Block, Martell, Gruszka, and More Invade Kentucky for Boone Forest Rally
- masonrunkel
- Aug 6
- 9 min read
(McKee, KY – August 5, 2025) ~ One of the newest events in the American Rally Association (ARA) East Region Championship is set to welcome a host of top-tier talent next weekend as teams descend on McKee, Kentucky, for the third annual Boone Forest Rally, running Aug. 8–9.
Classified as an ARA Super Regional, Boone continues to grow in popularity, with the 2025 edition attracting a record 33 entries across all six ARA classes.
Among those entered are ARA National Champions Lia Block—ARA’s youngest-ever class champion and daughter of rally and extreme sports icon Ken Block—Patrick Gruszka, and Seamus Burke. They, along with ARA National Championship Presented by Kubota regulars including Conner Martell and Michael Hooper, will take on Kentucky’s twisting back roads, evoking the daring spirit of the region’s moonshining past.
The organizing committee, Backroads of Appalachia, has prepared a two-day, 12-stage itinerary covering 74 high-speed competition miles through the iconic Daniel Boone National Forest.
Festivities begin Friday, Aug. 8, with a parc exposé in downtown McKee, before SS1, “Turkey Foot,” kicks off at 2:17 p.m., followed immediately by a second running of the same stage.
After service, teams will head back out to run “Hale Ridge” and “White Ash” back-to-back, each run twice, before ending the day with a second parc exposé in Beattyville.
On Saturday, teams begin with a parc exposé in Livingston before heading out for two runs each of “Poplar Gap” and “New Hope Tower.” After mid-day service, they’ll finish the rally with “S Tree Tower” and “Mill Creek,” then wrap up the weekend with an awards ceremony and parc exposé back in McKee around 7:45 p.m.
With a mix of national stars and local favorites on the entry list, the Boone Forest Rally is shaping up to be one of the standout regional events of the 2025 season.
Lia Block Makes Rally Return at Boone
Of all the notable names on the Boone Forest Rally entry list, none is more recognizable than 2023 Open 2-Wheel-Drive class (O2WD) National Champion Lia Block. This weekend marks her third start in an all-wheel-drive car, and her first rally appearance since last year’s Lake Superior Performance Rally, where she competed in the Open 4-Wheel-Drive class (O4WD) in a Subaru Motorsports USA WRX STI.
Block returns to action in Kentucky behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally car, this time in the Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) class, taking a small detour from her current career path with the Williams Racing Formula 1 team.
“It’ll be great to see Lia back on the loose again. I think everybody knows she – and the whole family – has a great history in rallying, and I’m sure she’ll enjoy herself,” said Derek Dauncy, who oversees Block’s career development
“There’s no doubt that Lia’s focus remains very firmly fixed on open wheels. We’ve got to thank Williams [Racing] for the forward-thinking approach to this event – taking experience from any kind of competition is going to help develop you as a driver. It’s not rocket science to know there’s little comparison between a forest road in Kentucky and Tarzan corner at Zandvoort – but such are the minuscule margins in the F1 Academy, everything can help,” he told ARA media partner DirtFish.
Block’s biggest competition in the L4WD class comes from none other than two-time Limited & Naturally Aspirated 4WD (LN4) National Champion co-driver KJ Miller, who will pilot his 2004 Subaru WRX STI co-driven by Aris Mantopoulos. While Miller is best known this season for calling notes in Javier Olivares’ Ford Fiesta Rally2, he returns to the driver’s seat for Boone. He won his class and finished second overall at the 2024 Show-Me Rally.
Also joining the L4WD field are several familiar names. James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis return in their 2004 Subaru WRX after taking the class win at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR). Tom Mayer is also back in his 2002 Subaru WRX; he was leading the class at STPR before trouble ended his run early, but is a defending podium finisher from last year’s Boone Forest Rally, where he placed third overall. For this weekend’s event, Mayer will be co-driven by Dillon McKenna.
“I’m really excited to get back out there on the Boone stages,” Mayer said. “Kentucky's support for rally has been tremendous the past few years, and they are able to close some unique sections of road that really make it feel world class. I don't think it's a secret anymore when you look at the entry list, the path back to the podium looks quite daunting!”
The fifth and final entry in the class, the 2008 Subaru WRX of Drew Staples and Glen Ray, is another strong podium contender. Staples has finished on the L4WD class podium in every rally he has started as a driver so far.
RC2 Contenders Aim to Challenge for Overall Victory
The biggest threat for the overall win at Boone is two-time defending event winner Conner Martell, alongside co-driver Alex Gelsomino. While Martell’s previous victories came in an Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD) Subaru WRX, this weekend marks his second start in the 2C Compétition-supported Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. His debut in the Škoda was cut short at Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR), but he’s back and ready to prove himself in the nimble chassis on the flowing roads of the Bluegrass State.
“I look forward to the Boone Forest Rally every year,” Martell said. “I've been coming to this event from the start, and I believe it has some of the best rally roads in America. The fans and spectators are always amazing, and it seems like it grows each year. It has very fast flowing stages and some awesome tarmac sections as well.
“Last year Alex and I went off the road at a pretty high speed, luckily not doing any real damage to the car. We were able to get back onto the road to finish the stage and actually still won the stage. I'm looking forward to being in the Skoda Fabia Rally2 car this year and being on the top step of the podium again, making it three wins in a row at this amazing event.”
Looking to challenge for the top spot, RC2 entries from RC COMPETITION and the Green APU Rally Team are also expected to be front-runners.
In the RC COMPETITION entry, Javier Castro returns to the ARA for the first time since the 2021 Oregon Trail Rally, where he impressed with the Toyota Etios R4 and finished second in the RC2 class.
