Now that L'estage and Richard will be driving

Good for Antoine L'estage, I'm happy for him. Just goes to show the rest of us mere mortals how hard it is to make it in Rally (and pro motorsports in general, for that matter). Even a seasoned, champion driver like L'estage has a hard time getting factory support/backing. I wish him success.

I think even if L'estage has success with a Subie, I'm not sure that Subie would be commmited long term to fielding two Rally America teams. They already have Higgins, who's the multiple defending champ,and who currently leads in the championship. Add to that the fact that they are also fielding three drivers in Rallycross...

If L'estage is not successful in a Subie, Subie will pull their support, plain and simple.

isn't it VT sports car that backs higgins? not subaru?

My understanding is this: Subaru picks the drivers and funds money to a racing team (Vermont Sports Car in this case) to build/maintain the cars and run the races. I'm sure Subaru also provides technical knowledge/support as well.

I've noticed that for each of its racing teams, Subaru likes to pick one or two well known "celebrity" type drivers, and then one "Pro" championship level driver. It's all marketing, so they want their celebrity drivers to generate hype and get Youtube-style hits/hype, and then they can have their pro driver get wins for people to further take notice.

Examples
Rally America:
David Higgins (Pro)
Dave Mirra (Celebrity, Mirra switched to Rallycross this year though)

Rallycross:
Severe Isaachsen (Pro)
Dave Mirra & Bucky Lasek (Celebrity)

its good news for Anoine/Nathalie ...

and also Dillon Van Way is using a STI for the last 2 rounds for Rally America.