Category: American Rally Association

2019 American Rally Association Season Preview

Published on 2 Mar, 2019   By: David Cosseboom

The 2019 American Rally Association season got off to an early start with the late addition of Sno*Drift Rally in late January to the schedule. The short notice made it difficult for a few teams, including Subaru Motorsports and last year’s champions David Higgins and Craig Drew, to make the event, as they had already set their schedules and budgets for the year. That didn’t stop it from being an eventful one in the snow and ice of Michigan, with the Fetela Rally Team Ford Fiesta EVO taking home the victory.

2018 ARA Ojibwe Forests Rally Recap

Published on 3 Sep, 2018   By: David Cosseboom

David Higgins & Craig Drew of Subaru Rally Team USA on their way to victory at Ojibwe Forests Rally

Minnesota, the home to a thousand lakes, as they say, is also home to the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi and the Ojibwe Forests Rally. It’s no surprise that many of the roads used for Ojibwe are lined with lakes, sometimes on both sides of the road at once making for some of the most scenic drives in the rally schedule. Last year Ojibwe played host to the American Rally Association season finale, and oh what a finale it was. The championship came down to the finale street stages, held in downtown Detroit Lakes, to determine which Subaru Rally Team pair would be crowned champions. This year, this year would be very different, not only would this not be the season finale, there would be no championship on the line and there would be no street stages. In fact many of the stages had been changed for less transit times and more stage time. Gone were the street stages, replaced with super special stages at the fairgrounds and gone was the stage with the famous road that ran between 2 lakes.

2018 ARA New England Forest Rally

Published on 29 Jul, 2018   By: David Cosseboom

David Higgins and Craig Drew of Subaru Rally Team fly to victory at New England Forest Rally.

The 2018 American Rally Association season has been an exciting one and New England Forest Rally was set to be no exception. Known for its jumps, kicks and big orange (painted) rocks, NEFR is almost always filled with drama and excitement. Last year, there was an extra dose of both as Travis Pastrana’s co-driver, Robbie Durant suffered a back injury on the first day and he continued on with a different co-driver on Day 2, stirring up some controversy as Pastrana took the victory after his Subaru Rally Team teammates Higgins and Drew suffered some bad luck.

2018 ARA Oregon Trail Rally Recap

Published on 24 May, 2018   By: David Cosseboom

David Higgins with Mt. Hood towering in the background.

Oregon Trail Rally is one of my favorite events in the U.S. The stages are fast, with lots of elevation and beautiful landscapes as a backdrop. The rally spans 3 days, starting on Friday night at Portland International Raceway, before moving west to the Colombia River Valley near The Dalles. While it was a bit disappointing that last year’s winner, Travis Pastrana, wasn’t going to be making the trip this year, there was plenty of excitement to make up for it. Sitting in for Pastrana in the ‘other’ Subaru Rally Team USA car would be former WRC and current Subaru Rallycross driver Chris ‘Atko’ Atkinson. As if that wasn’t enough, Oregon Trail would mark the return of Ken Block, who also has some WRC experience under his belt. Block would be piloting a vintage Group A WRC Escort Cosworth, sporting one of the best wings in the history of wings I might add. It would be interesting to see how the older Cossie would match up against the newer Subaru of Higgins and Atkinson and McKenna’s Fiesta.