You’ll be hard pressed to find an automotive marquee that is more synonymous with the motorsport of rally racing than Subaru. While the brand no longer associates themselves with the World Rally Championship, the inaugural Rally America race held in 2005 put Subaru back on the map for offroad racing fans in the United States. Now, with the second event of the 2015 season in the past, the brand continues to earn trophies with another win at the Rally of the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri.
Piloted by the ever talented David Higgins and his loyal co-driver Craig Drew, the Subaru Rally Team USA took first place in their class and overall February 27 and 28. With the average area temperature for February approaching 40 degrees, it came as a bit of a shock to Rally America when the otherwise high-speed course turned to heavy snow and ice. Overly prepared as the rally veterans they are, Subaru brought 86 tires with them to the Ozark Foothills in anticipation of poor conditions, according to Higgins in an interview with Rally-America.com.
“You never know what the conditions will be at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood,” said Higgins.
Even without a plethora of tires, the 2015 Subaru WRX STI is no slouch when the road gets rough. The weather conditions left the course covered in ice and snow which did however result a single spin for the Subaru on the second day. Despite this, it was the car’s only stage loss as Higgins and Drew piloted the STI to take the win at all but one of Rally of the 100 Acre Wood stages.
At the end of the two-day event, Subaru USA put a big gap on second place finisher David Sterckx and co-driver Stephen Quin in their privately-backed 2011 Open Class STI. A nearly 6 second gap separated the two teams. While impressive, the glamour of a manufacture backing has to weigh heavy on victory. This is after all, Subaru of America’s second victory of the 2015 Rally America Championship.
Round three of Rally America is scheduled for April 24 in Portland, Oregon. Subaru Rally Team USA will be present and is looking to repeat their 2014 victory at the Oregon Trail Rally.
Make sure to follow Subaru’s rally team on Instagram @srtusa and Twitter @srtusa to find out more.
Source: Subaru Rally Team USA & Rally-America.com
