Model: 2007 Subaru Legacy GT Limited, 5-Speed
Miles: 31,000-ish
Details: Clean title. Runs very solid. Never abused.

It's time to move the 2007 Legacy GT project car into a pair of loving hands. There are still several articles in the "can" that will appear in future issues of the magazine, but going any further with the build will simply sacrifice the day-to-day awesomeness of the car.

As we covered in the magazine, this car puts down 320hp to the wheels and is really a fun drive. The only damage is a light bit of rear bumper scuffing caused from the backside rubbing against the enclosed trailer on the way to Subiefest 2008 and back. The car will be sold with the stock alloys (with TPMS), not the slick Prodrives. Sorry, guys.

$25,000 or reasonable offers will be considered. No trades. If you're really interested, call our office at 425-458-4949 and hit option #2 to speak with Ryan. The car is in Seattle, Wash. We will not ship, any special transport is up to you. We'll be replacing it with a new project car in early 2009. For more info on this car, you can click here:
http://www.drivingsports.com/site/2008/05/...baru-legacy-gt/

Today we'll be testing a new forum module that will integrate the digital subscriptions to Subieport with your SubieClub memberships. Basically, new memberships will gain instant access to the current digital issue, plus an additional 6 issues for the year. This should be transparent to all users, but if there are any hiccups, now you'll know why.

Each year, the automotive industry turns its attention to Las Vegas, Nevada as it hosts the largest specialty automotive equipment trade event, SEMA. In honor of this great industry, Flat4lv along with its sponsors EDO Performance/Zerosports, Subaru of America, and Subaru of Las Vegas present Subie Invasion 2008 to coincide with the SEMA trade show November 4th - 7th. Four events over the course of SEMA, Sema Night November 6th, Club Night November 6th, Subie Show November 8th, and a group drive November 9th. We want to show our support of the automotive industry and share our passion of the automotive scene, particularly Subarus.

http://subieinvasion.flat4lv.com/

NEFR Surprise!

Pics: http://www.subiesport.com/2008/07/new-england-for.html

When they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, the Puritans who settled in New England believed that one’s soul could be stolen if one wandered alone into the woods. While they were mistaken about the soul thing, they certainly had no idea what else could be lost in the dense forests of America - including season points, bragging rights, and a shot at the X Games.

Before we get into the blow-by-blow, let’s introduce Niall McShea, who hopped over the pond to give Rally America a try. McShea, of Enniskillen, Ireland, is a past P-WRC champion from 2004 with a list of European rally credentials as long as your arm. His co-driver, Marshall Clarke, also brings P-WRC experience with McShea, including a win at Rally Ireland in November of 2007. The pair arrived to compete in a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

It may have been simple coincidence that brought McShea and Clarke to New England for this event, but this rally was also the last chance qualifier for next month’s X Games rally in California. As such, the top-finishing team not already qualified for the X Games would walk away from this event with the coveted X Games invitation in hand. Series regulars Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant were definitely hoping for that slot, having been frustrated throughout the first half of the season.

Also notable before the rally got underway, championship contenders Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis, Nathan and Brandye Conley, and Kyle Sarasin and Mikael Johansson did not make the northeast leg of the 2008 championship. So the event started out missing three of the brightest stars in the Rally America firmament. These teams have already secured their X Games invitations and so their absence may have been strictly strategic in advance of the media festival at the X Games.

Still, points leaders Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb came to solidify their lead, and Ken Block/Alessandro Gelsomino came to regain their early season momentum after a chain of hard luck incidents in Oregon and Pennsylvania. The SRTUSA teammates recently won the Canadian Baie de Chaleurs rally, but while that certainly feels good, it does not confer any points in this championship. Two-time champion Travis Pastrana and new co-driver Derek Ringer (himself a WRC veteran) also came to gain some momentum in what has been a difficult season so far. Subaru Rally Team USA again brought the new 2008 WRX STI cars to New England Forest after a disappointing first outing at Susquehannock Trail in June.

It seems the roads to Los Angeles and to the season championship both run straight through Bethel, Maine.

With all that hanging in the balance, New England Forest covers 103.2 stage miles in two days, on technical roads through some of the most beautiful territory in North America. With the level of competition in the Rally America series dialed up to eleven this year, anything could happen, and that’s just how it worked out.

