Subaru Motorsports USA Fields the WRX ARA25 at the 2026 LSPR Season Finale

Source: Vermont SportsCar (vtcar.com), published October 6, 2026.

Subaru Motorsports USA is closing out the 2026 American Rally Association season the same way it has spent most of it: sideways, flat-out, and committed. With Travis Pastrana sidelined by injury, the team called up Conner Martell and co-driver Ross Whittock to pilot the Subaru WRX ARA25 at the Lake Superior Performance Rally in Marquette, Michigan on October 9–10. The route covers 123.07 stage miles across 16 stages, with tight forest roads, elevation changes, and the kind of hard braking that punishes any weak link in the system.

That last part matters. Rally is one of the most demanding braking environments on earth. The WRX platform has always leaned on its four-wheel drive traction story, but it is the brakes that keep a driver out of the trees on a downhill hairpin with no room to spare. The ARA25 is a dedicated race machine, purpose-built for exactly that. The road-going WRX STI generations it evolved from share the same fundamental architecture and the same ask of the braking system: stop fast, recover completely, and do it again for the rest of the stage.

The Kit: Paragon Competition Front Big Brake Kit for Subaru WRX STI (GC/GD/GR/VA)

The Paragon Competition Front Big Brake Kit for Subaru WRX STI (GC/GD/GR/VA) is built around the same core priorities as the ARA25's brake package: maximum swept area, consistent torque under heat, and a caliper that does not flex when things get serious. The kit centers on a 6-piston Paragon caliper paired with a large-diameter rotor and is priced at $2,650.

Six pistons across the front means the clamping load is distributed evenly across the full pad face, so you get consistent bite from the first corner and the last one. That matters on road stages where every stop is a commitment, and it matters on the track or a canyon road for exactly the same reason. The caliper is a genuine competition unit, not a cosmetically upgraded OEM replacement.

Visually, the setup fills a WRX STI wheel properly. If you have ever looked through a set of spokes at the stock single-piston sliding caliper and thought it looked a little lost, this is the fix. The six-piston body sits behind the rotor with authority, and on a car with the WRX STI's history, it belongs there.

The GC, GD, GR, and VA chassis share a long lineage with the kind of Subaru rally racing that Martell and Whittock are carrying into Marquette this weekend. Putting a proper competition brake kit on your road car is the most direct way to close the gap between what those cars are and what they were always meant to be.

See the Paragon WRX STI Competition Front Big Brake Kit at Alconkits →