David Higgins brought the curtain down on another American Rally Association title-winning season in Michigan at the weekend.

The Manxman wrapped up his 10th US national rally championship crown in the series’ previous round, meaning the pressure was off heading into the Michigan’s Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR).

Subaru USA team-mate Oliver Solberg took the LSPR event win as Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew were forced to retire from the event after setting the early pace.

Higgins came out of the gate fast on Friday, winning the first four stages of the day to build a lead over Solberg and the rest of the field.

Unfortunately, his car struck a tree stump on stage five, damaging the left front suspension and putting the win out of reach.

Swede Solberg inherited the lead and began collecting stage wins through Friday’s night stages, building a lead of more than a minute over second-place driver Barry McKenna by the end of the first day.

With a consistent and fast drive on Saturday, Solberg and co-driver Aaron Johnston brought home the first-place trophy and earned enough points to move into third in the final championship standings.

Higgins said after the event: ’From the beginning of the season our focus has been on the championship.

’Of course it’s disappointing not to end the season with the performance we wanted, especially here at LSPR where we’ve won in the past, but I’m very proud to have earned my 10th title.

’We put together strong events when we needed to, and lots of credit to Craig and the rest of the team for all their hard work this year as well.’

Subaru has now won 13 of the last 14 American rally titles dating back to 2006, including a remarkable eight by Higgins and Drew during their nine-year run with the team.

With Higgins’s ARA driver’s title and the Americas Rallycross (ARX) team championship secured earlier this month, Subaru Motorsports USA becomes the first team ever to win US national championships in both rally and rallycross disciplines in the same year.