After the second-to-last stage of the 2012 Rally America Championship, Subaru had come to the conclusion that they had mathematically won the entire event. Even with that in mind, David Higgins and Craig Drew are not the type of people to take things “easy” and thus, they entered the final round of the championship with full force. Set up at the Olympus Rally in Olympia, Washington, the last stage would snake all the way up to the Pacific Northwest peninsula with plenty of dust and debris to get around. At the end of the two-day event, the men and their made-over “white horse” Impreza STI rally car managed to secure second place and keep the title of overall 2012 Rally America Champion.
For the last event, the Subaru Rally Team did something a bit different by replacing their signature blue war paint with a simple flat white. “Running an all-new, one-off livery on our SRT USA WRX STI that is such a stark departure from our usual colors and design is a fun way to highlight the team’s successful 2012 title run with David [Higgins] playing a large role in the new look,” said James Han, motorsports marketing manager for Subaru of America. With Higgins and navigator Drew primed for battle, the two set off on September 22 for the first stage of the Olympus Rally. With the gravel loose, the first day didn’t end so well for the Impreza as with only seven miles left, the Subaru hit a massive boulder that destroyed the right front wheel and damaged the driveshaft. The blow wasn’t the end however as Higgins managed to limp his white horse to end of the stage but was down almost two minutes.
According to Higgins’ twitter page, the Subaru Rally Team had the damage fixed the same night of the accident. This allowed for the STI to be ready and willing enough to make up some considerable time lost. On the second day, Higgins and Drew took the win and secured an overall second place finish at Olympus. With enough points in the bag, Subaru did what they intended on doing and became the 2012 Rally America Champion.
Source: Subaru