The rally started with a pair of short Super Special stages at ½ mile apiece. Pinker/Durant came out strong, winning stage 1. But Block/Gelsomino were right on their heels just .4 seconds behind, joined by the newcomers McShea/Clarke who scored the exact same time. Antoine L’Estage/Nathalie Richard came fourth in their 2007 Hyundai
Tiburon, followed by Pastrana/Ringer and Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb. At the second stage, Block/Gelsomino took the win, with Otis Dimiters and Dominik Jozwiak in their 2007 Subaru Impreza taking second place just 0.2 seconds behind, and Pastrana/Ringer matching that time. McShea/Clarke dropped to 9th on this stage, but still just 1.6 seconds behind the winning time.

As the real forest stages got underway, Pinker/Durant came back to the top, winning the 9.9-mile South Arm S. stage. McShea/Clarke finished second, just 2.6 seconds behind, and Block/Gelsomino came in third, a scant 0.4 seconds behind the Irishmen. On stage 4, a reverse of South Arm S., McShea/Clarke claimed their first stage win of the rally, followed by Block/Gelsomino a full 12 seconds behind. L’Estage/Richard showed their mettle here, finishing a half-second behind Block/Gelsomino.

The 5.6-mile Concord Pond stage was won by Block/Gelsomino, who had no intention of laying down to let the newcomers run away with the rally. But the Irish duo came in a strong second, 1.6 seconds out of the stage win. L’Estage/Richard were third, 4.3 seconds off the leader’s pace.

On the 15.1-mile Dillon-Success stage, L’Estage/Richard brought home the win for Hyundai, followed by McShea/Clarke 6 seconds later. Block/Gelsomino delivered a solid third place performance 0.8 seconds behind McShea/Clarke. But stage 7, the reverse Success-Dillon run, saw McShea/Clarke back on top, followed by L’Estage/Richard 5 seconds back, and Block/Gelsomino 9 seconds behind the leaders.

At the end of Stage 7, McShea/Clarke were leading the rally, with Block/Gelsomino just about 19 seconds down in second. L’Estage/Richard sat in third position, another 5 seconds behind. Pinker/Durant languished in fourth place, almost a minute behind the leaders, with their X Games hopes rapidly fading.

Notably missing from the top of the stage standings was Pastrana/Ringer, finishing no higher than fourth place except on stage 2, where they finished third. But that was to change on stage 8, which the champ won the 17.4-mile South Mountain stage. Pinker/Durant came back to finish second with the exact same stage time as Pastrana/Ringer, with L’Estage/Richard 5.1 seconds behind. McShea/Clarke finished fourth, 13.2 seconds behind Pastrana/Ringer.

But the joy at SRTUSA was over, because Block/Gelsomino fell out of the race on Stage 8, sidelined with a suspension failure after striking a large rock. The team’s hopes were now pinned solely on Pastrana/Ringer, trusting the champ’s ability to pull a New England Boiled Lobster out of his hat.

But it wasn’t to be, as stage 9 saw McShea/Clarke solidify their lead over 13.7 hard miles, beating L’Estage/Richard by 1.2 seconds. Pinker/Durant took third on the stage, 6.9 seconds behind the leaders. Pastrana/Ringer finished a disappointing 6th, over 35 seconds late to the finish control.

The final stage of the rally was the 15.5-mile Middle Dam Out road, and McShea/Clarke dominated again to bring home the win and an invitation to L.A. The pair beat Pinker/Durant by a staggering 25.7 seconds, with Pastrana/Ringer in third, 50.1 seconds behind the former P-WRC champ.

When the scores were totaled up, McShea/Clarke had won the rally by 1:18.9 over Pinker/Durant. Pastrana/Ringer claimed third place, 2 minutes and 43 seconds behind McShea/Clarke. Former points leaders Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb finished in 12th place, 23 minutes and 28.8 seconds behind the leaders. However, it should be noted that 10 minutes of that deficit was a penalty for illegal (but necessary) service after breaking a driveshaft early in the event.

Group 5 honors went to Christopher Duplessis and Catherine Woods in their 1990 Volkswagen GTi, and the Production GT win went to Rally America stalwarts Amy BeberVanzo and Ole Holter in their 2006 Subaru WRX. Jen Horsey and Jim Dechamp took the Production win in their 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer. No Group 2 cars finished the national portion of the event.

