Subaru Rally Team USA is pleased to announce today the selection of VP Racing Fuels products for their 2010 rally campaign.  The partnership includes VP Fuels being designated the Official Fuel of Subaru Rally Team USA.  Subaru Rally Team USA, managed by Subaru technical partner Vermont SportsCar, is headed by four-time defending Rally America National Champion Travis Pastrana and BMX legend Dave Mirra. The team is scheduled to compete in the six event 2010 Rally America National Championship, ESPN’s X Games 16 Rally Car Racing event as well as Rally America’s three all-new European-style RallyCross exhibition events this fall.

For the first time since its inception in 2006, the Team O’Neil Rally (TON Rally) will be held in the Spring. The competition will take place Saturday, May 8th. The TON Regional Rally has typically drawn between 15-30 competitors and 250+ spectators each year. However, with this year’s event taking place at a much more hospitable time of year, Team O’Neil is expecting their biggest turn out ever. “Winter rallies are fun, but we’re expecting the warm weather to be a bigger draw for both competitors and spectators,” explained Kathy Moody, organizer of the Team O’Neil Regional Rally.

The nation’s top teams are coming to the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood set in the beautiful woods of the surrounding Salem, Steelville, Potosi, and Viburnum areas of southern Missouri. The 100 Acre Wood Rally is the second rally in the Rally America National Championship Series. Fans can expect a fierce battle for the overall lead.  Four-time defending champion Travis Pastrana of Subaru Rally Team USA comes to the 100 Acre Wood Rally as the overall National points leader after winning the Sno*Drift Rally last month in Atlanta, Michigan.

Despite a small entry of only three SUBARU cars in the season-opening Swedish Rally, drivers Patrik Flodin and Anders Grondal secured the top two spots in the Production class after three days’ rallying in the snow. Right from the opening stages on Friday, local driver Flodin maintained his position as leader of the P-WRC, never having to push too hard to stay in the top spot. New suspension settings on the morning of Day two made the car very bouncy at the front, but this was safely remedied at the lunchtime Service.

Rally Car Racing returns for X Games 16 as one of the most exciting events on the schedule. With increased ticket sales and television ratings, Rally Car Racing is a fan favorite. Drivers from the Rally America National Rally Championship series will once again be invited to compete in ESPN’s Summer X Games 16 competition, the leading action sports event broadcast live on ESPN. Rally America, Inc. will be the sport organizer for the X Games 16 Rally Car Racing event. The selection criteria for the twelve athletes receiving an invitation for Rally Car Racing at X Games 16 is as follows:

Officials with Rally America, Inc., the premier sanctioning body for Performance Rally competition in North America, announced today that HAWK Performance Brakes has joined a growing list of sponsors in the popular Rally America Contingency Program for the 2010 Rally America National Rally Championship. Based in Solon, Ohio, Hawk Performance brand disk brake pad products are owned and manufactured by Wellman Products Group, the world’s leader in severe-duty friction products. For nearly a century the Wellman Products Group has engineered and manufactured severe-duty friction products for brakes, clutches, transmissions, and driveline components.

Officials with Rally America, Inc. announced today that EXEDY USA has returned as a sponsor of the popular Rally America Contingency Program for the 2010 Rally America National Rally Championship. Based in Belleville, Michigan, EXEDY is the undisputed world leader in sports and performance racing clutches. EXEDY Globalparts Corporation (USA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the EXEDY Corporation of Japan. EXEDY (Japan) was founded in 1923 and its clutch manufacturing business and prominent brand name Daikin Clutch are known throughout the world for supplying quality powertrain products.

DC Co-Founder, Chief Brand Officer and Rally team driver, Ken Block, debuted his 2011 Ford Fiesta complete with a fresh new design and graphics this past weekend at the Sno* Drift Rally in Atlanta, MI. Check out Ken’s new ride and footage from this weekends race at http://auto.dcshoes.com/features/ken-block-monster-world-rally-team/. A collaborative effort between Ken and DC, the new car features an overall paint drip graphic that is an evolution from designs on Ken’s prior cars. For the finishing touches, Ken selected Huck Gee, known for his evil skull illustration and Kid Robot toy, to create a personalized KB logo treatment on the car including Huck’s signature skull re-done into a block shape for a play on Ken’s last name, and a # 43 plate on the side of the car.

Able Planet joins the Rally America team as a Contingency Sponsor of the 2010 Rally America National Championship to provide financial support to the organization and award valuable prizes to this year’s competitors who will be eligible to receive a wide range of award-winning headphones and headsets with Able Planet’s patented technologies that provide superior sound quality and speech clarity. Kicking off the 2010 Rally America National Rally Championship season, 2009 Super Production National Champion Jimmy Keeney returns to defend his title with new co-driver Jason Grahn as they gear up to compete in this year’s Sno*Drift Rally in northern Michigan. Driving the Able Planet Super Production Rally Car, a 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STi, the Keeney/Grahn team plan to enhance last year’s strategies that helped Jimmy and Melissa Keeney win the 2009 Rally America Super Production Championship.

Porsche Works Driver Wolf Henzler and returning Team Falken Driver Bryan Sellers will lead the tire company’s expanded race program, driving a brand new 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the full nine-event American Le Mans Series GT2 class. This will be the third year for Team Falken, and its most aggressive to date.  “We’re using the ALMS to compete against our competitors as well as utilize the highly organized race program as a formal testing ground for continued tire development,” said Mark Richter, Falken Senior Manager of Dealer Marketing.  “As we compete throughout the season, we will build upon race and test data learned from our efforts with last year’s Porsche.”

The Impreza N2010 uses the new larger 33mm air restrictor, introduced by the FIA to help balance the performance of Group N and the unrestricted Super2000 rally cars.  Increasing the restrictor diameter from 32 to 33mm, fitting high flow fuel injectors and recalibrating the ECU increases peak power by 20 bhp, but more significantly, improves torque and responsiveness throughout the rev range.

Subaru of America, Inc. announced today increases to its contingency award payouts for Subaru drivers in the 2010 Rally America National Championship.  The Subaru Rally Support Program, which was created in 2005, continues to be the most lucrative contingency program in North American rallying, with over $20,000.00 available per event for eligible Subaru drivers to earn. The program will again focus support on the popular Super Production class (SP) within the Rally America National Championship where the top finishing eligible Subaru SP driver can now earn $7,000.00 at each round.

Nitto Tire and sponsored driver Ryan Gates recently clenched the 2009 Redline Time Attack series championship. The team competed in the Modified All-Wheel Drive (AWD) class, which requires all drivers to use off-the-shelf, street legal tires. Using Nitto’s NT01 road race radials equipped on a Mitsubishi Evo X, the team attended seven of the eight events and won each event they attended. This is Nitto’s first Redline Time Attack championship.

Subaru Rally Team USA announced today that reigning four-time Rally America National Champion Travis Pastrana and BMX Freestyle legend Dave Mirra will both return as factory team drivers. Subaru Rally Team USA will contest the entire 2010 Rally America National Championship, ESPN’s X Games 16 Rally Car Racing event as well as participate in Rally America’s new and highly anticipated European-style rally cross exhibition events.  Pastrana and Mirra will each pilot a 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car prepared by Subaru technical partner Vermont SportsCar.

A Two-Wheel-Drive Championship to run in parallel with the All-Wheel-Drive Championship as it has for the previous two years.  National Championship titles will be awarded to winning drivers and winning co-drivers. The United States Rally Championship has introduced many innovations and advancements into the US rallying by allowing great latitude in the way the events are organized and presented. USRC’s streamlined schedule and strategic locations make it the right choice for competitors.