From PA to MO: ARA Competitors Conquer Summer Regional Rally Double-Header

masonrunkel
Jul 15
8 min read

(Speedway, IN – July 14, 2025) ~ This past weekend, the American Rally Association (ARA) celebrated an exciting mid-summer doubleheader, with two events taking place 900 miles apart: the Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR), an ARA Eastern Championship Super Regional based in Wellsboro, Penn., and the Missouri Ozark Rally (MOR), an ARA Central Championship Regional located in Steelville, Mo.

Together, the events featured more than 200 competition miles across four race days, with 40 teams and nonstop excitement for fans and competitors alike. Both rallies wrapped up Saturday with podium ceremonies honoring the teams that came out on top, including some history-making performances.

Photo by Romulo Chagas — *Photo by* *Romulo Chagas*

Cessna Flies Through STPR for First Overall Win

STPR debuted a new three-day format for 2025, beginning Thursday evening with a parc exposé followed by a Super Special Stage tailor-made for spectators at the Tioga County Fairgrounds.

All 29 rally cars that signed up to brave the Pennsylvania stages gathered under clear skies to race into the sunset Thursday evening, before embarking upon the 129 competitive miles that awaited them on Friday and Saturday.

Coming out on top after the 0.65-mile fairgrounds stage was the Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel Drive (NA4WD) 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX of Greg Healey and Boyd Smith, who put 0.5 seconds between themselves and in-class competitors Andrew Williamson and Julia Stewart in their 1993 Subaru Impreza. Derek James and KJ Miller rounded out the top three in their Open Two-Wheel Drive (O2WD) Ford Fiesta, also leading their class.

As is often the case when a spectator stage starts a rally, the leaderboard saw big changes Friday morning when competitors hit SS2, the first forest stage.

Mike Cessna and Jamie Lambert jumped up four positions in their O2WD 1998 BMW M3 to take both the class and overall lead on SS2. Meanwhile, the NA4WD crew of Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen moved their 2001 Subaru Impreza from eighth to second overall, and the Limited Four-Wheel Drive (L4WD) 2002 Subaru WRX of Tom Mayer and Nick Luther advanced from sixth to third overall.

The leader board remained steady until SS4, when James and Miller climbed into third overall, only to suffer a gearbox failure on SS5. That same stage also brought trouble for Cessna and Lambert, who received a 90-second penalty for speeding on a transit, dropping them back to fourth.

Despite stiff competition from the four-wheel-drive entries, Cessna and Lambert recovered to power their BMW M3 back into the lead on the high-speed STPR stages. They retook the top spot on SS8 after Mayer and Luther suffered a mechanical retirement. They also overtook the L4WD entry of James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis, who moved into second overall, while Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Nguyen dropped back to 15th. Williamson and Stewart climbed back into the third and final spot on the overall podium.

After the final stage on Friday, the top positions held steady. On Saturday morning, teams tackled the iconic Waste Management stages, along with “Mill,” “Asaph Long,” and “Rattler.”

Through dense forests, tight hairpins, and the famous Waste Management Jump, the leaders held their ground through the final stage on Saturday night, allowing Cessna and Lambert to walk away with their first-ever overall rally win—and the first two-wheel drive overall victory in more than 40 years.

“To say we are beyond thankful is an understatement,” Cessna said. “This weekend we were able to not only take home first place in O2WD but also first place overall at STPR which hasn’t happened for a 2WD car since 1981!

“We would like to first give thanks to God for keeping everyone safe and bringing everyone home this weekend. Secondly, we would like to give credit to our wives for always supporting us in our crazy ideas. Thirdly, we would like to shout out our awesome crew; without them none of this would be possible. They’re the ones that make us be able to come out here and send it as hard as we can.

“Also, we thank all of the fans, volunteers, and many others who truly make this event such an epic experience! We thank our sponsors: Dress Right Dress, LIQUI MOLI, SKI, Fleet Force, Bella Freight, Haven Industries, Ava Logistics, and HOTSHOT107, and we offer a special shoutout to Indy Lambert and her driver Zac on their first ever rally finish! Super stoked for them and hope they caught the rally bug just like us.”

Emmons Hathaway and William Ross finished second in the O2WD class in their Honda Civic, while Gavin James and Jamie Beliveau rounded out the class podium in third.

Second overall, and first in the L4WD class, went to James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis in their Vilko Motorsports Subaru. The pair started second in class and stayed close to the leaders, Mayer and Luther, applying steady pressure until a mechanical failure took the lead car out of contention.

“Jamie and I are so excited to have finally earned our first overall podium together as well as a class win,” Curtis said after the rally. “This is made extra special as STPR is the home event of the Pryzbylkowski brothers. The progress and speed Jamie has unlocked over the past three years we’ve been competing together is nothing short of spectacular.”

“We owe a gigantic thank you to the Vilko Motorsports crew for all their hard work over the weekend, managing three cars for the first time, as well as the volunteers and organizers who helped put on a very fun rally.”

Behind them in second in L4WD was the 2007 Subaru STI of Niall Donnelly and Gage Gregory, while the 2005 Mitsubishi Evo of Joshua Girtain and Dustin Yarborough finished third on the class podium.

