Two Corners From Glory: Block Loses the ARA Title by 2 Points as Subaru Wins LSPR — and the WRC Is Coming Back to America
The 2026 American Rally Association title was decided two corners from the end of the final stage of the season: Lia Block suffered a double puncture at Lake Superior Performance Rally, dropped critical Power Stage points, and lost the championship to Seth Quintero by just two points — while Conner Martell won the rally outright for Subaru Motorsports USA in the WRX ARA25, filling in for the injured Travis Pastrana. And the finale landed in the biggest week for American rallying in decades: days earlier, the FIA confirmed the World Rally Championship returns to the United States in August 2027, for the first time since 1988.
The cruelest finish of the season
Block arrived at LSPR in Michigan's Upper Peninsula leading the championship, having headed the standings since June and having made history in August at Ojibwe Forests Rally, where she became the first woman to win an American national championship rally outright. Per DirtFish's post-rally account, she and co-driver Alex Gelsomino had the finale under control on the last stage — until a rock on the outside of a fast right-hander cut through both tires on one side of their Hyundai i20 N Rally2. They still reached the finish and the overall podium in third, but the lost Power Stage points flipped the title.
Quintero, a rally-raid driver in his first full season of stage rallying, finished second overall at LSPR with co-driver James Morgan in Toyota Gazoo Racing's GR Corolla Rally RC2. Across Toyota's debut ARA season he collected multiple podiums and two overall wins — enough, in the end, by two points. Gelsomino had already secured the co-drivers' title before the finale.
Subaru's stand-in stole the rally
The rally itself belonged to Subaru. With Pastrana still recovering from injuries sustained in a freestyle motocross practice incident, Conner Martell — a longtime Vermont SportsCar test driver — took the Open 4WD WRX ARA25 and, with co-driver Ross Whittock, won 12 of the 13 contested stages, including the Power Stage, setting new stage records along the way per Subaru's official recap. It was also payback: at the previous round in Tennessee, a mechanical failure had ended Martell's run while he was leading.
That matters beyond one weekend. The WRX remains the car to beat on an American rally stage, and Subaru's factory program just proved its depth — the substitute driver in the same car was the fastest combination in the field.
The bigger headline: the WRC is coming back
On October 8, the FIA approved a 15-round 2027 WRC calendar that includes Rally US on August 26–29, 2027 — round 11, and the championship's first American round since the Olympus Rally in 1988. RACER and other outlets report the event is expected to be based around Knoxville, Tennessee, with gravel stages in the Southern Appalachians of Tennessee and Kentucky, following a successful candidate event there in June. That location is reported, not yet official: the organizer says host locations, ticketing, and partnership details will be announced on October 27.
Put the two stories together and this is the moment American rally fans have waited a generation for. The domestic championship just produced a title fight settled by two points and a rock, a 20-year-old nearly became its first female overall champion, a factory Toyota program won the title in its debut season, Subaru's WRX won the finale — and now the world championship is coming to watch, and to compete, on American gravel.
What it means for the rest of us
Expect the ripple effects to be real ones. A home WRC round raises the profile of every ARA event on the calendar, gives U.S. teams and sponsors a world-stage target, and puts rally versions of cars in our catalog — the WRX and the GR Corolla — at the center of the sport's biggest story. If you have ever wanted to spectate a rally, next August in the Appalachians is shaping up to be the trip. Watch for the October 27 announcement for the confirmed host details and tickets.
The bottom line
Block's two-point loss will be talked about for years, and it should be — that is what a championship is supposed to feel like. Quintero and Toyota earned the title, Martell and Subaru won the rally, and American rallying just had its best week since the 1980s. The WRC returns in 2027. Start planning.