With "Gymkhana 2022," rally driver Travis Pastrana attempted stunts never before seen in the gymkhana series—increasing the potential for something to go wrong.
Subaru of America's "Launch Control" YouTube show is doing a three-part behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the latest gymkhana installment, called "Road to Gymkhana." This third episode (all three were filmed before the death of gymkhana creator Ken Block) shows how much nail-biting was going on during filming.
"There is a new element of higher risk with Travis," Lance Smith, president of Vermont SportsCar, which builds Pastrana's Subaru rally cars and gymkhana cars, said in the video. Gymkhana 2022 is Pastrana's second gymkhana video, and in addition to debuting his Subaru GL Family Huckster wagon, it includes some of the most ambitious stunts in the series.
Travis Pastrana drives a Subaru wagon in Gymkhana 2022
Before even getting in the car, Pastrana filmed a BASE jump off a Fort Lauderdale building. As covered in a previous episode, Pastrana was injured by a hard landing and was sidelined for six months, leaving the team scrambling to finish the shoot after his recovery.
One of the items on the agenda was a rail slide, the kind of move normally done with a skateboard, not an 865-hp station wagon. The rails had to be perfectly center, and Pastrana had to hit his mark perfectly, or the car could have tipped over. That last part was made more difficult by the fact that Pastrana couldn't actually see the rails as he jumped the car onto them.
That shot and several others, including a sidebar where Pastrana swapped into a stock Subaru WRX, went smoothly, though. That left the bridge jump.
The delay caused by Pastrana's injury allowed for negotiations with the government of Marathon, Florida, to use the bridge. After a charitable donation used to upgrade a local skate park, the Hoonigan crew got the green light to shoot Pastrana jumping a 100-foot bridge gap over a hovering helicopter. The crew brought out a ramp from "Gymkhana 2020" and shimmed it to achieve the proper trajectory, and did some testing on dry land.
"This wagon flies like a wagon," Pastrana said, but by getting it up to 120 mph he was able to get enough distance to clear the gap. Check out the Gymkhana 2022 to see the results.