Third on the overall podium and first in the NA4WD class, Andrew Williamson and Julia Stewart earned their first class win and third overall podium with their performance at STPR in their 1993 Subaru Impreza, outperforming nine competitors in the rally’s largest class field.

“We lost most of first gear after the Thursday super special, leaving us feeling a bit handicapped the rest of the event,” Stewart explained. “However, gears two through five held together and carried us to the end!

“We also lost a lot of power on a few of the Friday stages, but fresh plugs and wires fixed that. So it's been a rally with a little mechanical excitement and a lot of mechanical sympathy. Overall, we're ecstatic to have finished and honored to stand at the podium. We couldn't have done it without help from all our friends and fellow competitors.”

Dan Shirley and Eric Eisele secured second place in the NA4WD class in their 2005 Subaru Impreza, while Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen rounded out the class podium in the highly competitive field.

Finally, in fourth place overall, Chris and Sara Nonack put the Any% Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD) Subaru BRZ at the top of the L2WD podium after a dominant rally, leading the entire time, and winning all but two stages in the process.

Sitting ten minutes behind the Nonacks in second place in L2WD, Tevfik Peker and Keegan Helwig showed impressive pace in their 2019 Ford Fiesta, building on the foundation they established when sharing the car for the first time at the Southern Ohio Forest Rally earlier this year.

The 1991 Nissan 240SX of Christopher Bersheim and Tyler Swartz finished third but showed strong pace, winning two stages outright in Bersheim’s first event back since 2019 and Swartz’s first event ever.

Rethy Takes First in ARA’s Return to Crawford County

Despite its one-day format, the Missouri Ozark Rally was one of the most anticipated regional events of the year. The 62-stage-mile, five-stage rally marked the first step back into Crawford County, Missouri, for the ARA since their last event there in 2021. The county is famous for its stages shared with the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood ARA National Championship event, including the beloved Cattle Guard Jump.

On Saturday morning, the 11 entered teams prepared by passing through technical inspections and conducting recce on the two stages they would be running: “KP to Ollie N,” and “Ollie South.”

Right from the start of SS1, the No. 890 NA4WD Subaru Impreza Wagon of Ryan Rethy and James Dallman took off into the lead. Fresh off an overall win at the 100 Acre Wood Regional Rally (run concurrently with the 100AW National back in March), they were clear favorites to win — and when it came time to race, they delivered.

Rethy and Dallman powered through all five stages, taking the class and overall win on each one, before standing victorious at the top of the podium at the Steeleville School Campus.

“The stages were great and consisted of some long straights, wide turns, but also twisty and narrow forest stages with a few jumps and hairpins mixed in,” Rethy said. “A little bit of everything!

“It was much more overgrown than in years past, which, combined with the heat, made focusing a challenge, but we were able to put together a clean weekend. We picked up the pace on the subsequent runnings of each stage and sent it over the reverse cattle guard each time. I really prefer the stage backwards!”

Just behind them in second place on each stage, Peter and John Farrow finished with a silver medal overall and gold in the L4WD class in their 2002 Subaru Impreza.

“We had a great time on Missouri's fast stages.” Peter Farrow said. “Running a night stage in the rain was wild! Big thanks to the volunteers and spectators that hung around in the woods until after 11 PM. I'm really excited that we grabbed our first overall podium. Congrats to Ryan Rethy. We're pumped to go to Ojibwe next!”

The L4WD class had a full podium, with all three entrants finishing the rally. Taylor Jessee and Matthew Myers came in second in their 2004 Subaru Impreza, while Douglas and Jeni Voss finished third in their 1993 Subaru Impreza L.

Jessee and Myers also made the overall podium, finishing third overall.

The busiest class of the rally was L2WD — often the most accessible due to its strict modification limits — so it’s no surprise that this class comprised nearly half the MOR field.

The BMW 323i of Calvin Cooper and William Ho took the lead on SS1. The 1971 VW Super Beetle of Doug Leibman and Kevin Schatz jumped into second but was quickly overtaken on SS2 by the 1988 VW Golf of Erik and Clarissa Votipka and the 2003 Ford Focus SVT of David Chenot and Eric Silkwood.

Despite the early setback, Leibman and Schatz moved back into podium contention when Chenot and Silkwood suffered a mechanical retirement on SS3.

In the end, Cooper and Ho took first in class, and fourth overall, followed by the Votipkas, with Leibman and Schatz rounding out the podium.

“It was great to be back in Crawford County, Missouri again,” Cooper said. “Ollie North was a familiar and challenging stage with the all-too-familiar cattle guard jump. I was determined not to shatter an oil pan on the jump.

“The heat was brutal this weekend, and the first couple stages felt like driving inside a sauna. We started the day with a moderate pace as we got used to the car. Incremental improvements throughout the day allowed us to improve our pace with each successive stage. Stage 3 was certainly a challenge for us as some fresh rain caused a foggy windscreen, and we got off the notes for several miles, costing us approximately two minutes. We were able get our pace back on stage 4 and 5 to finish out the day. We truly thank the organizers, volunteers and local community for putting on this event.”