Hillsboro, Oregon -- Australian Andrew Pinker earned his first overall North American win this weekend at the Oregon Trail Rally, a challenging three-day race through the state’s Coast Mountain range.

He said fans can expect he'll take more outright victories in the series and predicted “it's the first win of a hat-trick.”

Pinker and co-driver Robbie Durant set a strong pace during the opening stages and by the mid-point on Day 2, he had developed a comfortable lead on the field. On Sunday, he said he was driving carefully to maintain his lead.

“Yesterday we did lots of hard work and today we cruised,” said Pinker at the finish. “We kept the pressure on a little, but there was no risky stuff.”

Second and third place went to Subaru Team USA drivers Travis Pastrana and Ken Block.

Pastrana, a motocross veteran turned rally driver, earned his first-ever podium finish here in 2005. But he and co-driver Christian Edstrom admitted they weren’t prepared to risk everything for victory this time around. A series of off-road excursions over the past year have hurt their results and they said they were under orders to bring the car home in one piece.

“We’re really just focusing on driving for the championship,” said Edstrom, hinting that the team would turn up the heat later in the season.

“(Pinker) drove awesome, but it would have been nice to have tried,” said Pastrana.

Third place was a struggle for Block, who lost more than a minute to a flat tire Saturday, and he found himself facing the final day in a dead heat for third place against defending North American champion Matt Iorio.

“It was really frustrating,” said Block. “We thought we had some speed and we would have liked to battle Pinker for the win, but one flat tire early in the rally put me back to battling for third.”

A mechanical failure forced Iorio to retire and Block crossed the finish line in third place.

Pinker’s win demonstrates the strong international field of contenders in the series. The first three rounds of the 2006 Rally America championship have gone to three different drivers. Canadian Andrew Comrie-Picard took victory at Sno*Drift in January, in an Open class Mitsubishi. Subaru’s Ken Block brought home his first-ever overall win at 100 Acre Wood in February.

Pinker and Durant switched from the restrictive Group N class into Open class for this race in an effort to squeeze more power out of their Subaru. Pinker said he opted to make the change after struggling to keep up with the competition during the last round in the series.

Sunday’s early stages proved a challenge for Production-GT leader Tanner Foust, who had climbed to fifth overall and appeared poised to take the class win. Brake failure and a flat tire, coupled with recurring transmission trouble, dropped him out of contention late in the race.

That left Matthew Johnson and rival Eric Langbein to battle for the class win. Provisional results showed Johnson at the head of the class, but a series of scoring problems delayed final standings.

It was a comeback for both drivers. Langbein suffered a slow rollover on Saturday, while suspension problems early in the race held Johnson back.

The two-wheel drive victory went to Chip Miller and co-driver Kathryn Hansen in a Group 2 Honda Civic. This is the third year of competition for the duo, who debuted at Oregon Trail in 2004.

The opening stages of the 125-mile course took place Friday at the Portland International Raceway, before moving into the woods for the second and third days.

The Oregon Trail Rally is organized by Oregon Rally Group of Tigard, Oregon. Rally America, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, holds the sanctioning and marketing right to the Rally America Championship.