Semenuk extends Oregon Trail Rally lead on Sunday morning

The Subaru Motorsports USA driver wins all four stages on the first loop of the final day

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Subaru Motorsports USA’s Brandon Semenuk is now five minutes clear of the opposition on the Oregon Trail Rally with five stages left to go.

The American Rally Association National points leader came into the final day with an advantage of 3m57.4s over fellow Subaru WRX STi driver Jeff Seehorn, and won all four stages on the Sunday morning loop.

The day began with the Boyd Loop Very Short test, which was in fact six miles long, and Semenuk added 20.3s to his lead. On the shorter Shadow Buck stage he set the pace by 12.9s over Samuel Albert, with Seehorn 1.8s further back in third place.

Nobody struck back on the first pass through Nagle’s Revenge, which completed a run of three stages scheduled very closely together, and Semenuk led Albert by 7.7s. Seehorn dropped 16.7s to the rally leader, and saw his gap over Albert in second place reduced to 11.7s.

He responded on the longer Starveout stage, growing the gap out by 13.1s but at the same time being outpaced by Semenuk to the tune of 30.8s.

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Javier Olivares started the day in fourth place, already six minutes off the lead, and maintained that position through the morning despite being no higher than sixth fastest on any of the four stages in his Ford Fiesta Rally3.

Through Starveout it was Lia Block, daughter of the late Ken, who was fourth fastest in her Subaru BRZ and she is currently seventh in the overall National classification.

Leading the Regional runners is Andy Miller, whose only stage win of the day came on Starveout but is still 1m26.8s clear of closest rival Todd Hartmann. Two stage wins for Steven Redd, who has had two co-drivers through this weekend, means he is now only 2.3s behind and hungry to move back into a second place he held earlier in the rally.

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