Subaru Motorsports USA (formerly known as Subaru Rally Team USA) is Subaru of America's

motorsports Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the po ...

arm that participates in events in the United States and its operations are managed by Vermont SportsCar, previously

Prodrive Prodrive is an England, English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. History Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards (motorsport executive), David Richards. Prodrive sold its 51% s ...

History

The team was started in 2000 with cars prepared by

and raced in the SCCA ProRally championship and continued until 2004. In 2006, the team management was handed over to Vermont SportsCar. Since 2001 Vermont SportsCar has had a relationship with

Subaru of America Subaru of America, Inc. (commonly abbreviated as SOA), based in Camden, New Jersey, is the United States–based distributor of Subaru's brand vehicles. SOA is a subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. The company markets and distributes Sub ...

who has served as both a sponsor and partner. Subaru utilizes the sport of

rallying Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

to promote their line-up of

all-wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. Types The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflects one axle with ...

vehicles, specifically the Subaru Impreza WRX STI which has dominated rallying in both the US and internationally for decades. Starting in 2006 Vermont SportsCar began managing the operations of Subaru Rally Team USA. In their first year Vermont SportsCar took Subaru Rally Team USA to four straight Rally America National Championship driver's titles with driver

Travis Pastrana Travis Alan Pastrana (born October 8, 1983) is an American professional athlete known for his success across multiple disciplines, including freestyle motocross, rally racing, NASCAR, and stunt performance. He rose to prominence in the early 2000s ...

(2006-2009). In 2010 the team welcomed

Dave Mirra David Michael Mirra (April 4, 1974 – February 4, 2016) was an American Freestyle BMX, BMX rider who also competed in rallycross racing. He set the record for most medals in BMX Freestyle at the X Games (later tied by Scotty Cranmer) and earne ...

to a full-time role as the team's 2nd driver alongside Pastrana, who was participating in a limited schedule of events. In 2011 Pastrana left the team to pursue

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

and was replaced by multi-time British and American rally champion David Higgins. Alongside his co-driver Craig Drew, David drove his WRX STI to 8 National Championships in a 9-year span, including a Perfect Season in 2015. Pastrana made a return to the team in 2014 and continues to be their main driver for stage rally competition with the

American Rally Association The American Rally Association is a stage rallying sanctioning body in the United States. The organization sanctions the Green APU National Rally Championship. It is a subsidiary of the United States Auto Club. The organization was founded by ...

. The team utilizes the Subaru WRX STI and rally prepares the cars nearly entirely in-house at Vermont SportsCar, including the shell prep,

roll cage A roll cage is a specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, pa ...

s, engines and many of the

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...

parts. The same highly skilled rally technicians that build each of team's cars at Vermont SportsCar also serve as the service crew that travel to each event. Although they primarily compete in the American Rally Association National Championship and

Americas Rallycross Championship The Americas Rallycross Championship, also known as ARX Rallycross, was an American rallycross series organized by IMG Motorsport. Formed in 2018, it was a feeder series to the FIA World Rallycross Championship. After two seasons, ARX shut down in ...

(ARX), the team also competes occasionally in the Canadian Rally Championship, the

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

and the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

. In 2019, the team changed its name to Subaru Motorsports USA along with a revision to the structure of its U.S. racing activities, which now combines stage rally,

rallycross Rallycross is a form of sprint style motorsport held on a mixed-surface circuit (racing), racing circuit using modified production touring automobile, cars or prototype racing cars. It began in the 1960s as a cross between rallying and autocross ...

, record attempts,

off-road racing Off-road racing is a form of motorsports consisting of specially-modified vehicles including cars, SUVs, trucks, motorbikes, quadbikes and buggies racing in off-road environments (e.g. snow, dirt, mud, etc.). North America Desert racing D ...

, and

circuit racing A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...

under the banner of Subaru Motorsports. Subaru Motorsports USA has been a seminal force in the rise in popularity of rallying in North America.

Rally

Subaru Rally Team USA participated in Rally America events, Canadian Rally Championship events, and previously participated in the

for a short time. Since taking on the American rally stages they have amassed 15 National Championships (6 with Pastrana, 8 with Higgins). Occasionally, the team has made entries in WRC with Ramana Lagemann at

Rally New Zealand The Rally New Zealand is an annual rally race in New Zealand. It was first included as a round of the World Rally Championship in 1977. The race is famous for its fast flowing gravel roads which carry the competitors through forests and alongsid ...

in 2003 and David Higgins at

Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cal ...

in 2015. After four consecutive Rally America driver's championships by Travis Pastrana from 2006–2009, David Higgins took over as the team's lead driver in Rally America competition for the 2011 season. From 2011–2016 Higgins won six consecutive championships, including a perfect season in 2015 in which he and co-driver Craig Drew won all eight rallies on the calendar. In 2020, after several years with David Higgins as lead driver and occasional part- or full-season campaigns from Travis Pastrana or other guest drivers, Subaru announced a new two-car lineup with Pastrana partnering with Canadian freeride mountain bike athlete and rally driver Brandon Semenuk. After a shortened 2020 rally season in which Subaru Motorsports USA failed to win the U.S. rally title for the first time since 2010, the team returned to the top spot in 2021 as Travis Pastrana captured his sixth title and first alongside co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino. Semenuk finished third overall behind

Ken Block Kenneth Paul Block (November 21, 1967 – January 2, 2023) was an American professional Rallying, rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division, formerly known as the Monster World Rally Team. Block was also one of the co-founders of DC Shoe ...

competing in an independent Vermont SportsCar-prepared Subaru WRX STI run by Hoonigan Racing Division. The 2021 championship marked the emergence of Brandon Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams in a season-long battle with rivals Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino competing in a modified Hyundai i20 WRC. Semenuk would ultimately win the title in the final rally of the season, earning his first major rally title.

