Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino of the Monster World Rally Team have claimed an emphatic victory on the Olympus Rally in Washington today. Block set a blistering pace from the outset leading the rally from start to finish and winning nine out of the event's ten special stages.

The World Rally Championship driver and Internet Gymkhana sensation's gradual return to North American rallying has been a triumphant one having also won Missouri's Rally in the 100 Acre Wood last February and Quebec's Rallye Defi earlier this month.

Block finished the dry, dusty Olympus Rally an astonishing 4 minutes 23.1 seconds ahead of reigning American champions David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew.

Higgins, who mathematically defended the American crown for Subaru at the New England Forest Rally in July, placed second on the provisional podium. Privateers Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard of the Rockstar Mitsubishi Rally Team finished Olympus third overall.

This weekend's Olympus Rally was the sixth and final event of the American championship's 2012 season calendar.

A decade ago Lauchlin O'Sullivan was the best 2WD rally driver in America. That includes the 2002 Group 2 title in the SCCA Pro Rally series.

This weekend at the Olympus Rally in Washington, O'Sullivan returned to the top spot on the Podium with enough points to claim the 2012 American Super Production title with co-driver Scott Putnam halfway through Olympus, the final event on the 2012 American rally championship calendar.

"It's pretty wonderful," said O'Sullivan. "It's one of the things we planned on doing when we got here."

With early season wins at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri and the Susquehannock Trail Rally in Pennsylvania, O'Sullivan and Putnam only needed to start the Olympus Rally to gain at least a tie for the 2012 championship. But when second place rivals David Sterckx and co-driver Karen Jankowski rolled their car on SS3 and failed to finish Olympus, the title was left to O'Sullivan and Putnam.

"It's been a lot of work over the year," Putnam said during the lengthy break Saturday afternoon. "It feels good. It'll make me sleep a little better eventually!"

Going into the one 20 mile stage on Sunday, O'Sullivan and Putnam were fourth overall and first in the Super Production category. Solidifying the championship Saturday morning didn't damper their resolve. After the Saturday afternoon break during the night stages, the team grew their category lead over Byron Garth and co-driver Chrissie Beavis from 40 seconds to 2 minutes and 41.5 seconds.

Listen to what O'Sullivan said: CLICK HERE

World Rally Championship driver and Internet Gymkhana video sensation Ken Block has an impressive lead at the Saturday break at the Olympus Rally in Washington, last event in the 2012 American rally championship.

After SS4 Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino have a 2:12.6 lead over two-time defending American rally champion David Higgins and his co-driver Craig Drew.

Block and Gelsomino won all four stages contested in the event Saturday morning. The schedule has been challenged by dry, dusty conditions. Rally officials had to build in an eight hour break Saturday afternoon because of the forest fire dangers in the region south of the Olympic Peninsula outside Olympia, Washington. The rally will resume with SS5 just before 7pm Pacific time tonight.

Block and Gelsomino have turned much of their rally attention to North America after two seasons of heavy competition on the World Rally Championship circuit. They won Rallye Defi in Canada three weeks ago. They scored four points in the WRC this season becoming only the second American team in a generation to score points in the highly competitive WRC.

Here's what Block had to say: CLICK HERE

2010 American rally champions Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard are looking at a long, dusty road to recover from a flat tire that finds them in fifth place at the Olympus Rally in Washington this weekend. It's the last event in the 2012 American championship.

L'Estage and Richard are the two-time defending Canadian rally champions where they have a substantial lead in the 2012 championship. Their next event is three weeks away at the Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, British Columbia. Still, this event was supposed to be a strong test among the best rally drivers in North America. After the flat on SS4, L'Estage and Richard trail Olympus Rally leaders Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino by 4 minutes 40.3 seconds.

Dry conditions outside Olympia, Washington have the rally this year running under a strange schedule. Most of Saturday afternoon will be spent in a break with SS5 not scheduled to start until nearly 7pm Pacific time.

Listen to what L'Estage said: CLICK HERE

Two-time defending American rally champion David Higgins and his co-driver Craig Drew are in for a fight this weekend at the Olympus Rally in Washington. It's the last event on the American rally championship calendar.

Higgins and Drew are in second after the first four stages of the event trailing rally leaders Ken Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino by 2 minutes and 12.6 seconds as the rally enters a lengthy break on Saturday afternoon because of dry, forest fire conditions south of the Olympic Peninsula outside Olympia, Washington's capitol.

