CHERRY HILL, N.J.,
Aug. 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Reigning Rally America
Champion David Higgins continued his
march toward a perfect, undefeated season with a victory at the
2015 Ojibwe Forests Rally in northern Minnesota. Higgins,
with co-driver Craig Drew fended off
their hard charging Subaru teammate Travis
Pastrana, with co-driver Chrissie
Beavis, who settled for second. The victory was Higgins'
seventh consecutive win this season at the wheel of his DMACK
Tires-shod 2015 Subaru WRX STI rally car. Higgins has just
one round remaining, the Lake Superior Performance Rally
(Oct. 16-17), in his bid to be the
first driver since rally legend and current Subaru team manager
John Buffum completed the last
perfect season in the USA in
1987.
Higgins victory was anything but easy after his weekend got off
to a rocky start with a tire puncture that cost him over a minute
to Travis Pastrana. But with a
masterful display of driving Higgins went flat-out on the three
night stages Friday evening and clawed back his time deficit and
then some, leapfrogging into the lead, where he stayed for the
remainder of the weekend.
"It's a combination of everything: the work our team puts in,
the work we put in, the car, everything," said Higgins at the
podium. "A lot of it is earned confidence as well: like (Friday
night) we lost a lot of time to a puncture, then pushed pretty hard
and got back in the lead and had the confidence to do it. It's been
awesome."
Travis Pastrana was determined to
fight Higgins for victory and showed improved pace and confidence
on only his second rally of his limited 2015 competition
schedule. Pastrana won four of the seven forest stages on
Saturday and matched Higgins' pace on several stages. An
impact with a large rock however lost Pastrana nearly three minutes
early on Saturday which helped keep Higgins un-reachable atop the
leaderboard.
"I feel like we're not leaving a lot out there. The car's doing
great and we got some stage wins, so no complaints," said Pastrana.
"David's a tough competitor, always, and we knew that coming in.
Anytime you can take a stage win or two away from him it's a big
deal!"
Higgins and Pastrana will be together again in competition at
Red Bull Global Rallycross Los Angeles Presented by Subaru Tecnica
International, Sept. 12-13. There they will join regular
Subaru rallycross drivers Bucky
Lasek and Sverre Isachsen in
a four-car team entry.
About Subaru Rally Team USA
Subaru Rally Team USA is managed
by Vermont SportsCar and proudly supported by Subaru of America,
Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Method Race Wheels,
Royal Purple, DMACK Tires, RECARO,
PIAA and Race Proven. Follow the team online
at www.subaru.com/rally
About Subaru of America, Inc.
Subaru of America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fuji Heavy
Industries Ltd. of Japan.
Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Cherry Hill, N.J., the company markets and
distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a
network of more than 600 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are
manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of
Indiana Automotive Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production
plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National
Wildlife Federation. For additional information visit
media.subaru.com.
Additional information and news from Subaru is available
at http://www.media.subaru.com.
Rob Weir
Motorsports Marketing Manager
Subaru of America, Inc.
(856) 488-3453
rwei@subaru.com
Dominick Infante
National Manager, Product Communications
Subaru of America, Inc.
(856) 488-8615
dinfante@subaru.com
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SOURCE Subaru of America, Inc.