Pastrana and Edstrom have won the Rally America Driver’s Championship two years running and put Subaru squarely atop the podium in as many seasons in an ever deepening field of well-funded, open class contenders including Tanner Foust and Andrew Comrie-Picard.

"Partnering Travis has been fantastic.  To go from our first rally together in a PGT [Production GT] car to placing 5th in the PWRC round in Mexico has been a dream come true for me.  I will always be grateful to Travis, Subaru of America and Vermont SportsCar for the opportunity," said Edstrom. "Though I'm sad to be leaving the co-driving seat, I've gotten to a point where I really need to focus on my career, and I felt that splitting my time between co-driving at this level and a professional career would have compromised my performance in both.”

To replace Edstrom, SRT has tapped none-other veteran co-driver and former World Rally Champion Derek Ringer to contest this weekend's 100 Acre Wood Rally, Round 2 of the 2008 Rally America National Championship.

Ringer, a professional co-driver since 1988 is best known for his success co-driving for World Rally Championship (WRC) legend Colin McRae in the early nineties. The duo won the 1995 World Rally
Championship together with the Subaru World Rally Team.  Ringer's other major successes include winning the 1993 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship and British Rally Championship in 1991, 1992 and 1998. Ringer now resides with his wife and son in Catalunya, Spain, where he has been involved in organizing rallies.

"I am looking forward expectantly to coming to the USA for this event with Travis and Subaru Rally Team USA.  I met the team at the 2007 Wales Rally GB [Great Britain] and was very impressed with the spirit
within the team," said Ringer.  "Travis is obviously an extremely talented competitor, and if after this initial event we decide to do more together, then I hope I can help him to reach his full potential. The impression I have is that the Rally America National Championship is moving forward in a very progressive manner and thus I am interested to experience this.  It looks like it could be a lot of serious fun!"
The 24 year-old Pastrana is looking forward to partnering with the veteran Ringer. "It should be very interesting to sit with Derek; from what I know of him he is very professional and has huge amounts of
experience.  It's an amazing opportunity for me," explained Pastrana.

Whatever comes from this new team this year, it can only mean a bump for Pastrana who has limited WRC experience. With Ringer’s extensive on-stage expertise, things can only be looking up for SRT’s number one rally crazy.