By now you should all know the results. In the finals, defending Rally X Gold Medalist Travis Pastrana went up against 1999 Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack. It was set to be a knock down, drag out brawl – America vs. Europe, Subaru vs. Ford, action sports vs. motorsports. During the final heat the cars were separated by only 300 hundreths of a second when Travis tagged the wall that has caught so many X Games rally racers before him wedging his STI Austin Powers style handing Kenny with the win.

This year the gap on the big jump looked mega but it was “only” a 40-foot gap instead of the usual 60-foot divide and the sweet spot for the landing was at 70-feet if the cars hit it at an optimal speed of around 55 mph. Shooting the gap here is Ken Block, the man who invented this jump. You may also know him as the guy who was in that Gymkhaha video.

Mr. Block made an uncharacteristic bobble in the Sunday morning practice where he clipped a curb and rolled his STI. While his Vermont Sportscar crew was able to Humpty Dumpty KB’s Subie the misaligned body may have caused his door to fly open on this run. I think this is the first time we can see Block’s pedal work without an in-car camera.

Check out Matt Johnson’s graphics. The privateer put the title sponsorship of his car on an eBay auction. It looks like Travis and Nitro Circus won the sponsorship for a whopping 25 Benji’s. The Subaru was desecrated with a nude Playgirl spread of Andy Bell with the number plate strategically covering his chicken and biscuits – personally I woulda rocked Streetbike Tommy. However ESPN banned the buff Bell graphic citing the family nature of the X Games broadcast. I wonder if they would have placed the same sanctions upon Johnson if Nitro Circus was on ESPN instead of MTV.

Kenny hasn’t raced in almost five years following his horrific and infamous ’03 crash where he sustained a 214g hit (?!) at Texas Motor Speedway. It was a poetic comeback for him to win X. And it seems like the only reason he came out of retirement was because of his relationship with the Olsbergs MSE team with which he partners on a driver development program in Sweden. The truth is, Kenny Brack may not be back at the Home Depot Center defending his crown next year. Bummer.

Tanner Foust was giving Kenny a run in their semi-final match up until he made a very rare error coming out of the fountain hairpin. While he earned the bronze it was a hollow award for the man who once won X gold.

It could be argued that had Travis not tagged the wall on the entry into the HDC he would have beaten Kenny or if he hadn’t attempted that toilet paper roll 360-ish 720 thingy on Friday’s Best Trick where he fell out of the sky onto his elbow. By Sunday morning Travis’ elbow looked mangled. And while that’s racing, as they say, it would have been a better show to see Kenny and Travis fighting all the way to the checker.

There’s no other way to describe this than the agony of defeat. Here Ken Block gets consoled by his team manager Derek Dauncey after a devastating defeat. Block always seems to take himself out of the running at the X Games. At last year’s X Games Rally KB was posting the fastest splits on the tarmac before he augured in on the jump he invented! And this year he was in the process of crushing Brian Deegan until he tagged a water barrier hard enough to damage the suspension and prevent him from getting up to enough speed to hit the jump. His DQ allowed Deegan to advance.

Rather than leave you with the agony I’ll let you soak up the thrill of victory.

It was Ken Brack and not Ken Block who schooled the grid with a :57.00 qualifying run. However, because these drivers all medaled last year – Travis Pastrana (Gold), Tanner Foust (Silver), Ken Block and Dave Mirra (shared Bronze) – they each get a bye run in the first round, effectively putting Brack into the Fifth spot.

Our bestest buddy, Tanner brought his Fiesta home in Second just four tenths from Kenny’s time. While Tanner is the only Ford driver to have experience on the jump, neither he nor his blue oval teammates have flung their Fiestas over the HDC’s big 80-foot gap.

Some kid named Travis Pastrana came in Third in qualifying but his 2008 X Games Rally Gold medal puts him at the front of the grid. Look at how much more body roll his STI is exhibiting compared to the Fiestas. Rumor has it that the suspension settings on the Fords were optimized for tarmac performance while the Subies were set halfway between hunkered-down-tarmac-mode and the more compliant jump/gravel mode.

Brian Deegan’s Fourth place qualifying run may have shocked some but the Metal Mullisha throttle twister actually does quite well in an Unlimited Lite truck in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series.

Ken Block looked strong in qualifying but he wasn’t that high up in the standings. Afterward he was not at all worried about his position. Are the Subaru boys saving their cars for the main event on Sunday? All three drivers (Mirra is also in an STI) have a bye past the first round and Travis and KB have been over the big jump in the same cars last year (Mirra was in Block’s 2007-spec STI last year). Will the Fast Fiestas fly over the gap or come up short on Sunday? I can’t wait to be on the sidelines for this battle and we’ll have complete event coverage on StreetFire.net.

Check out this clip of Tanner going for it in testing. We’ll have full video coverage of the X Games Rally Racing Super Special as well as a complete feature on this car on StreetFire.net soon enough. For now, the teaser will have to tide you over.

Tanner won X Games Gold in 2007 and narrowly missed repeating last year having to settle for Silver against Mr. X Games, Travis Pastrana. I wonder, will the Rallycross Fiesta will be able to deliver him back on the top spot of the podium?

Tanner’s 5-door actually made it’s North American debut at this year’s Pike’s Peak hill climb in the legendary hands of Marcus Grönholm. It would seem budget cuts precluded Tanner from getting a vinyl scheme of his very own.

Here’s what Tanner’s car looked like before the ROCKSTAR Energy wrap. But Tanner isn’t driving this particular Fiesta.

Kenny Brack is driving this Olsbergs Motor Sports Evolution three-door hatch. The Swedish driver hopes to become the first ever Indianapolis 500 winner to also take home an X Games medal.

I believe the engine is a “standard” 300-hp Duratec four mounted in a longitudinal configuration. I’ll get more from Ford and Olsbergs Motor Sports during our interviews with them this week.

Brian Deegan is the third member of the Fiesta Three and he follows in an ever-growing line of freestyle MX riders who allow that with age comes a cage. The Metal Mullisha hero has won ten X medals in his career and he is no stranger to rolling dirty on four wheels as he runs a short-course off road truck. Stay logged on for more from the X Games.