Peterke Recovers From Penalty for First ARA Regional Win at Headwaters
- masonrunkel
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
(Walker, MN. – May 18, 2025) ~ Despite earning a one-minute penalty for a late check-in at TC3, Dustin Peterke and Robert Judge claimed their first overall victory, and now hold the lead in the 2025 American Rally Association (ARA) Central Region Championship, at Saturday’s Headwaters Rally.
The pair faced off against 16 competitors in their NA4WD Subaru Impreza, tackling a 40-mile stage itinerary on Saturday afternoon through the beloved forest roads of Minnesota’s Paul Bunyan State Forest, near the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
Serving as a warm-up for the Ojibwe Forests Rally, round six of the ARA National Championship Presented by Kubota, the event featured a streamlined itinerary on many of the same roads, offering regional competitors a valuable preview of what’s to come while still delivering its own unique character and competition.
Peterke and Judge Win Second-Ever Rally
Peterke and Judge delivered an impressive performance at Headwaters Rally, claiming their first-ever overall win in just their second stage rally start. The pair made their stage rally debut at March’s Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, where they finished second overall among regional competitors, following several appearances in shorter Rallysprints earlier in 2024.
The pair came into Headwaters with high confidence and a clear goal in mind, indicating ahead of the event that their aim is to win the 2025 ARA Central Region Championship.
From the outset, it was clear the battle for the overall win would come down to Peterke and Judge, and the L4WD Subaru Impreza WRX STI of Silas Himes and Aleutian Hatfield, winners of the Nemadji Trail Rally in the same region last December.
At the end of the opening stage, the 7.59-mile “Spur 2,” the two cars were separated by just three seconds, with Himes and Hatfield holding the early lead. But Peterke and Judge responded immediately, taking a commanding 54-second win on SS2, then backing it up by consistently winning each of the remaining four stages by seven seconds or more.
In the end, despite having a one-minute penalty, Peterke and Judge took the win by one minute 20.9 seconds over Himes and Hatfield, who also earned a one-minute penalty for a late check-in, while the O2WD BMW 325 of Levi Johnson and Lars Anderson finished third.
Of course, Peterke and Judge also won the eight-car NA4WD class competition. Second place initially looked to be Stephen and Katherine Gingras in their 3.0L 1994 Subaru Impreza, until a three-minute time loss on the penultimate stage dropped them to fourth in class. This allowed Connor Himes (son of Silas) and Eliot Prusi in their 2001 Subaru Impreza to move into the runner-up position and take silver for the class at the end of the rally. Meanwhile, Richard Donovan and Andrew Rausch moved into third to round out the NA4WD podium.
In the L4WD class, while Silas Himes and Aleutian Hatfield took the win, Peter Farrow and Jackson Sedivy claimed second in their 2002 Impreza, and third went to Jason Cook and Maggie Tu in their 2002 Subaru WRX.
“It was a really special rally for us as so many of our family and friends were here watching, competing, or helping out in some way,” Himes said. “The whole race was great. We hit something on the inside of the corners on SS3, so we had things to attend to at service. The car got sorted out enough to continue, though, and everything else went really well. It was one of the best times I've had in a car since I raced with my brother Jake back in 2004.”
Ford and BMW Trade Stage Wins for O2WD Gold
Despite a modest four-car entry, the O2WD class delivered the closest racing of the event, with the 1986 BMW 325 of Levi Johnson and Lars Anderson battling tooth and nail against the 1974 Ford Capri of Mike Hurst and Randall Short for the class win.
Despite the many differences between the two cars, the damp Minnesotan roads proved to be a great equalizer, allowing the teams to battle closely throughout the event as they fought to gain time on each other.
Johnson and Anderson sprang to a 22-second lead over the first two stages with narrow wins on each, but Hurst and Short clawed back into contention on stages three and four, cutting the gap to just eight seconds.
Despite the Ford’s pace, the BMW regained control and won the final two stages to secure third overall and first in class, finishing 23.1 seconds ahead of Hurst and Short.
Griffin Johnson (my normal co-driver) got married and was on his honeymoon for this event, and Lars' normal driver (Matt Nykanen) decided to skip Oregon Trail from his National Championship pursuits, so it left Lars available to co-drive for me,” Johnson explained. “We've been friends a long time, and he's used to going fast in RWD, so we clicked pretty quickly in the car.”
“We've had lots of good battles with Hurst in the past, and we knew this one was probably going to be close. We've usually run these roads when they've been dry, but with the recent rain, there were quite a few slippery spots in corners.”
“We continued to run our race at our pace, committing a little more at the higher speed corners where we weren't as traction limited as in the soft, silty, slower corners.”
“Last year at Headwaters, we hit the crossroads jump so hard we ended up turning our chassis into a banana. We decided to be more cautious this year over the jump (sorry spectators).”
“We ended up edging out Hurst by about 20 seconds, placing first in class and third overall; a result we weren't expecting but are very happy with. In addition, we came home with some cash as a prize from a very generous donor in memory of our good friend Al Dantes, Jr. Overall, a cold, wet, but awesome event with some really great people.”
The front-wheel-drive contingent was represented by the 1987 VW Golf GTI of Josh Nykanen and Charlotte Himes (daughter of Silas and sister to Connor), who finished third in class.
Brent Lucio and Tim Kohlmann’s 2017 Fiesta also won the two-car L2WD class over the 1986 Volkswagen Golf GTI of Nino Ortega and Jason Hack.
A Pair of Rallying Firsts
One of the most notable entries at Headwaters was that of Anikka Nykanen and Danielle Kemp.
Anikka Nykanen, wife of current National O2WD points leader Matthew Nykanen and sister-in-law to fellow competitor Josh Nykanen, celebrated her first rally as a driver behind the wheel of her brother Travis Mattonen’s NA4WD Subaru Impreza.
While she has co-driven in the Impreza many times for Mattonen, including a class win at the 2023 Nemadji Trail Rally, Headwaters marked her debut behind the wheel. She was joined by Danielle Kemp, who made her stage rally debut in the co-driver’s seat.
While the two didn’t reach the podium, finishing their first rally together is no small feat. On top of that, they showed strong improvement, cutting nearly 90 seconds off their second loop compared to their first.
“We had a blast!” said Anikka. “Since it was my first time driving a rally car on gravel and Danielle’s first time co-driving, we went out there with the mindset of just having fun and seeing what we could do while keeping the car on the road. We are really happy with how we did!
“We both grew up in rally families and thank our dads for having us start out driving in manual cars. It also helped marrying into a rally family. I’m so thankful that my brother let us borrow his car and helped us to get to live out this dream to be in a car together.”
“I am planning on continuing co-driving for my brother but hoping that Danielle and I can get back into a car together some more soon. We proved women can be 'girly' and also share a passion for cars and motorsports!”
For complete results, visit https://www.americanrallyassociation.org/event-results
-Mason Runkel for the ARA