Quintero Claims ARA National Championship in Dramatic LSPR Finale
(Marquette, Mich., October 17, 2026) — Seth Quintero and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) claimed the 2026 American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship at the Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR), October 9–10, after a dramatic final-stage double puncture for championship rival Lia Block handed Quintero the title by the thinnest of margins.
Entering the season finale 17 points behind Block, Quintero and co-driver James Morgan finished LSPR second overall in their Toyota GR Corolla Rally RC2, while Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino took third in their Hyundai i20 N Rally2. The double puncture on the final ARA Power Stage, however, dropped Block out of the bonus points, allowing Quintero to overcome the championship deficit and secure the title in his debut season of American stage rally competition.
While the championship battle provided much of the weekend’s drama, Subaru Motorsports USA's (SMSUSA) Conner Martell and co-driver Ross Whittock dominated the rally in their WRX ARA25, winning 12 of 13 contested stages. Substituting for the injured Travis Pastrana, Martell returned to the top step of the podium after a mechanical failure ended his challenge while leading last month's Overmountain Rally Tennessee.
The 2026 running of LSPR brought an 83-car entry to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a 16-stage, 123.80-mile itinerary through the region's forests and historic rally roads. The event traces its roots to the Press on Regardless Rally, which hosted two rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in the 1970s, and has traditionally served as the final test of the American Rally national season.
Beyond the overall championship, the finale also decided the hotly contested LN4-class title, with Ireland's Aoife Raftery overcoming a 15-point deficit to claim the championship. Meanwhile, the concurrent Super Regional competition provided another opportunity for East Regional competitors to secure their respective titles, while the Central Regional Championship continued toward its November finale at Show-Me Rally.
Martell Dominates as Quintero and Block Fight for the Championship
While much of the attention coming into LSPR was on the championship fight between Block and Quintero, Subaru Motorsports USA's (SMSUSA) Conner Martell and Ross Whittock commanded the spotlight with a decisive overall victory.
After making his competitive debut with SMSUSA in the Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD) WRX ARA25 at last month's Overmountain Rally Tennessee, Martell jumped straight into the lead at LSPR, outpacing Quintero by 9.2 seconds and Block by 12.2 seconds on SS1.
From there, the pattern remained mostly the same, as Martell and Whittock proceeded to win all 10 of Friday's stages. Quintero followed in second, with Block in third, while Martell opened up a gap of more than a minute by the end of the day.
On Saturday, Quintero interrupted Martell's streak with victory on SS11, Mt. Marquette, but Martell returned to the top of the timesheets for the remaining five stages, taking wins on each, including the ARA Power Stage.
While Martell's victory was never seriously threatened, the final stage delivered a dramatic conclusion to the championship battle behind him. After spending most of the weekend comfortably running third on the stages, Block appeared on course to do the same on the Power Stage before suffering a double puncture in its final corners, dropping her to 14th on the stage and out of the bonus points.
With Quintero second overall and Block third, the championship remained in Block's favor by two points—accounting for the 12-point event result she was required to discard—before Power Stage bonuses were factored in. Quintero needed to outscore Block by at least three points on the final stage to win the championship outright. Had Block maintained her pace for third, she would have retained the title by a single point, but Quintero's second-place Power Stage finish earned him four bonus points to Block's zero, securing the championship by just two points.
For Block, the result was a devastating conclusion to a season in which she had fought to earn and then maintain her championship lead against two manufacturer-backed teams.
"I feel like I'm in a nightmare and I can't wake up," Block said. "I mean, it was just, you know, it was right there."
Block also revealed the financial challenges of mounting her championship campaign, explaining that the team had driven to LSPR themselves because they couldn't afford to transport their parts separately.
"I've literally spent every dime in my bank account to be here and to finish this season," Block said.
Despite the disappointment, Block remained reflective about the progress she had made throughout her first season competing for the overall ARA title.
"You never learn by winning," Block said. "I've gained so much experience over this year in a new car, faster class, obviously competing for the overall."
For Quintero, the Power Stage had been an all-out effort to collect as many championship points as possible, knowing that his chances depended on maximizing his own result.
"It was just go for it, right? I had nothing to lose," Quintero said. "I knew for any shot I had to do as best as I could on the Power Stage, and that's what I did."
After crossing the finish line, Quintero initially believed Block had secured the championship, even exchanging a celebratory fist bump with her mother before co-driver James Morgan noticed that Block had yet to finish. Despite hearing the Hyundai struggling to reach the end of the stage, Quintero still believed Block had enough points to take the title, only discovering his victory upon returning to service and checking Instagram.
