2019 Idaho Rally International

Subaru Motorsports USA completed a challenging weekend at the Idaho Rally International with more than 120 miles of stages on the narrowest and most technical roads on the American Rally Association calendar.

Coming off a win at the Oregon Trail Rally just two weeks prior, David Higgins and Craig Drew started first on the road in their 2019 Subaru WRX STI rally car. The duo took an early lead and maintained it until the middle of Day 1 when a power steering issue cost them almost four minutes. Once resolved, Higgins and Drew fought back to finish Day 1 in second place overall. Meanwhile, teammates Oliver Solberg and co-driver Denis Giraudet had an unrelated mechanical issue early on, leading to an eventual retirement on the last loop of stages.

At the beginning of Day 2, just under one minute separated Higgins and Drew from overall leaders Jeff Seehorn and Cody Crawford in a privateer WRX STI. The defending champions took back the lead during the morning stages and extended it into the afternoon, but went off the road on a difficult section of the event’s final stage and were unable to immediately extract their WRX STI. After working for over 20 minutes to return to the road, Higgins and Drew were able to complete the stage and finish in eighth place.  Teammates Solberg and Giraudet were not in contention for an overall win due to the retirement on Day 1, but continued pushing hard and finished the rally ninth overall with a total of five stage wins.

Subaru Motorsports USA competes next July 13-14 at an exciting double-header weekend in St. Louis at the Gateway Motorsports Park for rounds two and three of the Americas Rallycross Championship.