That, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done.
Last weekend, the Subaru Rally Team USA went up to Oregon for the 2014 Rally America Mt. Hood Rally. The dominating duo of David Higgins and Craig Drew got off to a decent start, but found themselves a couple minutes behind teammates Travis Pastrana and his co-driver Chrissie Beavis in first.
In one of the first turns during Stage 6, Higgins hit the left-rear of the car and ended up de-beading the tire on the wheel. The stage was roughly 15 miles total, with the raw Method wheel having to face nearly 14 miles of rocks, jumps (as seen above and below) and speeds over 100mph.
Due to some recent structural improvements, the wheel held up amazingly well and only caused Higgins to lose minimal time to the leader Pastrana.
It may not look pretty, but all parties involved were ecstatic that the wheel held up like it did. The inner-rim remained round and held tough through Higgins' torture test.
Going into the last day of the race, Higgins and Drew had brought Pastrana and Beavis' lead down to under a minute. After the first two stages, they were within seconds of one another. Pastrana and Beavis ran into some unfortunate problems with two tire punctures, allowing their teammates to take the lead.
This win is a big one for Higgins; his fourth Mt. Hood Rally win IN A ROW!
Catch the Subaru Rally Team at their next race May 30-31st for the Susquehannock Trail Rally in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. If you prefer Redbull Global RallyCross, you're in luck as well. The first race of their season is in Barbados May 18th!