Subaru Motorsports USA’s Brandon Semenuk heads into the final day of the Oregon Trail Rally leading by almost four minutes.
The American Rally Association National points leader won all four stages of Saturday’s second loop, kicking things off with a 33.7-second victory over fellow Subaru WRX STi driver Jeff Seehorn on the second pass through Dalles Mtn Up.
He was then 32.4s faster than everyone else on The Great Horseshoe, with Sam Albert being his closest rival, before the scale of his advantage reduced on the two shorter stages that ended the day. He led Albert by 15.1s on Oak Flat Reverse and by 5.8s on Maryhill.
With nine stages to go he now leads the rally by 3m57.4s over Seehron, with Albert a further 18.9s behind. George Plsek had ran in fourth before he came to a rally-ending stop on SS8, promoting Javier Olivares into the position.
The margins were far closer in the ARA Regional classification, although the Subaru Impreza-driving Andy Miller looks as unchallenged as Semenuk for the overall victory. He won SS7 by 5.7s over Todd Hartmann, who was fastest on SS8 by 1.3s. Miller returned to stage-winning form on SS9, by 1.6s over Steven Redd, then capped things off with a 3.5s win over Hartmann on SS10.
While that puts Miller 1m29.9s clear at the front, it does mean that there is a battle brewing for second place as nine seconds split Hartmann and Redd with eight stages remaining.