“After three years away from the rally stages, we are making our comeback with a car we've poured our passion into: our Audi A1 Maxi Rally,” Castro said. “This vehicle has been meticulously developed with Roberto Iglesias, and we're proud of the strong results it's already shown in the national championship.”
The London, Kentucky-based team is excited to be bringing their Audi to the stages for their hometown event, as they continue in their mission to grow the sport at the R4 level.
Meanwhile, 2023 RC2 National Champion Patrick Gruszka represents Green APU in his Hyundai i20 R5, and is hunting his first Boone win after finishing second in every running of the event so far.
Big Guns Fill Out the Two-Wheel-Drive Field
The biggest classes at Boone Forest Rally will be Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) and Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD), with nine entries each.
As a treat for rally fans and everyone’s ears, the V8-powered Ford Escort Mk2 of multi-time national champion Seamus Burke is back on the Kentucky stages, ready to sling gravel around every corner. Boone will also play host to the latest chapter of the now-famous battle between Burke’s Escort and the Lexus IS350 of Michael Hooper.
Both drivers are top-tier national competitors gunning for the class win in Kentucky, but they’ll have to contend with a returning legend who could shake up the standings and steal the spotlight.
Doug E. Shepherd has a rally competition history dating all the way back to 1973 and boasts more than half a dozen national-level championships as a driver. Among them are three consecutive G5 class titles in Rally America from 2003 to 2005 — the class equivalent to today’s O2WD.
Shepherd earned those championships behind the wheel of a factory-supported Dodge Neon SRT-4, a car that became iconic before its shell was destroyed at the 2006 X Games. Now, nearly two decades later, new life has been breathed into the legendary machine.
For the past two years the DS Rally 2.0 team fielded a rebuilt Dodge Neon SRT-4, just like the factory one from 20 years ago, but with Shepherd’s son, Doug B Shepherd, at the wheel. This weekend, it’s the elder Shepherd behind the wheel, with his son as the crew chief and Boyd Smith on the notes.
“Some people slow down in retirement, I’ve instead doubled down on rallying,” Doug E Shepherd said, “performing the Clerk of the Course duties at Sno*Drift, LSPR, and Rally Colorado over many of the past twelve years, running ARA for a few years and then restarting my driving and car prep activities the last two years.”
“I consider Seamus Burke and Michael Hooper as the current 2WD benchmarks, since Ryan Booth graduated to a Rally 2 car. I look forward to seeing how well I can do against them at Boone. I have no expectations of beating them, but you never know... I’m rallying for fun these days – not to prove I’m the fastest. I did that 40 years ago, and now I just want to drive a clean rally and finish with a sense of satisfaction that I haven’t totally lost my skills.”
Despite rallying purely for fun these days, Shepherd has proven he still has the pace. In the three rallies he’s entered in recent years, he’s won the O2WD class twice and was running with top-five pace at this year’s SOFR, until a broken half-shaft forced the team to retire.
Other notable podium threats in the O2WD field include Rally Ready Driving School’s Dave Carapetyan in his monstrous V8-powered Chevrolet Colorado, as well as 2024 L2WD Champions Richo Healey and Michelle Miller in their Lexus IS350.
In the L2WD field, Chris and Sara Nonack bring the Any% Subaru BRZ back out after their dominant class victory at last month’s STPR.
The three-time regional class champions are chasing a fourth title in 2025. While Sara Nonack leads the East Region co-driver standings in L2WD, Chris Nonack is currently tied for the lead in the driver standings with fellow Boone Forest Rally entrant Gabriel Nieves, who returns in the Honda of America Racing Team (HART) Acura Integra, this time co-driven by Cole Clements.
Both teams own two wins this season, but Boone marks the first time in 2025 they’ll face off head-to-head. With just one event remaining on the ARA East Region calendar after this, every point will matter.
The L2WD class also welcomes a first-time rallyist to the sport, as Kris Staples takes the wheel, co-driven by Crystina Coats,
J. Jon Wickens will be making his driving debut after more than 60 years of involvement in rallying, a journey that began when he worked checkpoints on the 1965 Press On Regardless Rally.
After co-driving for the first time at the same event in 1973, Wickens went on to navigate in 113 rallies through 2000. Since then, he has remained a fixture in the sport, working events across the United States.
Now, six decades later, he hops behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta in the L2WD class, ready to try something new from the driver’s seat.
“I decided the best way for me to celebrate 60 years of rallying is to drive my first rally,” Wickens said. I’m teaming up with another co-driver, Bob Martin. I will drive Friday, and he will drive Saturday. So here I am, a novice driver, just hoping to finish the rally.”
Finally, the grassroots spirit of the Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) class is alive and well, with six strong entries set to duke it out over two days of demanding stages.
Heavy Metal Motorsports’ Jon Kramer and Jason Smith will take on the Kentucky stages for the first time in their six-cylinder-swapped GC Impreza, starting first on the road in class.
Their main competition will come from the 1990 Subaru Legacy of Nathan Coulter and Bryce Proseus, who won the class in 2024 and finished third in 2023. Also expected to be in the mix are Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen, coming off back-to-back class podiums at STPR and SOFR in their 2001 Subaru Impreza.
Dan Shirley will be putting the No. 353 “War Weasel” Subaru Impreza through its paces, driving it 11 hours from Philadelphia to Kentucky, competing in the rally, and then driving it all the way back home.
He and co-driver Eric Eisele will also be tackling another challenge: Shirley’s first rally using pace notes he’s written himself.
“We’re expecting this to be a hardcore rally experience, and I am so grateful for the support we've gotten from the organizers, volunteers and other teams to make this crazy idea even a remote possibility,” he said.
Additional entries from Erik and Jordan Buetow, and Ian and Hailey McCarty will ensure a competitive class to the final stage.
~Mason Runkel for the ARA
