WELLSBORO, PA -- Australian Andrew Pinker took his second win of the 2007 season this weekend at the storied Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally in Pennsylvania, vaulting him into the championship lead.

"It's good," said a tired but happy Pinker as he and co-driver Robbie Durant accepted their congratulations from their Syms crew at the Wellsboro Airport. "This is very nice for us, and good for our championship run."

The win also confirmed Pinker as one of the drivers to be invited to X Games 13 this summer in Los Angeles. The first five races of the 2007 Rally America season served as qualifying events for the popular action-sport competition.

Second-place finisher Ramana Lagemann was also pleased to have put in a solid drive to earn his invitation to the California contest.

Lagemann and co-driver Mark Williams battled mechanical trouble in the early rounds of the series, but a recent win at the Olympia Rally in Washington and a second-place Saturday in Pennsylvania handed them more than enough points to qualify.

"I don't know where we are in the championship, but we know we have plenty of points to get into the X Games," said Lagemann. "It's more than we expected, more than we needed, and more than we had hoped for, so we are happy."

Third place went to Subaru Rally Team USA's Travis Pastrana and co-driver Christian Edstrom. The team suffered overheating problems early in the race that only worsened as the day wore on -- likely damaging the engine. They limped the car to the end of the contest and Pastrana said he was only too happy to have managed a podium finish.

"You should have heard the noises and the sputtering," he said. "It's really an amazing indication of the durability of the motor that we made it this far."

After STPR, the nine drivers expected to secure an X Games invitation are: Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, Colin McRae -- the three medalists from last year's race -- and Tanner Foust, Andrew Pinker, Matt Iorio, Paul Choiniere, Ramana Lagemann, and Andrew Comrie-Picard. All but Pinker competed at last summer's X Games.

Next month at the New England Forest Rally, one more top-finishing driver is expected to earn a last-chance invitation. Rally America also plans to extend two more special invitations; there are no indications yet as to who those final drivers might be.

Matt Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey finished sixth overall in a Subaru WRX and earned the Production GT class win, while Group 5 went to Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Mikael Johansson in a Ford Focus. Christopher Duplessis and co-driver Martin Headland took the Group 2 win in a Volkswagen GTI and the sole Group N finishers were Josh Chang and Donald DeRose in a Subaru WRX.

The notoriously difficult race saw several top teams retire before the finish.

The trouble started even before the contest began for Pastrana's Subaru Rally Team USA teammate Ken Block. He went off the road during a test session on Friday and took heavy damage to his car. Co-driver Alex Gelsomino suffered a mild concussion and accepted medical advice to skip the race.

The crew were able to get Block started Saturday, with rally mentor John Buffum in the co-driver's seat, but mechanical trouble ended their race on the second stage.

Also battling adversity before the race even began were Matt Iorio and co-driver Ole Holter, who suffered engine damage at the last round of the series in Washington just two weeks ago. Iorio's crew installed a new engine Friday night, but a mishap in fuel filling left Iorio battling gasoline fumes in the cockpit and ultimately forced them to retire with a damaged transmission.

"There were lots of fumes. I was not thinking clearly and not shifting very crisply," he said Saturday. "I missed more shifts than I care to count until the gearbox failed completely."

Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb also failed to finish after an off-road excursion. And fellow Canadian Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard -- who had been in the hunt for the lead -- retired after an off-road excursion that cost them three minutes.

Now in its 31st year, the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally has been the proving ground for countless national and international rally stars.

Rally America drivers compete in street-legal vehicles that are modified for safety. Six vehicle classes, ranging from stock to highly modified, compete under the Rally America banner. Eleven different automobile manufacturers are represented in Rally America events, led by Subaru, Mitsubishi, Dodge, Ford and Volkswagen.

The Rally America championship airs on ESPN2. The X Games airs on ESPN and ABC.