Rallycross

The team participated in the

Global RallyCross Championship Global Rallycross (known as Red Bull Global Rallycross for sponsorship reasons) was a rallycross series operated by businessmen Colin Dyne in conjunction with Sponsor RedBull. The series ran for seven seasons, primarily in North America, from 201 ...

and

X-Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moor ...

events until they were replaced by the

in 2018. In 2006 and 2007,

Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007), was a British rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. At 27, ...

participated in X-Games with the team. He rolled the car due to an awkwardly landed jump, but still managed to finish in second place, right behind

. On May 4, 2012, Subaru announced their partnership with Puma and their new rallycross team, Subaru Puma Rallycross Team USA. The three-driver team consisted of

, Bucky Lasek, and Sverre Isachsen. On September 11, 2013, SRT USA contracted their Global Rallycross effort to two cars, releasing Dave Mirra. The team eventually made a shift in their lineup switching out Lasek and Isachsen with global rallycross star Patrik Sandell and former Subaru World Rally Team driver Chris Atkinson before the Global RallyCross Championship ended in 2017. In 2018

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics *IMG (file format), file that stores a complete and uncompressed copy of the contents of a storage device * IMG, a prefix for camera ima ...

founded the Americas Rallycross Championship which effectively replaced GRC. Sandell and Atkinson continued with the team during the transition and added

Scott Speed Scott Andrew Speed (born January 24, 1983) is an American race car driver who has competed in numerous disciplines, including open-wheel racing, open-wheel, stock car racing, stock car, and rallycross racing. In , Speed became the first American ...

to the roster the following year. In 2019, Sandell, Atkinson and Speed combined for four Americas Rallycross Championship event victories and won the ARX Teams Championship, the first rallycross championship for Subaru. After the 2019 season, series promoter IMG announced that ARX would cease operations. After a 2020 season in which no rallycross events were held due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Subaru Motorsports USA returned to rallycross in 2021 for the first season of the

Nitro Rallycross Nitrocross is an American rallycross racing series. Created by rallycross driver Travis Pastrana and the ''Nitro Circus'' production in 2018, its inaugural season began in 2021. The championship is sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. Hist ...

(NRX) series with drivers Scott Speed and Travis Pastrana. Pastrana and Speed scored three wins out of five events and tied on points for the NRX driver's championship ahead of Timmy Hansen, with Pastrana being named champion due to the series' tiebreak rules.

Championship wins

Video games

SRT USA heavily appeared in the racing game '' Colin McRae: DiRT 2'' with 2008 drivers

, and

. The #199 and #40 SRT USA cars also appeared in ''

DiRT 3 ''Dirt 3'' (stylised as ''DiRT 3'') is a simcade racing video game developed and published by Codemasters and distributed by THQ for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released on 24 May 2011 and is the first game in the se ...

'' Ramana Lagemann's SCCA ProRally #4 rally car appears on the cover '' Colin McRae Rally 2005''. SRT USA cars also are included in '' RalliSport Challenge'', '' RalliSport Challenge 2'', '' Colin McRae Rally 04'', ''

Project Gotham Racing ''Project Gotham Racing'' (''PGR'') is a series of racing video games published by Microsoft Studios, with four main titles all of which were developed by Bizarre Creations. It is the spiritual successor to Bizarre Creations' previous game ''Metr ...

'', '' V-Rally 3'', Sega Rally 2006,

Enthusia Professional Racing is a 2005 racing game for the PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in Nort ...

, and ''

Sega Rally Revo ''Sega Rally Revo'' (known in Europe as ''Sega Rally'') is an offroad racing video game, the fourth installment of the '' Sega Rally'' series. The game was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows in 2007. ...

''. In 2016 both Travis Pastrana and David Higgins appeared in

Forza Horizon 3 ''Forza Horizon 3'' is a 2016 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One and Windows. It is the ninth instalment in the ''Forza'' series and the third instalment in the ''Forza Horizon'' ...

, as DLC. Despite the fact that SRT USA vehicles were heavily featured in rally video games instead of the one used by the

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WWRC, a radio station (570 AM) l ...

, this is mostly due to licensing issues as WRC had the rights to their own video games at that time which were developed by

Evolution Studios Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean So ...

Racing record

Complete Global Rallycross Championship results

( key)

AWD

Supercar

Complete Nitro Rallycross results

Supercar

References

External links

{{Commons category, Subaru Rally Team USA
Subaru Motorsports USAVermont SportsCar
Global RallyCross Championship teams 2001 establishments in the United States Auto racing teams established in 2001 World Rallycross Championship teams World Rally Championship teams