Among the DNFs were L'Estage/Richard, who retired on the last stage due to a mechanical issue. Block/Gelsomino were sidelined with suspension damage, as were “Cowboy” Kenny Bartram and Dennis Hotson. Series regulars Matthew Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey retired with a blown engine in their Hankook Tire-sponsored WRX.

As the teams pack up for the long drive to the California coast, Niall McShea and Marshall Clarke have earned that last chance invitation to the X Games in their Mitsubishi Evo, Travis Pastrana and Derek Ringer have moved into first place in the season points standings on the strength of their podium finish, with Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb falling to second. The once-unstoppable Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino currently sit third in the season points.

After the X Games extravaganza, which carries no season championship points, Rally America gets back to business with the Ojibwe Forest Rally, held in Bemidji, Minnesota on August 22-23. Only three events remain in the 2008 championship season, and as the first 6 events have shown, absolutely anything can yet happen.

Story by Jeff Zurschmeide
Photos by Lars Gange | rally.subaru.com

Driving Sports TV announces official live coverage of round 5 of the Rally America racing series.



Redmond, WA (PRWEB) June 2, 2008 -- Driving Sports today announced that it would be presenting live worldwide coverage of the 2008 Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally presented by Citizen's and Northern Bank, Round 5 in the Rally America Championship series, scheduled for June 6th and 7th.

As part of this groundbreaking coverage, Driving Sports will present live video streams, a dynamic event blog, cell phone SMS alerts and daily action recaps through its web site www.drivingsports.com. This will be the first time a Rally America regular series round has featured such extensive live coverage. The event is a crucial step for competitors as they fight for coveted invitations to the 2008 ESPN X Games in Los Angeles.

“We are very excited to bring some of the best rally action in the world to a wider global audience,” said Driving Sports Producer, Ryan Douthit. He continued, “We’ve lined up a talented team to bring the unfiltered excitement of professional rally to new and existing fans of the series!”

Viewers will have the opportunity to watch and interact with action sports stars, Dave Mirra, Travis Pastrana, Ken Block and Andrew-Comrie Picard, as they fight against the elements and a large field of seasoned challengers – all from the comfort of their home computers or on select 3G smartphones.

“Rally America appreciates the coverage that MediaSpigot has provided over the years through its print magazines, and we're really excited about the live updates they have planned for Round 5,” said J.B. Niday, Managing Director for Rally America.

The first live broadcast from the event will commence at 9am EST on Friday, June 6, with additional live feeds and updates posted regularly throughout the day, including exclusive interviews from the service-park and tape-delayed stage action. Viewers can point their web browsers to www.drivingsports.com for more details, or text RALLY to 38714 for SMS alerts delivered to their cell phones.

About MediaSpigot LLC
Based in Redmond, Wash., MediaSpigot is one of the fastest growing, privately held producers of automotive-enthusiast media in the United States. Its print titles include Subiesport Magazine, among others, available through major booksellers in the United States, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. Under the Driving Sports and Driving Sports TV brands, MediaSpigot produces enthusiast lifestyle events, television specials, web destinations and streaming video programming. For more information, visit www.mediaspigot.com.

About Rally America
Based in Golden Valley, Minn., Rally America sanctions the premier rally racing series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. In 2008, Rally America will conduct nine National Championship events at venues across the country, from Pomeroy, Wash., to Bethel, Maine. Rally America competitors reach speeds well over 100mph in modified street cars on natural-terrain courses of gravel, dirt or snow. Additionally, through a partnership with ESPN, qualifying Rally America drivers will be invited to compete in the Summer X Games, the annual leading action-sport event that is broadcast live on ABC and ESPN. For more information, visit www.rally-america.com.

Live coverage of Round 5 is sponsored by:
Perrin Performance
Subiesport Magazine
NASIOC (+PRoN)

Live coverage schedule (subject to change... often)
http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/stpr-08-...-broadcast.html

Oregon Trail Rally 2008
By Jeff Zurschmeide, Subiesport Magazine



For event video: Driving Sports TV Rallysport Channel

The Oregon Trail Rally has always been known as one of the toughest events in the Rally America championship calendar, but it’s never been tougher than this year. Fewer than half the cars entered in the national points rally this past weekend made it to the finish.