Higgins said much of his problem came on the fourth stage, a fast, 20 mile test, that found him slamming into a rock just past the halfway point in the stage.

Listen to what Higgins said: CLICK HERE

CrazyLeo Urlichich attributes his crash at last weekend's New England Forest Rally to a bad pacenote.

Urlichich and co-driver Carl Williamson's 2007 Subaru Impreza 'Beast' STI went off the road and into a swamp on day two's opening stage forcing the crew to retire from the event while sitting comfortably in third overall.

CrazyLeo explained, “I made an unfortunate mistake in the recce and the note for the corner where we went off was way wrong. Too bad, but I don’t have any hard feelings because we already put in 110% work into everything we do. There’s nothing we could have done differently to prevent it. While it’s the same for everybody, proper two-pass recce is something the [American] championship needs.”

The Russian ex-pat's mistake in Maine cost him his chance to fight NEFR winner Antoine L'Estage for second place in the championship standings. L'Estage will mathematically secure that position upon taking the start of the Olympus Rally in September.

CrazyLeo will now contend for third place in the championship with Super Production class leader Lauchlin O'Sullivan, who closely trails Urlichich by five points with only one round in the Series remaining.

David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew have clinched their second consecutive American title with Subaru Rally Team USA at this weekend's New England Forest Rally in Newry, Maine.

Higgins finished the Series' penultimate event second overall just 21 seconds adrift of rally winner L'Estage, but only had to place sixth or better here to mathematically secure the championship before the final round in September, the Olympus Rally.

The Manxman's result in Maine is his third podium finish of the season having claimed second place at both 100 Acre Wood and Susquehannock Trail. He won Sno*Drift and Oregon Trail outright.

This championship marks the fourth American title of Higgins' career.

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Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard have claimed their third consecutive New England Forest Rally victory leading the two-day event in Maine from start to finish.

The Rockstar Mitsubishi crew gained an early advantage from their road position on Friday's dusty stages winning all four tests as a result and opening up an overnight gap of 32 seconds over championship rivals David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew. In addition, L'Estage set the new record for the 5.38-mile Concord Pond stage besting Ken Block's 2009 time by 9.9 seconds.

L'Estage managed his lead through Saturday's seven remaining stages keeping enough distance between himself and Higgins to collect his second American rally win in a row for the season. He is now poised to finish second in the overall championship standings at the Olympus Rally following CrazyLeo Urlichich's retirement from NEFR this morning due to a crash.

Higgins finished NEFR second overall 21 seconds adrift of L'Estage allowing him and co-driver Drew to mathematically clinch their second consecutive American title with Subaru Rally Team USA.

Canada's Ugo Desgreniers and co-driver Erik Kirby finished third provisionally.

Defending American champion David Higgins says he's frustrated by the lack of visibility caused by dry, dusty conditions at the New England Forest Rally.

The Subaru factory driver is 32 seconds behind rally leader Antoine L'Estage with seven stages set to run on day two but is not optimistic that conditions will improve on Saturday's Leg with no rain expected in the forecast.

Higgins is comfortably in second overall with a 58.7 second lead over CrazyLeo Urlichich and only needs to place sixth or better to clinch the championship.

Higgins explained that dust would linger in heavy clouds throughout sections of Friday's stages and become trapped by the trees with no wind to help clear the air. Despite Organizers granting top crews an extended time window on the afternoon stages, Higgins was still slowed down and unable to commit where he needed to.

Seven stages spread over approximately 48 miles remain for Saturday before teams return to the finish at the Sunday River Ski Resort in the late afternoon. All of the day two stages are new tests for the event.

Antoine L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard have a 32 second lead over 2011 American champion David Higgins and his co-driver Craig Drew after day one at the New England Forest Rally in Newry, Maine.

Four of the rally's eleven Special Stages were run today. The remaining tests will start Saturday morning and are all new stages. L'Estage, obviously, was pleased with Friday's stages having won all four and breaking Ken Block's record for fastest time on Concord Pond in the process.

L'Estage says competition now is himself as he fights to stay ahead of Higgins and win NEFR for a third straight year.

Listen to what he said at the end of day one here: CLICK

Higgins is comfortably in second overall with a 58.7 second lead over CrazyLeo Urlichich and co-driver Carl Williamson. He'll clinch the championship this weekend if he places sixth or better at NEFR.

Higgins said he was frustrated by the lack of visibility caused by heavy dust and that conditions could be just as bad if not worse on Saturday's Leg.

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