he was trying to decide between two strategies for the remainder of the day: risk everything for the win, or settle for second place.

“I’m driving as fast as I can without taking any chances,” said Pastrana. “We need to make up a second a mile on Ken this afternoon and it’s what we need – but it’s a tough call.”

In third place after eight stages were Matthew Johnson and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey. The team moved up a position after Rockstar Energy’s Tanner Foust and co-driver Chrissie Beavis suffered mechanical trouble and found themselves out of the hunt.

“We’re just doing the same thing as we were doing yesterday,” said Johnson. “When it feels good, I push the gas pedal.”

Johnson is a two-time PGT champion, and the team is expected to continue picking up speed this season as they become accustomed to the improved performance of their Open class car.

In fourth place at Saturday’s midday service were Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Marc Goldfarb in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. They began the day battling transmission trouble, and said they were having to make do without fourth gear.

“In these conditions, it’s really hard to drive without a gear,” he said. “It’s taking all my talent to reel in these two guys ahead of me and hopefully get a good result.”

Meanwhile, teenaged driver Kyle Sarasin and Mikael Johansson were putting in a solid performance and were in fifth overall after eight stages.

In addition to the 2008 championship title, teams are vying for a chance to complete at the high-profile X Games 14 this summer in Los Angeles. It is expected that the top teams after the first five championship rounds will receive an invitation to compete at the California contest.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

The 2008 Rally America National Championship series consists of nine exciting events throughout the country in many different weather and road conditions. Throughout the year, teams take on everything from the forest logging roads in Minnesota, to the high-altitude Yampa River Valley in Northwest Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest forest and coast paths. The series moves west for the next round, the Olympus Rally in Olympia, Washington, April 19 to 20.