It would be easier to list the teams who didn’t crash and burn, but here’s the casualty list for the weekend. The seemingly unstoppable team of Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino were sidelined early with the car stuck on a hillside. The 2006 and 2007 Oregon Trail winners Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant saw their car catch fire in the unseasonal hot weather, taking them out of contention. Pinker’s teammates Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis also fell by the wayside, along with two-time PGT Champs Matthew Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey. Sensational young driver Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Mikael Johansson also ended up with a severely bent car and a DNF to show for their trip to the west coast.

In the PGT ranks, Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouch, Norm LeBlanc and Keith Morison, Piotr Wiktorczyk and Benjamin Slocum, Travis and Terry Hanson, and the local Oregon team of Mark Tabor and Kevin Poirier (2004 Production class champions) were all out by the end of the weekend.

In the end, victory at the Oregon Trail Rally was all about survival - being there at the end. 2006 and 2007 Rally America champion Travis Pastrana stayed on the road and delivered an excellent performance in his third outing with new co-driver Derek Ringer. Pastrana finished the event 3 minutes and 36 seconds ahead of Canadian Mitsubishi Evo pilots Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb. Five minutes farther back came west coast regulars and 2004 Oregon Trail winners Carl Jardevall and Amity Trowbridge in their Mitsubishi Evo.

This year’s Oregon Trail Rally featured 16 stages, but two runnings of one stage road were cut due to a 6-foot accumulation of snow on the road. This was hard to believe, based on the 90+ degree temperatures through most of the weekend, but there was still snow to be seen on several of the stage roads. In the hunt for the win, Pastrana/Ringer won 8 of the 14 stages that were contested. Foust/Beavis won 4 of the remaining 6, and Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb won two stages.

The weekend was a tremendous disappointment for Block/Gelsomino. The duo expressed their displeasure with the lack of a pre-event reconnaissance at this event. The previous three events all allowed teams to pre-run the course at slow speed to make additional pace notes. After winning both the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and the Olympus Rally in dominating fashion, the team has dropped to third place in the season points standings.

Highlighting the importance of consistency, Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb have moved into the points lead with two second place and two fourth place finishes. Pastrana/Ringer are in second place with two seconds and a first.

With many of the top teams dropping out due to crashes or mechanical failures, new faces began appearing at the top of the standings. Chief among these is the sort-of almost Subaru Rally Team USA “third car” driven by Dave Mirra and co-driven by Alexander Kihurani. The team was third on Stage 14 and turned up 4th on Stage 16 as well. The team was already time-barred due to earlier troubles, but gave a good showing.

In the Production GT class, the win was taken by Patrick Moro and Mike Rossey in their 2002 WRX, followed by Nathan and Brandy Conley in their 2003 WRX wagon and local favorites Paul Eklund and Jeff Price driving the only 2008 STI currently competing in North American rally. Eklund is the owner of Primitive Racing Enterprises, a Portland-based rally school and rally supply store.

In the two wheel drive classes, Andrew Havas and Pete Pollard took the Group 5 victory in their 1989 Honda Civic, followed by the MAZDASPEED3 of Eric Burmeister and Bill Westrick and the 2003 Dodge SRT4 Neon of John Conley and Keith Rudolph. Group 2 honors went to Michel Hoche-Mong and Jimmy Brandt in their 1985 VW Golf, followed by the 1982 Alfa Romeo GTV6 of first-time rally driver Austen Angell and veteran co-driver Jeff Zurschmeide. Production was won by the sole surviving entry - a 2004 Suzuki Swift driven by Jim Stevens and co-driven by his daughter Marianne Stevens, both of Kingsville, Ontario.

The Rally America series now moves to the east coast for next month’s Susquehannock Trail Rally on June 6 and 7. The Pennsylvania woods will be the venue for a comeback attempt by Block/Gelsomino and the rest of the contenders. With just three weeks intervening, there’s a lot of repair to get done on many of the top Rally America cars - it will be interesting to note who makes the event and who is forced out for the season. Only one thing is certain - this season is now almost half gone and there’s no telling what will happen next.

###

Oregon Trail Rally is kicking off today for an action-packed three days of competition. The fun starts off today with a Parc Exposé in downtown Portland, followed by the start, tomorrow at Portland International Raceway. Competition runs through the weekend out of the Hillsboro Fairgrounds and the town of Vernonia.

I always think it's more enjoyable to watch (or follow online) an event when there's some perspective to go along with it. So, for the first time ever, we're making our coverage of the 2007 Oregon Trail Rally available to watch online for free (this is the same feature that ran on Portland television last year.)

