The 2009 season saw many superb performances by SUBARU Impreza Group N machinery around the world. The Group N category cars define competitive boundaries with their restriction on the range of modifications allowed. The highest-ranked series that uses Group N machinery is the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship (P-WRC). The 2006 series champion, Qatari national Nasser Al-Attiyah, finished this season as the highest-placed SUBARU runner with two victories, in Argentina and Italy, netting him third in the standings. Japanese ace Toshi Arai regained his pace from the mid-season, finishing the final round in GB in second place, and boosting his position in the series standings to fifth. While Swedish star Patrik Flodin struggled with many accidents, he also set several fastest times, demonstrating his natural speed and finishing seventh in the series’ rankings. Another promising result came in Australia when wild card guest drivers Richard Mason (New Zealand) and Cody Crocker (Australia) finished in second and third respectively, who were threatening the series’ regular drivers.

The category beneath the P-WRC is the myriad of FIA regional championships. The FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) saw Cody Crocker competing with the latest model of SUBARU Impreza. He won all six rounds he nominated and became first driver ever to take the title four times in a row. The FIA Middle-East Rally Championship (MERC) saw a close-fought battle for the title until the very end of the season, the crown eventually going to Nasser Al-Attiyah in the latest model Impreza, resulting in his sixth title in the series. Zimbabwean James Whyte achieved his long-waited dream of becoming FIA African Rally Champion. Another SUBARU runner, Argentinean Raul Martinez took the FIA Codasur Rally Championship, proving the genuine speed of the SUBARU Impreza amongst a top field.

Each of the National Championships is another area where the SUBARU Impreza WRX STI has been showing its performance. In the early part of the season in July, Charl Wilken secured the Group N title for the second time in a row in the South African Rally Championship. Meanwhile Swedish hotshoe Patrik Flodin took four consecutive victories from the opening round of the Russian Rally Championship and became the first non-Russian champion in the highly demanding series. In the Finnish Rally Championship, young Jari Ketomaa brought home the first Finnish title for SUBARU even before the final round. Also in Norway, Andreas Mikkelsen showed extraordinary speed, occasionally threatening even the World Rally cars on his way to taking the Group N title in that series. The Canadian Rally Championship where a SUBARU runner became champion as Patrick Richard took the fourth Canadian title of his career. In the United States, Travis Pastrana ran a more modified machine in the Open Class of the Rally America National Championship (RANC), taking his fourth title in a row. Other SUBARU runners, Otto Tanak from Estonia, Florian Gonon from Switzerland and Adruzilo Lopes from Portugal also claimed national titles in their SUBARU Impreza Group N machines.