Official STPR Guide

Rally America Championship Series2013RallyAmerica Championship Season SummaryL’ESTAGE AND RICHARD WINRALLY AMERICA SEASONOPENER SNO*DRIFT RALLYWilliston, VT (January 28, 2013) -- RockstarEnergy Drink Team’s Antoine L’Estage and co-driverNathalie Richard completed a stunning come–frombehindvictory at the Sno*Drift Rally held January25-26th in Lewiston, Michigan.Snow and ice often create large gaps betweenrally cars at Sno*Drift, however, L’Estage andRichard were locked in a fierce battle with SubaruRally Team USA’s David Higgins and Craig Drewwhich turned into a classic battle between Mitsubishiand Subaru. Higgins and L’Estage swapped the leadtwice on Friday with Higgins leading the first fourstages, then L’Estage took the lead through stage 7,and Higgins gained an overnight lead of .5 secondson the final stage of the first day. Higgins retainedthat lead all through the second day of Sno*Driftleading by as little as .4 seconds after stage 12 and asmuch as 21.3 seconds after stage 18. L’Estage tookback 19.9 seconds on the penultimate stage settingup an epic finale! With 6 miles of slippery roads togo, both drivers gave it all they had. L’Estage wonthe stage by 7.6 seconds for a final margin of victoryof 6.2 seconds over Higgins.Can-Jam Motorsports’ Leonid Urlichich andCarl Williamson completed the overall podium inthird place. It was a great start to the team’s secondseason of rally on American soil.Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsominoreturned to contend the full Rally America NationalChampionship after several seasons honing theirskills in the WRC. Block was considered by many tobe the man to beat after winning two Rally Americaappearances in 2012. However, early electricalproblem sidelined the team after the second stage.Block was the first to benefit from new for 2013“Super Rally” rules and resumed competition at thebeginning of the second day hamstrung with penaltytimes for the six stages he missed on Friday. TheHoonigan Racing team won six of the second day’stwelve stages.In the Super Production (SP) Class, ExedyRacing Clutches’ Evan Cline and co-driver JakeBlattner drove a very smooth race to take their veryfirst class win. The pair led SP from the start andfinished ahead of Mason Moyle and John Hall. Clineand Blattner also won Friday’s Sno Regional Rallyin the process.Moyle and Hall were also locked in a seriousbattle with Rally America newcomers Nick Robertsand Nick Judkins. Roberts built up a day one leadover Moyle of 1:29.1, but Moyle dogged Robertsall day Saturday until he overtook Roberts on stage17 and held onto second place to the end.The Scion Racing Rally xD team of AndrewComrie-Picard and Jeremy Wimpey began theirseason strong with a Two-Wheel Drive Class winover Ford Fiesta driver Dillon Van Way and AndrewEdwards. The Scion Racing team was last year’s2WD Class runners up and appears to be the teamto beat this year. The Sno*Drift Rally has been verygood to Dillon Van Way. This year’s second placefinish now marks five consecutive Sno*Drift Rallypodium finishes, which includes a 2WD Class winin 2011. 2011 Rally America Rookie of year EdMcNelly and Ole Holter from driving the TeamO’Neil Rally School Ford Fiesta took third placefor his first Sno*Drift podium.HIGGINS AND DREW CLAIMFIRST RALLY IN THE 100ACRE WOOD VICTORYSalem, MO (February 24, 2013) -- The suddenarrival of winter ice and snow conditions could notprevent Subaru Rally Team USA’s David Higginsand Craig Drew from winning the Rally in the 100Acre Wood held on February 22-23rd in Salem,Missouri. The hard fought victory gave Higgins hisfirst 100 Acre Wood Rally victory in three attemptsat one of the more slippery events in recent memory.On the first day Higgins and Drew fell behindearly to Hoonigan Racing’s Ken Block and AlexGelsomino and to Rockstar Energy Drink RallyTeam’s Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard untila fateful stage 6, the first nighttime stage. Blocksuffered frontend damage and L’Estage retired fromthe event with overheating issues that left Higginswith the overall lead.Block rejoined the event at the beginning of thesecond day using SuperRally rules, which allows ateam to reenter with time penalties, only to retireagain from the event with an electrical throttleproblem on stage 10. Block held a psychologicaladvantage having previously won six 100 AcreWood Rallys – the most by any Rally America driver.Higgins then commanded a six minute lead overJoseph Burk and Alex Kihurani in second place andLauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam in third place.Higgins won 9 of the last 10 stages of the day towardshis overall victory.Higgins is the reigning 2012 Rally AmericaNational Championship. With this win Higginsassumes the Championship lead on route todefending his title.Joseph Burke and Alex Kihurani piloted their2006 Mitsubishi EVO IX to second place for theirfirst Rally in the 100 Acre Wood podium. Burke lastcompeted in September 2012 when he severely rolledhis car and had to rebuild in the offseason. The newrally car kept pace with the top of the field even whenhis car experienced electrical problems.Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Scott Putnam alsoput a newly minted Super Production (SP) Class2008 Subaru WRX STI through the paces and wereextremely pleased to not only take third overall, butto win the SP Class. O’Sullivan and Putnam are the2012 Super Production Champions and returned thisseason at 100 Acre Wood to defend their title aftermissing the first event of the year.2013 Sno*Drift Rally SP Class winners, EvanCline and Jake Blattner, patiently drove a consistentrace and overtook David Sterckx and KarenJankowski on stage 15 to place second in class, andin the process maintained their SP Class points lead.Sterckx lost considerable speed because of turboboost problems and took the third place spot for theirfirst podium this season.Scion Racing Rally xD’s Andrew Comrie-Picardand Jeremy Wimpey took the Two-Wheel Drive(2WD) Class victory; their second consecutiveclass win, in a tight battle with a contingent of FordFiestas. Comrie-Picard was locked in a battle withDillon Van Way and Andrew Edwards until stage11 when Van Way crashed and gave up his secondplace position to fellow Ford Fiesta drivers, EdwardMcNelly and Ole Holter.Long-time rally racers Tim O’Neil and TravisHanson completed the 2WD podium. O’Neil is thefounder of the Team O’Neil Rally School in Dalton,NH which trained many of the drivers competing inRally America competition.SUBARU RALLY TEAM USAEXTENDS CHAMPIONSHIP LEADWITH OREGON TRAIL RALLY WINThe British duo, David Higgins and co-driverCraig Drew, never relinquished their lead fromthe start and drove a masterful race to establisha 2 minute window over their competition andenough breathing room to drive the last day withoutdifficulty. However, the team nearly ended theirevent when Higgins struck exposed bedrock at highspeeds that tore through their Subaru Impreza WRXSTI suspension on stage 16. Higgins gingerly drovethrough the last stage of the day as the car severelypulled to one side and just made it back to servicefor repairs.Hoonigan Racing’s Ken Block and AlexGelsomino persevered through multiple mechanicaldifficulties to salvage second place in their 2012Ford Fiesta. The team fell behind early when theylost a wheel on stage 3, suffered a driveshaft failureon stage 5 and more tire punctures throughout thesecond day. Block also impacted the same exposedbedrock that Higgins hit and managed to get the carback to service without overheating the car. Blockreadjusted to win every stage on Sunday but couldnot make up time on Higgins’ substantial lead.Indonesia’s Rifat Sungkar amazingly completedthe podium in third place in his Rally America debutwith co-driver Marshall Clarke. Clarke having racedin the states previously provided Sungkar witha quick education in American racing. Sungkarsurvived two nearly catastrophic incidents when heimpacted a stage 2 guardrail and went off courseon stage 17.37