Shepherd Gladysz Lead Mopar Rally Effort at X Games

Battle-tested Rally veterans Doug Shepherd and Pete Gladysz are ready to bring their 25 years of Rally experience to the new generation. The championship winning duo will carry the Mopar colors in the Rallying competition at X Games 12, scheduled for today through Sunday, in Los Angeles, Calif. The team will have the opportunity to expose its sport and the Mopar brand to a wider audience, as broadcast coverage of the Rally Car competition is set for this Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.

Shepherd and Gladysz, who also have day jobs as DaimlerChrysler engineers, are no strangers to this extreme sport. The two drove their Mopar Dodge SRT4 Rally Car to U.S. SCCA ProRally championships in the Group 5 and 2-Wheel-Drive Class in 2003 and 2004. The 2004 season also saw the team help Dodge earn its first U.S. ProRally Manufacturers Championship in 28 years.

In this first year of the Rally America-sponsored Rally competition at the X Games, Shepherd and Gladysz will do battle against young guns such as Travis Pastrana, a former X Games Moto X gold medal winner, Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust from the Formula D Drift circuit, and former World Rally Champion Colin McRae. The Team Mopar drivers will pilot the only American-made car invited to participate in the Rally competition.

"Everybody in the X Games is generally younger than us," Shepherd said. "In Rallying, however, it's not your age that matters; it's your attitude and ability to attack the course that delivers the winning times. Having more horsepower than everyone else is a good idea too. We have it with the SRT4, which makes 375 hp with its Mopar Stage III setup."

Mopar's efforts in X Games 12 are just another example of its participation in cutting edge motor sports to introduce the passion of the Mopar brand and its reputation for authentic performance to a wider, younger audience. The brand was an early supporter of the Formula D Drift Series, with Mopar driver Samuel Hubinette winning the inaugural 2004 Formula D championship and finishing as runner-up in 2005. The series has grown in popularity, and Hubinette currently leads the 2006 Formula D points race.

For more info on the X Games or Mopar, log on to rally-america.com, expn.com.com, mopar.com or moparspeed.com.

"It's going to be an interesting event, being a combination of eight mountain stages and one stadium stage. We'll see how well the top 2-wheel-drive car in this country can compete against some of the dominating four-wheel-drive cars."

— Pete Gladysz, on competing along with co-driver Doug Shepherd in their Mopar Dodge SRT4 Rally Car (shown above) at the X Games. X Games 12 begins today and runs through Sunday, with televised Rally Car coverage set for this Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.