Higgins Secures 6th Championship in the Subaru WRX STI

David Higgins and Craig Drew have done it again and secures the sixth Rally America Championship in the Subaru WRX STI with a win at Ojibwe Forests Rally. What happened to Travis Pastrana?

The story on day one was the dust, which kept the hard charging #199 Subaru WRX STI driven by teammate Travis Pastrana in second place behind Higgins.

Pastrana elected to let Higgins go first after winning the seeded draw, thinking his teammate would clear the gravel off the rally stages. It wasn’t a good plan as the roads just got dustier with every stage.

After six stages, totaling 69.2 competitive miles, Higgins and Drew had a commanding lead over Pastrana of 1 minute and 47 seconds. On day two of the rally, the weather changed the road conditions with morning rain showers and quarter sized hail reported in the area of one stage. The good news for the competitors, was that the dust subsided early on.

With the dust no longer an issue, it was race on as Travis Pastrana and Robbie Durant tried to catch the #75 Subaru WRX STI. Pastrana pushed the STI a bit too hard and slid into a tree on the first loop of stages. They were able to continue until they returned to the service area. Rally America officials wouldn’t allow them to continue for some unknown safety reasons. It was Pastrana’s second crash of the season, putting him out of the race.

Higgins and Drew continued their hot pace and eventually win the Ojibwe Forests Rally 2016. The win secures the 2016 Rally America championship, their sixth one in a row in the #75 Subaru WRX STI. Next up on the Rally America schedule is the Lake Superior Performance Rally in Houghton, Michigan October 14-15. Stay tuned.