Subaru announced last week that Travis Pastrana, five-time national rally champion and Brandon Semenuk, rally driver and freeride mountain bike legend would take on the American Rally Association championship. While the first few races of the season have been canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the season should start up by the DirtFish Olympus Rally in late April.
I’m stoked to be back in a Subaru again! The last couple of years I’ve been itching to get back in a rally car full-time and compete for a championship, and Subaru is where it all began for me in rally. I’m also really excited to have Brandon as my teammate. He’s got a ton of talent and I know he’ll be fast once he gets a feel for the car, so I’m expecting some great competition between the two of us.
Travis Pastrana
Travis Pastrana debuted in a Subaru rally car in 2005 having already made his mark in motocross and supercross competition, and immediately established himself as a force on four wheels. At the 2006 X Games, Pastrana landed the first double backflip ever attempted in freestyle motocross competition and the next day took home the Games’ inaugural Rally Car gold medal, making him an instant two-sport star and helping to raise the profile of rally for a generation of young action sports fans. Pastrana would go on to win his first U.S. rally championship that year with Subaru Rally Team USA and repeat as champion three more times through 2009.
British Columbia native Brandon Semenuk has been putting his mark on rally in the U.S. and Canada since 2010. Competing first in a production WRX and then in a Subaru Canada-supported Crosstrek rally car, Semenuk has racked up five overall Canadian Rally Championship (CRC) event wins and a pair of North American Rally Cup (NARC) titles in the last three years. His achievements in U.S. events include an impressive 4th overall at Idaho Rally in 2018 – competing in a UTV against bigger, more powerful Open 4WD Class cars – and another 4th place finish in a privateer car at 2019’s Oregon Trail Rally with co-driver John Hall.
This season is going to be a blast, I’ve been rallying for the last few years, but the STI is a big step up in performance. Travis knows the STI really well, so I’m going to take it one event at a time to learn as much as I can and get my pace up. The car is really exciting to drive and I’m getting more confident with it in testing. I can’t wait to put in some stage miles and see how we measure up.
Brandon Semenuk
Check out the schedule below or visit americanrallyassociation.org for updates.
2020 SUBARU MOTORSPORTS USA RALLY CALENDAR
March 20-21
DirtFish Olympus Rally
April 25-26
DirtFish Oregon Trail Rally
May 29-31
Southern Ohio Forest Rally
June 19-20
New England Forest Rally
July 31-August 1
Muscatell Ojibwe Forests Rally
August 28-29
Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally
September 18-19
Lake Superior Performance Rally
October 16-17
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