"The team didn't text me. Nobody texted me. I just opened Instagram. It's like, 'Oh, I guess I'm the champ,'" Quintero said.
Despite securing his first ARA National Championship, Quintero was reluctant to celebrate without acknowledging the circumstances of Block's defeat.
"Obviously, I'm a little reserved on celebrating and feeling too excited because I do really feel bad for Lia. She did an amazing job this year," Quintero said. "But I think I did an amazing job too. It's just one of those situations where I'd like to celebrate, I will celebrate, but I have a heart for her, for sure."
Quintero and co-driver Morgan finished second overall, while Block and Alex Gelsomino held onto third behind Martell, who earned his first victory with the factory Subaru team.
Despite winning 15 of the rally's 16 stages, Martell admitted that maintaining his advantage through Saturday's increasingly rough roads required a careful balance between speed and caution. With a substantial lead already established, he and Whittock were able to ease their pace, although the final run through Al's Playground remained a concern.
"It's a gamble of trying to slow down to a safe pace, but stay in a rhythm to where you're not gonna make mistakes," Martell said. "And luckily, we were able to do that."
Martell also reflected on the championship battle unfolding behind him, expressing sympathy for Block while praising both drivers for their performances throughout the season.
"Lia and Seth both did an incredible job this year, and I'm so gutted for Lia with how it ended," Martell said. "But rally is such a cruel sport. This happens a lot, and she's gonna be back, and she's gonna win a championship for sure."
Though Quintero won the ARA Drivers Championship, co-driver Topi Luhtinen’s absence from the final two rounds of the season due to injuries sustained at WRC Rally Chile gave the advantage to Block’s co-driver Gelsomino, who took the 2026 ARA National co-driver’s championship.
In the RC2 class, Quintero also claimed the category victory ahead of Block, while Pat Gruszka and John Hall completed the podium in their Green APU-backed Hyundai i20 N Rally2.
Raftery Takes LN4 Championship with Class Win, Pyskylvets Awarded Ken Block Rookie of the Year
The other ARA National Championship still left to settle coming into LSPR was the tightly contested combined Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) and Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) class, known as LN4.
Having been contested by the likes of Travis Pastrana, Aoife Raftery, Madelyn Tabor, and Mark Piatkowski throughout 2026, the championship came down to the final round, with Tabor holding a 15-point lead over Raftery. Ukrainian rookie Nick Pysklyvets also remained mathematically eligible, sitting 11 points behind Tabor.
Right away, Ireland’s Raftery sped into the class lead in her Ford Fiesta Rally3, opening a 14.5-second advantage over the Renault Clio Rally3 of Sean Donnelly and Carl Williamson on SS1, with local competitors Grzegorz Bugaj and Elizabeth Dziubanski third in their 2011 Subaru STI.
For Tabor, an outright class victory wasn't necessary to retain her championship lead, and she spent much of the rally running fourth. The top three remained unchanged until Donnelly retired on SS14, promoting Bugaj into second and the Ford Fiesta Rally3 of Richo Healey and Michelle Miller into third.
Entering the Power Stage, Tabor and co-driver Sophia McKee held fourth in class, while Raftery and Hannah McKillop enjoyed a comfortable lead on the time sheets. With the championship still hanging in the balance, however, Power Stage points would be decisive.
Despite a hard push from Tabor, Raftery's pace—good enough for third-fastest overall—proved too much, as she took the LN4-class Power Stage win to collect three bonus points, securing the championship. The result marked Raftery's second national class championship of the year, having already secured the British Rally Championship's BRC3 title at Rali Ceredigion in Wales just over a month earlier.
Raftery also claimed the Pirelli Privateer Cup and its $5,000 prize, awarded to the highest-scoring eligible non-factory-backed competitor across the LN4, L2WD, and O2WD classes over the course of the season.
Second in LN4 went to Bugaj and Dziubanski, while Healey and Miller completed the podium, leaving Tabor and McKee fourth.
In the final LN4 championship standings, Raftery edged Tabor by just two points for the Drivers' Championship, with Pysklyvets third. Tabor's co-driver Sophia McKee, however, secured the Co-Drivers' Championship by a single point over Roman Romanchuk, while Raftery's co-driver Hannah McKillop finished just one point further back in third.
Fifth in the LN4 championship standings, the Ukrainian crew of Nick Pysklyvets and Roman Romanchuk earned the 2026 Ken Block ARA Rookie of the Year Award, presented by 43i, in their 2015 Subaru WRX STI. Introduced in 2025, the award honors the highest-finishing first-year competitor in the overall ARA National Championship standings.
