Despite one more round to go among the 2012 running of the Rally America National Championship, Subaru has earned enough points to guarantee an overall victory. With the New England Forest Rally complete, David Higgins and Craig Drew simply needed a sixth or better finish to “mathematically clinch” the crown and that’s just what they did. Taking second place at the dust filled event, the Subaru Rally Team is looking to put one more oversized trophy on their fireplace of wins.
“To successfully defend our championship and keep Subaru a-top rallying in the USA means a lot to Craig (Drew) and I,” said Higgins, Subaru’s main driver. With copious amounts of dust, Higgins and Drew admittedly had difficulty with visibility at Maine. Even though their STI finished 21 seconds behind the leader, a second place finish was enough to add-on to the previous round’s successes and earn an win overall. The final round of the Championship will take place on September 22 at the Olympus Rally in Washington and there, the Subaru Rally Team USA will earn its sixth win within the past seven years. It will also be the second time David Higgins wins a Rally America National Championship.
“Frustrating as it may have been for both David and Craig to run behind Antoine and Nathalie in such dusty conditions, our drivers took the prudent approach within the context of our goal in retaining the championship title, and what a great job doing so at the penultimate round,” said James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America. “There’s much to be proud of from our team’s performance at this rally and on each previous Rally America round this season.”
Source: Subaru
