Last year, David Higgins took the Rally America National Championship in his very first year with Subaru Rally Team USA. This year, he’s back to contest for the 2012 championship, with returning co-driver Craig Drew.

The pair will campaign a Vermont SportCar-prepared 2012 Subaru WRX STI, beginning with next weekend’s Sno*Drift Rally in northern Michigan. Higgins and Drew will run the car in all six rounds of the 2012 Rally America season.

Higgins’ teammate from last year, X Games star Dave Mirra, will run a partial season with the team. Mirra’s focus will be on the Global RallyCross Championship in 2012, which has several conflicting dates with the Rally America calendar.

Excluding Higgins’ Rally America title from last year, the British driver has an impressive rally resume, including two SCCA ProRally Championships, a British Rally Championship and three Group N British Rally Championships.

Higgins says that the Subaru Rally Team USA has made great progress in the pre-season development of the car, and admits to having a great deal of confidence in it.

We certainly hope so, because there are over seventy cars registered for the season-opening Sno*Drift Rally. If 2011 was a dogfight, we don’t expect things to be any easier in 2012.