Reflecting on his debut season, Pysklyvets celebrated finishing seven of eight rallies and earning three podium finishes, having focused on consistency and improving with each event. When asked what made him stand out as a rookie, his answer was simple: "Persistence."
"We're really working on our mistakes. We try to be better," Pysklyvets said. "Every rally, we're moving up, like level up for us."
Part of that approach has involved temporarily ignorning individual stage times and positions during competition, instead reviewing the results between loops to avoid being tempted to push beyond his experience.
"I really clearly understand what I can, what I cannot," Pysklyvets explained. "If you start to talk about timing or something like that, you start to do mistakes."
Pysklyvets also thanked co-driver Roman Romanchuk, who doubles as the team's manager, for his work throughout the season, and credited OzRallyPro's Rhianon and Alex Gelsomino with helping the team improve since Ojibwe Forests Rally.
Pysklyvets also earned the $500 second-place prize in the Subaru For the Love of Rally program, which rewards the three highest-finishing eligible Subaru privateers at each National Championship round. Bugaj and Dziubanski claimed the $1,000 first-place prize, while Santiago Iglesias and Cray Dumeah earned $250 for third in their Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD) Subaru BRZ.
Peugeots Fill O2WD Podium as Stellantis Cup Enters Final Round
While Danny Shalev secured the Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) Drivers' Championship at Overmountain Rally Tennessee, there were parallel championship battles still to settle.
Not only did LSPR feature one of the most competitive National O2WD fields of the season, with five Peugeot 208 Rally4s joined by the Lexus IS350 of Matthew Nykanen, the 1977 Ford Escort of Seamus Burke, and more, but Shalev also entered as the leader of the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup North America.
The new-for-2026 Stellantis Cup pits Peugeot 208 Rally4 competitors across ARA and Canadian Rally Championship (CRC) events against one another, with LSPR serving as the double-points semifinal ahead of the season-ending Rallye de Charlevoix in Quebec, which also pays out double points. Entering LSPR, Shalev held an 11-point lead over Canadian rival Vincent Lalande, with American William Tung third, 26 points behind Shalev. The five-car Peugeot field also included 15-year-old Mika Block (younger brother to Lia) and 14-year-old Polish driver Bruno Gryc, both making their Cup debuts.
Nykanen and co-driver Michael Farrow took the initial O2WD lead over Shalev and Ray, before being overtaken on SS4, with the powerful Lexus and nimble Peugeot trading competitive times.
Block and co-driver Gary McElhinney moved into third on SS4 as well, while Gryc and co-driver Ugnius Vainevicius took the stage win to climb two positions to fourth.
By the end of the day, Gryc, who, due to his youth and lack of a U.S. driver’s license, had to swap into the co-driver's seat between stages to allow Vainevicius to handle the public-road transit sections, had taken the lead on SS8. Nykanen held second, while Shalev followed in third.
Saturday morning brought a dramatic change to the class order, with Nykanen going off on SS11 and Gryc following suit on SS12. The two retirements promoted Shalev into the lead, with his main Stellantis Cup rival Lalande and co-driver Fabien Craen second, while Block moved into third in his Peugeot 208 Rally4 debut.
The remaining stages saw the Peugeots battling it out, with mere seconds separating the crews on several stages. Shalev ultimately took the class victory, capping off his rally with the O2WD-class Power Stage win, while Lalande finished second and Block completed an all-Peugeot podium.
Shalev's third O2WD class victory of the season also secured his teammate Glen Ray the 2026 ARA O2WD Co-Drivers' Championship, completing a sweep of the class titles for the pair. The result also strengthened Shalev's Stellantis Cup championship lead, provisionally extending his advantage over Lalande to 21 points heading into Rallye de Charlevoix, October 30-November 1, where double points will once again be on offer.
While Shalev and Ray had already secured their respective ARA O2WD National Championships, Andy Cowan and Tiago Lourenco finished the season second in the driver and co-driver standings, respectively. Nicholas Tippmann secured third in the Drivers' Championship, while Michael Szewczyk took third in the Co-Drivers' Championship.
Iglesias Bookends Season With Maximum Points
Coming into LSPR, the Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD) Championships had already been secured by Henry Tabor and co-driver Dylan Hooker in their Ford Fiesta ST, but the season finale brought together one of the strongest L2WD fields of the year.