For 2008 can Ken Block of the Subaru Rally Team USA perform a three-peat in the Rally America series? Will Australian Andrew Pinker win Oregon Trail for the second year in a row? How about Travis Pastrana and Tanner Foust? Pastrana's motor blew last year, taking him out of contention for the event. Foust made podium, but wanted to win it outright. Should be some fantastic competition.

Click over to the Driving Sports TV Rallysport Channel and select which segments you want to watch. The full meal deal on the 2007 event is just under 30-minutes long. All the segments should be up by the end of the day today.

How do you think the podium will look at the end of the event? Here's my guess:

1. Pastrana
2. Pinker
3. Block

Last fall I visited the Prodrive test facility in Warwickshire, UK. Check out the video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FP2NBAgpl28

Subiesport Magazine launches new Site!



For 2008 the Subiesport Magazine website has received a complete makeover. You want more news about your car, how to get the most from it, what's going on in the world of rally sports and what's happening in the Subaru community -- from a source you trust. We heard you! The new site combines the power of our digital edition along with a web log of the latest news from the world, and online.

Not into checking the site every day? We have you covered. Sign up for our automated email update service and Subiesport.com will automatically email all the posts from the day. Not just clips -- the complete stories! This service is free and can be canceled at any time.

http://www.subiesport.com/updates-by-email.html

Prefer to get your info on the go? The new Subiesport.com features advanced RSS feeds to keep you hooked up. Just visit the site and click "RSS Feed" to get started. This is great for mobile phones and other portable devices.

Check it out: http://www.subiesport.com

Be sure to update your bookmarks! The old site (mag.subiesport.com) will continue to stay up, but will no longer receive updates.

Block/Gelsomino Threepeat at 100 Acre Wood
Many Teams Suffer Damage in Icy Weather

By Jeff Zurschmeide, Subiesport Magazine

Photos: http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/2008/03/...gelsomin-1.html

The plan in the Rally America season is to hold just one true snow rally. Sno*Drift in January leads off the season, and some competitors skip the event in favor of the much more temperate Rally in the 100 Acre Wood held in Missouri a month later. But this year, Mother Nature caught many teams with their long johns down as winter weather again dominated the results at the second round of the 2008 rally racing championship series.

The day before the event, snow, ice, and freezing rain paralyzed the nation’s heartland and kept drivers, co-drivers, and some teams waiting for the St. Louis airport to reopen. Several participants had to make forced drives at the last minute to arrive in time to start the event, but when they did start, the conditions were anything but hospitable, leading to one of the most difficult 100 Acre Wood rallies in recent years.

Coming out of Sno*Drift, the Canadian duo of Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard had the winner’s momentum, but this will be the hardest year yet for the Rally America championship. Several top teams are ready to pounce on the slightest mistake or misfortune.

Last year’s champion Travis Pastrana was first on the road with a brand new co-driver. After several years and two consecutive championships, SRTUSA veteran Christian Edstrom chose to step out of the car following a rally-ending impact with a deer at Sno*Drift. While a co-driver of Edstrom’s stature is not easy to replace, Subaru tapped past WRC champion co-driver Derek Ringer of Scotland. This is the latest of many indications that Subaru is seriously grooming Pastrana for WRC competition.

http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/images/2...00aw08block.jpg

But it was SRTUSA teammates Ken Block and Alessandro Gelsomino who took the lead starting with Stage 1 of the event, winning the 10-mile opener by 6.1 seconds over second-place L’Estage/Richard. Pastrana/Ringer were 12 seconds off the lead on this stage, but still at least 14 seconds over the rest of the top 10. Block/Gelsomino repeated the win on Stage 2, came in second to Pastrana/Ringer on Stage 3, and were back on top for Stage 4, the last stage of Day 1.

Stage 3 claimed several competitors - the start of a destruction tour that may well affect downfield points races through the entire season if competitors can’t get their cars fixed by April’s Olympus Rally in Washington State. Most significantly, L’Estage/Richard retired on this stage with a mechanical problem in their modified AWD Hyundai Tiburon. With the second place car out of the way, the rally quickly turned into a Subaru Rally Team USA juggernaut.

In the 2WD ranks, a particular hill on Stage 3 proved a literally insurmountable challenge. With ice rather than gravel as the racing surface, several teams found themselves unable to climb the slope and complete the stage. At least one team, the #628 1996 Saturn SL piloted by Minnesotans Dan Adamson and Christopher Gordon, chose to withdraw from the day’s event, but returned for the second day with a brand new set of ice tires on the car.

