Semenyuk won his first ARA – DirtFish title

Brandon Semenyuk won the 2022 ARA presented by DirtFish National Championship, earning his first national title.

Semenyuk had been rallying behind Ken Block in the championship, but life was made much easier for him after Ken Block crashed on Friday’s penultimate stage.

Block was originally expected to restart on Saturday, but that did not happen after it was revealed that the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC had suffered significant damage to its suspension, frame and roll cage.

With Blok out for the rest of the stages, it meant a little less pressure on Semenyuk as he looked to win his first title, although he still needed to finish at least second and then perform well on the power stage.

But when Saturday started, it was Semenyuk’s teammate Travis Pastrana who stole all the headlines.

He started Saturday 29.7 seconds behind Semenyuk, but by stage 10 he had cut that gap to just 12.2 seconds. However, his pursuit of the lead was derailed on SS11 when Pastrana suffered a throttle problem, allowing Semenyuk to recover by 17.3s.