Newly-crowned American Rally Association champion David Higgins suffered a disapointing end of the season as he slid out of the weekend’s Tour de Forest Rally.

Manxman Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew established a slim lead over Subaru team-mate Patrik Sandell early in the rally before being slowed by a mechanical issue which all but sealed Sandell’s path to victory on the treacherously slippery stages of western Washington.

The Tour de Forest Rally was effectively a new rally for all of this year’s entrants.

The event was revived after decades of dormancy, last run as a national championship event in 1983. The event featured 115 stage miles spread across 14 special stages on the tree-covered gravel roads south of Seattle, Washington. Typical Pacific Northwest weather soaked the stage roads early in the event, creating extremely slick conditions.

Higgins and Drew began the rally on a charge with the championship already secured at the series’ previous round.

Mid-Wales based Higgins went fastest on three of the first four stages to earn a slim lead over Sandell at the start of rally. On the subsequent loop of stages, however, Higgins’s car was hit with a turbo problem which reduced power and allowed Sandell to move into the lead.

After repairs Higgins was back on a charge and began to claw back some time from Sandell, but in pushing hard to make up time Higgins and Drew went off the road on stage 12.

Both were unharmed and their Subaru had minor damage, but the duo were unable to return to the road. Sandell would drive conservatively on the final stages to wrap up the win, with seven stage wins over the event’s 14 stages.

Sandell, a former Junior World Rally Champion, has now taken victory at all three ARA rounds he has entered this year, with victories at the Olympus Rally, Idaho Rally and now the season finale at the Tour de Forest.