Pictured: Travis Pastrana previously competing for Team USA
Global motor racing and action sports hero Travis Pastrana in action at the 2025 Race Of Champions, at Accor Stadium in Sydney, March 7-8.
Pastrana will be making his 10th Race Of Champions appearance with another high-profile Team USA teammate set to be announced shortly.
Drivers now confirmed for the inaugural Sydney event include Pastrana, Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher, Sebastien Loeb, Hayden Paddon and Jamie Whincup.
Seven-time Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup among the drivers that will represent Australia.
Race Of Champions (ROC) will head Down Under to Accor Stadium (Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Stadium) - the first time the event has been held in the Southern Hemisphere.
More superstars from Formula 1, Le Mans, Supercars, Nascar, World Rally & Rally X to be announced in coming weeks.
Tickets from $49 now on sale through Ticketek.
Pastrana is regarded as one of the most versatile competitors in world sports and has a long and affectionate connection with Australian fans, having visited the country several times with his Nitro Circus tour.
Pastrana will make up one of half of Team USA with his teammate set to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
The 41 year-old American became the youngest freestyle motocross world champion at the age of 14 and stunned the X Games by becoming the first rider ever to nail a double backflip.
Pastrana has won 11 X Games gold medals in a range of disciplines including motocross, supercross, freestyle motocross, rallying and offshore powerboat racing.
He is a six-time Rally America champion, won the first Nitro Rallycoss title in 2021, and has also competed in Global RallyCross, Monster Jam and NASCAR.
Pastrana will be making his 10th Race Of Champions appearance and has his sights clearly set on his first "Champion of Champions" title to add to his incredible list of career achievements.
In 2005, Pastrana made it to the ROC semi-finals where he was knocked out by Frenchman Sébastien Loeb in the Citroën rally car Loeb had won the world title with. That was despite driving with a broken leg sustained in a freestyle motocross exhibition jump at the same event.
The next year he single-handedly took Team USA to the ROC Nations Cup final after Jimmie Johnson and his replacement Scott Speed were injured just before the event.
In 2009, alongside teammate Tanner Foust, he led Team USA to the semi-finals of the ROC Nations Cup, ultimately facing Team Germany, represented by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher, who went on to win that year's competition.
2011 saw Pastrana again prove his versatility when he switched his attention to NASCAR where he is still competing part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
He drove in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2012 and 2013 and made an incredible debut in NASCAR Cup at last year’s Daytona 500 where he finished 11th in the #67 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing after leading the race at one stage.
In 2022 he teamed with British racer Steve Curtis to win the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
To add to the craziness, in 2007 Pastrana jumped out of an airplane over Arecibo, Puerto Rico, without a parachute in a carefully choreographed stunt. He met up in midair with another jumper, then latched himself into a harness to make a safe tandem landing.
Pastrana paid tribute to his boyhood hero, the legendary stuntman Evel Knievel, by breaking a few of his motorcycle jump records. In 2018, in Las Vegas, Pastrana safely cleared three record-breaking big jumps, which consisted of 52 cars, 16 buses and a fountain respectively, for a total of 148m (484 feet) of jumps in a single night.
The first jump over the cars was at 44m (143 feet), the second jump over the buses was at 59m (192 feet) and the third was over the Caesar's Palace Fountain — a jump that Knievel himself was unable to land in 1967 -- was at 45m (149 feet).
The announcement of Pastrana for March’s Sydney event comes on the back of the confirmation of nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon last week.
They join the German “super team” of four-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, F2 Champion Mick Schumacher and seven-time Australian Supercars champion Jamie Whincup.
The 2025 Race Of Champions will run over two nights with a purpose-built 1km tarmac track taking centre stage at Accor Stadium, Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.
What Travis Pastrana, said:
“When Fredrik [Johnsson] contacted me and told me that the Race Of Champions was headed to Sydney, that just felt right; one of my favourite events in one of my favourite countries," said Pastrana.
“The ROC is a great concept and I think the Australian fans will love it.
“I have some unfinished business in ROC and I would love nothing more than to win my first Champion of Champions title and help Team USA win the ROC Nations Cup in Australia, which is almost like a second home to me.
“We are very close to confirming my teammate for the event and I would like to think we will have a serious shot at finally winning the Nations Cup for Team USA after coming close several times.”
What Race Of Champions President and Co-Founder Fredrik Johnsson, said:
“Travis Pastrana is one of the greatest characters and strongest competitors in world motorsports,” said Johnsson.
“Even in a group with so many exceptional drivers that compete in ROC, Travis truly stands out with his incredible spirit never giving up no matter what. His career is just amazing and has resulted in a list of successes on two and four wheels, in the air and, more recently, on water that is unmatched in the world.
“Travis has a great affinity with Australian fans and has been an inspiration for many Australian competitors, especially in the motocross and freestyle space.
“He is always a crowd favourite at the Race Of Champions events and will arrive in Sydney as focused and as competitive as ever as he chases his first Champion of Champions title and Team USA’s first ROC Nations Cup title since 2002.
“We are also excited at the prospect confirming his teammate in the coming weeks and look forward to adding another name to our impressive list of competitors for the Australian fans to see in action.”
TRAVIS PASTRANA - CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2021 NRX Nitro Rallycross Champion
2022 Class 1 World Powerboat Championship
6 x American Rally Champion
11 x X-Games Gold Medallist
2000 & 2001 AMA 125cc Supercross champio
ROC HIGHLIGHTS
Years contested: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017 and 2023
The ROC Nations Cup takes place on Friday March 7, with drivers paired in teams based on nationality to bid for the title of ‘World’s Fastest Nation’.
Saturday night March 8 will see the individual Race Of Champions, when all teamwork goes out of the window and it will be a battle for individual glory and the ‘Champion of Champions’ title.
Next year’s Race Of Champions comes two weeks after the 2025 Supercars opener at Sydney Motorsport Park (Feb 21-23) and one week before the opening round of the F1 World Championship in Melbourne (March 13-16).
ROC is renowned for gathering some of the best drivers in the world, including superstars from Formula 1, Le Mans, IndyCar, Nascar, Supercars, World Rally and Rallycross.
Past participants have included Vettel, Schumacher, Loeb, Coulthard, Grönholm and Jenson Button.Other international stars have included Nascar champions Jimmie Johnson, Kurt and Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, Indy 500 winners Ryan Hunter-Reay, Juan-Pablo Montoya, Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden, Formula E Champion Lucas Di Grassi and Extreme sports star Travis Pastrana.
Hospitality and Track side packages and General Admission Tickets starting from $49.00 for children and $69.00 for adults. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek.
Friday 7th March - ROC Nations Cup – to Crown the ‘World's Fastest Nation’
Accor Stadium, Sydney
Doors Open 5:30pm
Show Starts 6:30pm*
Race Starts 7:30pm
Saturday 8th March – Race Of Champions – to crown the ‘Champion Of Champions’
Accor Stadium, Sydney
Doors Open 5:30pm
Show Starts 6:30pm*
Race Starts 7.30pm
Keep up with all the latest news at www.raceofchampions.com, Race Of Champions on Facebook and @raceofchampions on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. The official hashtag for the event is #ROCSydney
For ticketing and event information www.tegsport.com.au