Ahead of the event, multiple competitors noted that nearly every National L2WD event winner from 2026 was entered, with Tabor (100 Acre Wood, Ojibwe Forests Rally, Overmountain), Santiago Iglesias (Sno*Drift), Chris Sladek (Southern Ohio Forest Rally), and Tim Wickberg (Rally Colorado) joined by consistent championship contenders Ryan McGrath, John Barnett, and Stepan Kravets for one final bout in one of the championship's most production-based classes.
For Iglesias, the event presented an opportunity to finish the season the way he started it, having taken both the L2WD class victory and Power Stage win at February's Sno*Drift Rally alongside co-driver Robert Kassel.
Right away, Iglesias and co-driver Cray Dumeah took the lead in their 2013 Subaru BRZ, ahead of the Honda of America Racing Team (HART) 2017 Honda Civic of Sladek and co-driver John Sharps, who were tied for second on the time sheets with champions Tabor and Hooker after SS1. The tie was broken on SS2, with Tabor taking sole possession of second.
While the class saw plenty of stage-to-stage competition, the order remained mostly unchanged until the Power Stage, where Iglesias secured the class victory and maximum bonus points, repeating his Sno*Drift achievement. Tabor fell to fourth, allowing Sladek and Sharps to take second, while Wickberg and co-driver Matthew Trott put their Subaru BRZ in third to complete the rally podium.
In the final L2WD championship standings, Tabor finished 20 points ahead of Ryan McGrath in the Drivers' Championship, with John Barnett third. Hooker secured the Co-Drivers' Championship ahead of Lucas Laeser in second and Bohdan Kravets in third.
Abell Takes First Overall Victory in LSPR Regional Competition
Alongside every ARA National Championship round runs an ARA Super Regional event, offering grassroots and local competitors a shot at the same roads as the National competitors. At LSPR, 43 Regional entries tackled a similar two-day, 15-stage itinerary covering 115.34 competition miles, with competitors fighting for Central Regional Championship points, as well as eligible out-of-region points toward the East and West Regional Championships.
While one round remains on the 2026 ARA Regional calendar, the Show-Me Rally on Nov. 7, LSPR saw several East Regional championships decided while setting up close fights in the Central Regional Championship heading into its finale.
Ahead of LSPR, Nolan Abell and Leah Brisset in the Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD) Steven Redd Racing Ford Fiesta R5 were among the favorites. While they didn't enter with the most experience on the roads, they certainly had a car capable of taking the overall regional victory, with the WRC-winged R5 standing out among a field of predominantly home-built rally cars.
Despite this, the local competitors, racing on roads they had competed on countless times before, gave Abell and Brisset a run for their money.
Abell took the lead right from SS1, but only 3.6 seconds ahead of the Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) 2001 Subaru Impreza of Connor Himes and Charlotte Himes-Nykanen. The local crew closed the gap over the next few stages, taking the lead from Abell on SS5 before the Fiesta R5 returned to the top on SS6.
The two continued trading stage wins through much of the remaining rally, before a mechanical issue for Himes in the final two stages dropped the Subaru out of contention, allowing Abell and Brisset to secure their first overall rally victory together.
Though O4WD has no dedicated class podium or championship in ARA competition, LSPR featured an unusually strong entry in the class. Behind Abell, Josh and Danielle Kemp's 2004 Subaru WRX was second-fastest in O4WD, while Evan Mosley and Brandon Opperthauser's 2002 WRX was third.
Behind Abell, a tense battle for the Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) class developed into a fight for second overall as Himes fell back.
Long-time LSPR competitor and multi-time overall runner-up Jimmy Pelizzari of Blind Deer Rallysport entered the weekend as one of the favorites not only in his class, but for the Regional overall victory. He and co-driver Bryce Proseus started the season with a victory at Sno*Drift, and entered LSPR hoping to cap off the year in similar fashion in their 2002 Subaru WRX.
Early in the rally, however, those plans looked bleak. After nursing what they believed to be a failing clutch through the first loop, the pair sat ninth overall and third in class. At the first service, they discovered the problem was actually a broken rear axle shaft, and after replacing the part, their stage times began to improve dramatically.
Pelizzari immediately began winning stages in L4WD, overtaking the second-place 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX of Robert Dupree and Kevin Dobrowolski on SS7, and continuing to close the gap to class leaders Tom Mayer and Dillon McKenna in their RallySport Direct-backed 2002 Subaru WRX.
