ATLANTA, MI -- The 2006 Rally America championship season is back in action later this month with the Sno*Drift rally, in north-central Michigan.

The competition will see over 50 powerful rally cars take on nearly 130 stage miles of ice and snow in the series’ only winter-weather event. The event starts in Lewiston on January 27th and finishes a day later in Hillman.

The entry list is looking strong. The two-car Subaru Team U.S.A. will make its official debut, with fan favorite Travis Pastrana and DC Shoes’ driver Ken Block behind the wheel of their recently upgraded Open Class WRX STis.

Matthew Iorio, who took second place at the 2005 Sno*Drift en route to the 2005 North American championship title, is also entered in a Subaru WRX.

But a handful of foreign entries will keep fans guessing to the last moments of this competition.

Canada’s Sprongl brothers, multi-time North American champions and experts on snow and ice, will cross the border to make a rare appearance in their Open Class Mitsubishi Evo VI. Driver Frank Sprongl drove to a blistering finish in a factory-supported production class Suzuki Swift in late November in snowy conditions at the Canadian season ender, Rally of the Tall Pines.

Fellow Canadian Andrew Comrie-Picard, an Edmonton native, is also expected to make a bid in the Open Class in a Mitsubishi Evo IV. The rally marks a return to the sport for the driver, who largely stepped away from competition in 2005 to host an automotive TV show in Canada.

Australian rally driver Andrew Pinker, who will contest the Rally America series in 2006 in a Group N Subaru Impreza STi, makes his first U.S. appearance at Sno*Drift. The driver got his start in 1992 after winning a competition that put him in the driver’s seat in that year’s Australian round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Australia. He has since driven around the world, earning success in the Spanish and British championships.

There is also word that Italian Alfredo De Dominicis will appear at this event, paired with American co-driver Mike Rossey. De Dominicis put in a strong performance during Rally America’s 2005 season ender in a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII.

Again this year, the rally offers the popular Nokian Tyres awards program. Six top finishers who run Nokian tires at this challenging event will earn a new set of tires.

The Sno and Drift Regional Rallies will run concurrently as part of the 2006 Rally America Central Regional Rally Championship.

The Rally America national championship is a challenging, all-season series comprised of nine events across the country, beginning with Sno*Drift in January and wrapping up 12 months later with the Reno Rally in Reno, Nevada.

For more information, contact J.B. Niday, Rally America Managing Director: (763) 553-2742. Jbniday(at)rally-america.com