At the end of the first four stages, Block/Gelsomino led the competition, followed by Pastrana/Ringer, with the Rockstar Energy Drink team of Tanner Foust and Christine Beavis holding down third. Two-time Production GT class champions Matt Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey finished the day in fourth place, and 2007 Group 5 champions Kyle Sarasin and Mikael Johansson completed the top five.

http://www.drivingsports.com/.shared/image...00aw08turbo.jpg

The second day of the event changed little except that Johnson/Wimpey moved up to third position. With the exception of Stage 10, taken by Canadians Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb, every stage was won by Block/Gelsomino or Pastrana/Ringer, most often with the other SRTUSA team in second position. The battle in this rally was for third place, with Johnson/Wimpey, Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb, Sarasin/Johansson, Foust/Beavis and their teammates Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durant fighting it out.

When the podium was announced, no one was surprised to see Block/Gelsomino at the top of the standings in their 2006 STI. The pair ran a fast and consistent event, winning 9 of 14 stages outright and finishing second on an additional 4. In fact, the only stage on which Block/Gelsomino were not first or second was the final stage of the rally, where they dropped to 5th-fastest. Still, the team finished the event almost a full 60 seconds ahead of second-place Pastrana/Ringer in their 2006 STI and 4:22 ahead of third place Johnson/Wimpey in their 2003 WRX.

Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb finished in fourth place in their 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, despite serious damage sustained in an encounter with a tree that failed to move out of their way. (You should have come with us on the Alcan Rally, Andrew! - JZ) They were followed in the results by Sarasin/Johansson and then by the top Production GT car, a 2004 Subaru WRX piloted by Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouch.

Group 5 honors and 11th place overall were taken by Christopher Duplessis and Martin Headland in their 1990 Volkswagen GTI, while Production was won by Jim and Marianne Stevens in their 2004 Suzuki Swift. No Group 2 or Group N cars finished the National portion of the rally.

This rally was brutal on tires, with many teams limping home to the finish on their rims. The ordinarily fast roads turned treacherous with ice, leading several teams to turn up at their service areas with body and radiator damage. Along the way, Pinker/Durant, Foust/Beavis, and L’Estage/Richard all fell by the wayside to mechanical or impact troubles. Celebrity BMX rider turned rally driver Dave Mirra and co-driver Alan Ockwell also failed to finish the event due to a crash on Stage 14.

Fortunately, there’s a good interval between this rally and the upcoming Olympus Rally, to be held in Olympia, Washington on April 19-20. Competitors such as Amy Bebervanzo and Aubrey Volger, who struck a tree in their 2006 WRX, will need the interval to repair their cars.


####

Can I have a drum-roll please? Visit the official forum for more info.

Hey all you Subie-holics! I'd like to announce a new vendor to SubieClub, Rally Armor! If you're looking for some high-quality, rally-ready spats or a skidplate for your car, these are the guys to call:

Rally Armor is a NY based manufacturer of protective automotive products with a focus on Subarus. Rally Armor is committed to manufacturing premium quality performance products including skid plates and mud flaps and offering enthusiasts the kind of automotive wares that not only help modify their cars but also protect them. Visit http://www.rallyarmor.com for more information. Rally Armor proudly sources materials and fabricates its products in the U.S.

Sno*Drift 2008 Rally Report
Story: Jeff Zurschmeide | Subiesport Magazine
Photos: Lars Gange -- rally.subaru.com

More pics at:
http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/2008/01/...ift-2008-r.html

In Rally Racing, it’s not enough to have the best ride and the best service crew, and the best in-car team. You can’t just set ‘em up and knock ‘em down in this business, because anything can happen at any time. After the top teams fought the 2007 season to a razor’s edge finish, the 2008 season has started up again in the same thrilling, unpredictable fashion.

Subaru Rally Team USA stars Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom took the final event win of the 2007 season with just a 3.5-second margin of victory. With that win came the Rally America National Championship for the year. In the brief off-season, Pastrana competed in the WRC Production class at Rally GB and finished a humbling 11th. So he’s back to the 2008 Rally America series with two challenges in front of him - to defend his back-to-back championships in a series that gets tougher every year, and to hone his skills for further WRC opportunities.