Having once trailed by 43 seconds, Pelizzari and Proseus capped off their comeback with a victory on the final stage to finish second overall on the road. Sadly, their car was found to be underweight during post-race scrutineering, resulting in a disqualification that promoted Mayer and McKenna to the L4WD victory and second overall.
The decision also promoted Josh and Danielle Kemp to third overall, after the pair had already gained two positions on the final stage.
In L4WD, Dupree and Dobrowolski were promoted to second, while James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis completed the class podium in their 2004 Subaru WRX.
Mayer's result moved him into the Central Regional Overall Drivers' Championship lead, five points ahead of Kemp, after having already secured the East Regional Overall and L4WD titles alongside McKenna. In Central L4WD, Scott Crouch still leads Mayer by 11 points in the Drivers' Championship, while McKenna now leads Elizabeth Crouch by six points in the Co-Drivers' Championship heading into Show-Me Rally.
The NA4WD class victory went to Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen in their 2001 Subaru Impreza "3.0RS," who held second in class for much of the rally before moving into the lead following Himes' mechanical troubles. Richard and Greg Donovan took second in their 1997 Subaru Impreza, while Himes and Himes-Nykanen managed to hold onto third despite their late issues.
The result also secured Pryzbylkowski and Nguyen the East Regional NA4WD Driver and Co-Driver Championships, respectively. In the Central Region, Pryzbylkowski moved to within six points of championship leader Tyler Matalas, while Nguyen took a narrow two-point lead over Dustin Sharkozy in the Co-Drivers' Championship ahead of the final round.
ANY% Scion Continues to Impress in Debut Season
The ever-consistent team of Chris and Sara Nonack, known as ANY%, continued their undefeated streak in the recently completed Scion 2GR-86, a custom-built Scion FR-S powered by a Toyota 2GR V6 that Chris completed midway through the 2026 season.
Having already won multiple Regional L2WD championships, the Nonacks moved into O2WD with their new build and instantly continued their winning ways, remaining undefeated in class across the three events the car has entered, with LSPR bringing their biggest fight yet.
From SS1, it was clear the fight would be a tight one between the 1974 Ford Capri of Mike Hurst and Randall Short and the Nonacks' Scion, as the former led the latter by just 0.1 seconds.
SS2 saw the Scion take a 1.1-second lead, only for the Ford to reclaim the advantage by 2.1 seconds after SS3. The two cars traded times throughout Friday, with Nonack eventually opening up a narrow 14-second gap by the end of the first day.
The fight continued into Saturday, with Hurst never falling too far behind, but his retirement on SS13 left the ANY% crew with a 90-second lead heading into the final loop. Levi Johnson and Lars Anderson moved into second in their 1986 BMW 325, while Josh Nykanen and Elliot Prusi took third in class in their 1987 Volkswagen Golf GTI.
Impressively, when compared to the times from the first 15 stages of the National rally, Nonack was the fastest non-Peugeot competitor in O2WD, with a cumulative time that would have placed ANY% fifth in the National class had they entered. The pair also finished fifth overall in the Regional competition.
The victory secured Chris and Sara Nonack the East Regional O2WD Driver and Co-Driver Championships, respectively, and moved both into second in the East Region Overall standings. In the Central Region, Chris sits just two points behind O2WD Drivers' Championship leader Josh Nykanen, while Sara holds a seven-point lead in the Co-Drivers' Championship with one rally remaining.
In the L2WD Regional fight, Gabriel Nieves and Patrick Connolly took the lead on SS1 in the HART Rally Team 2023 Acura Integra, holding the top spot throughout the entire rally.
Behind them, Tevfik Peker and Jamie Beliveau initially held second in their 2019 Ford Fiesta, but fell behind Jason Kodat and Phil Marsh's 2015 Fiesta ST, and Nikhil Thakur and Zachary Goldstein's 2015 Fiesta ST on SS2.
Thakur and Goldstein moved into second, while Peker and Beliveau recovered to third, with both crews maintaining their positions to complete the class podium behind Nieves and Connolly.
The result brought Peker to within just two points of Greg Haley in the Central Regional L2WD Drivers' Championship, 43-41, setting up a close fight should they enter Show-Me. Meanwhile, Beliveau holds a 10-point lead over Max Sutton in the Co-Drivers' Championship, 41-31.
The final event of the 2026 ARA calendar is Show-Me Rally, the Central Regional Championship finale, on Nov. 7.
To see images for Lake Superior Performance Rally - visit the LSPR 2026 gallery on Apexiel
Complete LSPR results: https://www.americanrallyassociation.org/event-results
~Mason Runkel for the ARA
