TIME WILL TELL; Travis Pastrana sets his sights on the World Rally Championship.(Competition)

Byline: ROGER HART

At the ripe old age of 24, Travis Pastrana is in the beginning stages of his third career. Or maybe fourth or fifth, depending on how you count. From the time he started riding motorcycles, trophies began stacking up in his Maryland house. When he was just 14, he captured the World Freestyle championship. He followed that a couple of years later with the AMA Dirtbike championship in the 125cc class. He racked up titles in Supercross, Freestyle Motocross and Supermoto, too.

Add to that about a dozen appearances in ESPN's made-for-TV X Games-including landing an unprecedented double back flip as well as winning the Rally Car competition-plus starring roles in several stunt DVDs marketed under the Nitro Circus banner (think Jackass without the fraternity-house humor), and you have your basic overachiever.

Pastrana has the battle scars to prove it. He ticks off a list of major surgeries the way most people recite their children's names. "Nine surgeries on my left knee, eight on my right knee, two on my back, two on my elbow, three on my wrist, one on my shoulder,'' he says. "That's just operations . . . I have no idea how many broken bones.'' A parent's nightmare, for sure.

While he won't give up riding motorcycles ("I'll never sign a contract that says that!''), he says he's gotten out of his system some of the stunts that helped make him famous. The double back flip was a huge accomplishment, something he worked on for four years. "When I landed that trick [at the 2006 X Games], the stadium stood up for 15 minutes. No one left, everyone cheered. Not something I'll ever experience again. There's hardly ever a time an entire audience, an entire stadium, feels exactly what you feel. I was so convinced I was going to crash.''

With that trick completed, he moved on to other things, including a base-jumping back flip into the Grand Canyon. He followed that up by jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, meeting up in midair with another, parachuted jumper. Pastrana strapped himself into a harness in time for the two to make a perfect landing, with video cameras rolling.

Pastrana says he's now focusing 90 percent of his efforts on being the best rally driver he can be, with a goal of getting a World Rally Championship ride, and spreading the word about rallying in the United States as well. He just finished up, along with NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson, representing the United States in the Race of Champions at London's Wembley Stadium ("Back in the High Life,'' AW, Dec. 24).