Australian Andrew Pinker and co-driver Robbie Durant finished the 2007 season in second place, a total of 1 minute, 33.5 seconds behind Pastrana at the critical final event. Pastrana’s SRTUSA teammates Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino finished the season in third place. The wild card in 2007 was the team of Tanner Foust and Chrissie Beavis, who ended the season in fantastic form. If the duo had not missed a critical pair of events due to Foust’s drifting schedule, the championship might have been theirs.

But 2008 is starting out with much more than a repeat of the same closely-matched teams. A number of strong teams have moved into the Open class to contend for the win. Leading the pack are two-time Production GT champions Matt Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey. With their extensive experience in the Subaru WRX, look for Johnson/Wimpey to make a serious challenge this year.



18 year old Kyle Sarasin and co-driver Mikael Johansson are moving up to Open class from Group 5, where they won the 2007 rookies of the year and took second in the Group 5 national championship race. The young standouts are certain to put some pressure on the top teams this year in their 1994 Impreza. The dark horse teams of Piotr Wiktorczyk and Martin Brady in a 2002 WRX or Will Corry and Alexander Kihurani in a 2006 STI may also make an impression on the standings this year.

Also in the hunt is the Canadian team of Antoine L’Estage, paired with top co-driver Nathalie Richard in a highly-modified Hyundai Tiburon. Fellow Canadian Andrew Comrie-Picard will again team with Marc Goldfarb to try for the championship in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

Coming in from the X Games world is BMX racing star Dave Mirra, who is teamed with veteran co-driver Alan Ockwell for the season. Mirra is driving a Subaru supported by Vermont SportsCar and will share service crew with SRTUSA, but is not a formal member of the factory team.

The new teams gunning for the top are joined by all the top finishers from 2007, so the field was thick going into January’s Sno*Drift event in northern Michigan. Conditions were typical - snow and ice, and lots of it.

To set the start order for the first event of the year, the teams of Pastrana/Edstrom, Block/Gelsomino, Foust/Beavis, and Pinker/Durant were subjected to a random draw. Foust/Beavis won the draw and elected to start first. Because of the fresh snow, going first is not necessarily a great advantage. Pushing aside heavy snow can slow a car, with later runners taking advantage of a packed surface. "We were so slow, I can't believe it," said Foust.

It didn’t take long for the frozen conditions to claim their first victim. Pinker/Durant lost the engine in their STI a scant mile into the very first stage, taking them out of the rally and perhaps out of the running for the top spot in 2008.

Pastrana/Edstrom won the first stage of the year, besting second place L’Estage/Richard by 8.6 seconds on the 7.17-mile run. Block/Gelsomino were another 1.1 seconds behind the Canadians, with a wide gap on fourth place Foust/Beavis, likely because of their charitable snowplowing service.

Sno*Drift begins on Friday afternoon, with the first car taking the stages just prior to 3 p.m. Stages continue well into the chilly night; the first car starts the sixth and final stage of the day around 8 p.m. Pastrana/Edstrom won three of the day’s stages, Block/Gelsomino another two, and Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb won a single stage. At the end of day 1, Sno*Drift was shaping up to be another Subaru Rally Team juggernaut, and potentially the beginning of a dominating year for the defending champions. As the teams went to bed for the night, Pastrana/Edstrom led the rally by 45 seconds, followed by Block/Gelsomino, and with L’Estage/Richard in third place.

But a new day brings new chances, and on the slippery stages of a Michigan winter rally, anything can happen. In the morning, it looked as though the competition for the win would be between the SRTUSA cars. Block/Gelsomino won two of the first three stages, with Stage 8 going to L’Estage/Richard. But then on Stage 10, Block and Gelsomino’s luck ran out - the pair went off the road on a sharp left over a crest and found themselves high-centered on a frozen berm. "We just got sucked into the snow," Block said.

Block and Gelsomino lost 10 minutes liberating their car, succeeding just as Matt Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey stopped to help them. That delay took Block/Gelsomino out of the fight for the podium, and the stage win went to L’Estage/Richard. But as if to prove that they weren’t the sort to give up, Block/Gelsomino went on to win the next stage and the final four stages of the day.

On Stage 12, it was Foust/Beavis’s turn to get stuck in the snow, and the delay cost the team about 7 minutes, dashing their podium hopes for the event.

