As the Friday night darkness descends over the frozen fields of Michigan, Brandon Semenuk will fire up his Subaru WRX to begin a third consecutive defense of his ARA National Championship presented by Kubota crown.
And the good news this year? The snow’s back in the Sno*Drift. Last month Sébastien Ogier talked about the final day of the Monte Carlo Rally sporting the right livery, showing its true colors. That’s when the snow came. It’s the same story in Atlanta this week.
Last year’s colors were all wrong. It was a snow no-show, a February gravel rally.
“But it was super-fun,” smiled Semenuk. “It was pretty much full gravel and mud, but honestly these roads, in those conditions, were really good. Secretly, I was hoping for that again, but we’ve got some snow and some snow in the forecast. Hopefully that will keep conditions fun here. Obviously, when it gets icy, the speeds come down, and it’s not quite as cool and enjoyable from a driver’s standpoint.”
Subaru’s Canadian star won the last snowy Sno*Drift in 2023 and only a broken gearbox on the penultimate stage kept him off the podium’s top step the year before.
He knows how to win this one, whatever colors its wearing.
Semenuk is a previous winner of Sno*Drift but hasn't really driven the new Subaru on snow yet
“It’s one of those rallies where you’ve got to pick and choose where you take risk,” he said. “If you’re trying to send it everywhere, you’re going to get caught out. It’s just classic Sno*Drift. You’ll get stuck in the snowbank.”
While he might know the conditions, he doesn’t know the car in a snow-set-up – a legacy from last season.
“When we showed up last year, we were expecting to find the right set-up for the snow and work through it on that event. That didn’t happen,” he recalled. “We did a one-day test in the snow, but we haven’t really driven the car in those conditions. There’s still lots to learn and we need to get the balance – I think we can still find more grip in the car, but it still feels quite foreign.”
Semenuk’s will be the only factory WRX at round one, with Travis Pastrana’s campaign still being defined for this season.
Conner Martell drives a second VSC-run, 2015-specification Subaru – the same car he used to lead last year’s season-closing LSPR. Despite the car being 10 years old, he feels this could be his best opportunity to beat the works car.
Martell is hoping to cause an upset in his older WRX
“With the downforce and aero package the new car has, it works very well on the gravel,” Martell explained. “That car is a very point-and-shoot type of car, whereas this one you’re sliding around a lot, so we can’t carry the speed in and through the turns like they can. Here, there’s just no grip, so they can only go as fast as we can, realistically – the aero doesn’t help them so much.”
But before he starts thinking about winning, there’s one aspect of the event that’s more fundamental for Martell.
“Honestly, just staying on the road,” he smiled. “The packed snow provides pretty good grip, more than I was expecting but it’s pretty sketchy under braking. As soon as me and Brandon [Semenuk] had done four runs each [on the test road], I was shocked at how slippery it was. It really polished. Coming out of corners on the first runs we were on 80% throttle, but then in the same corners on the later runs we were using like 20 or 25%…”
Hyundai i20 R5 driver Pat Gruszka is back for what he hopes will be the start of a full season, having only competed sporadically last year.
“I’m sort of learning the car again,” he said. “This time it’s a little easier, working with the team we know more about the set-up. Any time you have snow here, it’s a good year – it’s not so much fun with the mud. There’s the chance for some more snow coming, maybe a snow storm, that could make it interesting. But I just hope there’s no rain, if it rains [and freezes] every tactic, all your strategy goes out of the window and anything can happen.”
Nick Allen is back to chase L4WD honors in his Ford Fiesta Rally3, with private Subaru drivers Ele Bardha and Jimmy Pelizzari ready to put up a fight. Alastair Scully steps up from a front-wheel drive Fiesta to an open Mitsububishi Mirage, with Cameron Steely also ready to feature at the front of the battle in his Ford Focus.
Sno*Drift gets underway at 6pm (local time) on Friday, with two loops of four stages on the first night, before Saturday afternoon’s longer leg. The opening ARA National Championship presented by Kubota round includes 17 stages and 118 stage miles.
