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See More Photos Marquette, MI – After a hard-fought year on the stages, Subaru Motorsports USA has closed out the 2025 American Rally Association (ARA) season in spectacular fashion. Over the course of just nine months, the team added a string of wins and two new national championships to the resumé of Subaru’s legendary WRX. If that weren’t enough, at the final event of the ARA season, Michigan’s Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR), Subaru driver Travis Pastrana and co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino were class winners—and they won the rally overall.
“LSPR was an absolutely epic event,” Pastrana said. “Some of the most beautiful stages we’ve seen, and some of the rockiest and toughest, so the best of everything! Our new ARA25L held up so well, and the overall win was a fantastic bonus!”
Co-driver Gelsomino was equally thrilled and proud.
“It’s been an awesome season, and the team have done a great job. It’s a great feeling, and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve next year.”
LSPR’s organizers bill the event as the
“oldest, meanest, toughest rally on the circuit.”
Headquartered in Marquette, Michigan, the rally’s 2025 running offered competitors more than 130 miles of competitive stages. As in years prior, thousands of spectators came out to watch rally cars slide, fly, and rip down twisty logging roads surfaced in sand and gravel.
A SEASON OF DOMINANCE
Subaru’s LSPR achievement puts a bow on a year of WRX success in the ARA, but it also highlights the brand’s continued dominance of American rally. When Pastrana and Gelsomino clinched their championship in ARA’s Limited Four-Wheel Drive class (L4WD) at September’s Overmountain Rally Tennessee, they were in good company: Their Subaru Motorsports USA teammates, WRX ARA25 driver Brandon Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams, had locked their championship early as well, securing the Open Four-Wheel Drive (O4WD) title at the Ojibwe Forests Rally in August.
The 2025 ARA season kicked off in February, with the Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan. Semenuk and Williams took the event in a clean sweep of stages. One event later, at March’s 100 Acre Wood Rally, the team met both wild weather and mechanical issues. Semenuk and Williams won regardless, despite an intermittent electrical issue that caused unpredictable throttle loss from day one. The season only got better from there.
Pastrana and Gelsomino didn’t join this year’s ARA fray until April at the Olympus Rally, but they brought with them a new car—the WRX ARA25L, a weapon tailor-made for the L4WD class. The pair quickly came to grips with their new machine and were a force to be reckoned with from the start, bringing a real challenge even to the much faster Rally2 and Open Class competition.
Through Olympus itself but also the Oregon Trail Rally (May), the Southern Ohio Forest Rally (June), and August’s Ojibwe, both Subaru teams put it all on the table, bringing home blistering pace and points. The Semenuk/Williams and Pastrana/Gelsomino titles mark Subaru’s 19th and 20th national championships of the last 25 years, respectively, with Pastrana/Gelsomino clinching the class title in 2025.
In the end, the 2025 season served as strong salute to Subaru’s rally heritage and competitive spirit. And while the ARA national season may have wrapped for 2025, Subaru Motorsports USA isn’t resting on its laurels. The 2026 season is just around the corner: ARA national rally competition kicks off again on February 6th, 2026, with the Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan. Stay tuned!
Keep up with all of the latest news, updates, and happenings by following Subaru Motorsports USA on Facebook, on Instagram @subarumotorsportsusa, and on TikTok @subarumotorsportsusa.
About Subaru Motorsports USA
Subaru Motorsports USA is directed by Subaru of America, Inc., managed by Vermont SportsCar and proudly supported by MOTUL, Yokohama Tires, R53 Suspension, Triple-R Lights, DirtFish Rally School, and Sparco USA. Follow the team online at www.subaru.com/motorsports.
Follow Subaru Motorsports USA on Facebook, on Instagram @subarumotorsportsusa, and on TikTok @subarumotorsportsusa.
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- Glad to see that the LSPR is really taking off. I race oval track and would love to get to drive a rally car one day. One of the coolest events up here.- It was so cool meeting Rhi at overland expo east where she taught us all about Rally!
- Let's go Subaru, please get back to WRC and bring STI back to Europe 🤟🤟🤟😍 Travis is just legend, hope to see him and Lia Block getting some seat time together 😊😊
- Cool that they got the WRX dialed. I just don't feel like the new WRX has the soul from the gen3 and older versions.
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