Although their teammates were down in the standings, the rally was well in the pockets of Pastrana/Edstrom. Going into Stage 16, the champs had a 2 minute margin on the rest of the field. But in order to win, you have to make it to the end - and there is no allowance for bad luck. “With a huge lead and just a few miles to the finish, we hit a deer at over 60 mph. It all happened so quickly, we were shocked. The car sustained heavy damage and couldn't continue. Amazingly bad luck,” Pastrana said. Thankfully, Pastrana and Edstrom were not hurt. It’s safe to assume that the high-speed collision didn’t do the deer any good.

With both Block/Gelsomino and Pastrana/Edstrom out of contention for the podium, the field was opened to those other cars who gave consistent performances throughout the event. Going into the final stage of the event, L’Estage/Richard moved into the lead. The pair had finished in the top 4 positions on 15 of the 16 stages of the rally, and won Stages 8 and 10. Comrie-Picard and Goldfarb held onto second place with top 4 finishes on 7 stages, winning only Stage 3.

In the end, Block and Gelsomino’s victories in the final four stages of the event couldn’t make up their deficit from Stage 10. The rally win went to L’Estage/Richard in their Hyundai Tiburon, followed by Comrie-Picard/Goldfarb in second place in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. “I have mixed feelings. I’m happy, but at the same time, I feel so bad for (Pastrana and Edstrom) because they did a great rally. They were the fastest, but we’ll take the win,” L’Estage said.

But the real news of the weekend was with Kyle Sarasin and Mikael Johansson. Coming up from a Group 5 Ford Focus to an Open class Impreza this year, the young duo gave an outstanding performance, consistently finishing each stage well up into the top 10. “Our game plan was to be consistent, try to stay in the race and get a top-10 finish. Some stuff happened, some people went out, and we ended up getting third overall,” Sarasin said. This result should put the sport’s leaders on notice - Watch your mirrors.

Fourth place went to Matt Johnson and Jeremy Wimpey in their first Open class event. With their prodigious Production GT experience and skill at carrying speed in a lower-powered car working for them, look for this team to move up onto the podium soon.

Block and Gelsomino finished the rally in fifth place.

In their first Rally America national championship event, Mirra and Ockwell finished 18th. Not a bad finish for any team’s first big event - to say nothing of an event held in knee-deep snow. With support from Vermont SportsCar and guidance from his friends at SRTUSA, look for Mirra to move up the standings this year.

The Production GT competition was intense, with 6 different teams claiming stage wins for the class. Travis and Terry Hanson won five stages in their 2002 WRX. The teams of Patrick Moro and Mike Rossey in a 2002 WRX and Todd Moberly and Rebecca Greek in a 2003 WRX each won four stages.

The teams of Evan Cline and Jason Grahn (1991 Mitsubishi Galant VR4), Bryan Pepp and Jerry Stang (2002 WRX), and Nathan & Brandye Conley (2003 WRX Wagon) each took one PGT stage win. When the scores were totaled up, it was Moro/Rossey in first place, followed by Pepp/Stang and then the team of Robert and Mariusz Borowicz, who earned third place with a consistent performance in their 2002 WRX.

The Group 5 and overall 2WD victory went to Christopher Duplessis and Martin Headland in their 1990 Volkswagen GTi, followed overall by Jan and Jody Zedril, who took an impressive Production class win in their 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer ES. No Group 2 or Group N cars finished the national portion of the event.

Sno*Drift is unique as the only true winter rally in the Rally America national season. Results here are not necessarily indicative of the rest of the year, but it’s clear that there are more qualified teams ready to wrestle for the season championship than there were in 2007. This is good news for rally fans, because it means that anything can, and probably will, happen in the months to come. Stay tuned for Round 2 of the 2008 Rally America National Championship, the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, scheduled for February 22 and 23 in Salem, Missouri.

Driving Sports is starting to roll out the footage I shot during my recent trip to the UK. It includes a tour of Prodrive, interviews with SWRT and then taking in WRC Rally GB.

Opening in Cardiff:
http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/2007/12/...ales-gb-vi.html

Stage 1:
http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/2007/12/...ales-rally.html

More coming, stay tuned to our sister-site:
http://www.drivingsports.com

Reviews of the new 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI have started to hit the Interweb.

Motive Online Magazine
Edmunds Inside Line
Popular Mechanics

The December issue of Subiesport Magazine also features a complete review, along with telemetry data from the lap at Laguna Seca.