RC Competition USA Prevails at Hometown Boone Forest Rally
- masonrunkel
- 3 minutes ago
- 6 min read
(London, Ky., July 28, 2026) — Hometown team RC Competition USA’s Javier Castro and Ezequiel Garcia earned their first ARA overall win on Saturday, July 25, at the London, Kentucky-based Boone Forest Rally, the penultimate round of the 2026 American Rally Association (ARA) Eastern Regional Championship.
Giving excited fans in Kentucky’s hollows a look at national-level machinery in their RC2-class Audi A1 Maxx, Castro and Garcia prevailed over 17 other competitors on a packed, one-day, 11-stage itinerary covering 56.5 miles of smooth gravel and tarmac through Appalachia’s mountain forests.
While the overall victory went to a one-off entry outside the center of the Eastern Regional championship fight, Boone Forest Rally still carried major weight throughout the field as competitors battled for class wins, regional points, and momentum ahead of the season-ending Overmountain Rally Tennessee.
The rally also offered locals multiple opportunities to engage, with a Friday night Parc Exposé in London before cars hit the stages Saturday morning, plus a rally-ending spectator stage at the Appalachian Overland Triangle.
Castro Leads Field as Coulter and Mayer Battle Fiercely for Second
As the lone RC2-class entry London, Kentucky-based RC Competition USA’s Audi A1 Maxx stood out among the grassroots regional field, and while their victory was expected, Castro and Garcia still had to keep out of trouble across 11 technical Kentucky stages to earn it.
From the very first stage, Castro and Garcia set the pace, improving on their fourth-place finish at last year’s Boone Forest Rally and building on their fourth-place National finish at Michigan’s Sno*Drift Rally at the beginning of the year.
As a partner of event organizers Backroads of Appalachia, the team’s win also reflected RC Competition USA’s commitment to using rally to help drive growth for the region through motorsport.
“It was an excellent weekend,” Castro said. “It was our second year at Boone Rally, and we really enjoyed this special place for rally.
“I want to thank the organizers and volunteers for their brilliant work. Personally, I’m very happy with the car’s solid performance and that Ezequiel and I were able to get more miles together as we work to be ready for a National event as soon as possible.
“As always, none of this would be possible without the help of our family, friends, and sponsors, who make the effort to keep this project moving forward.”
RC Competition USA wasn’t the only Bluegrass State team to stand on the podium, though, as Louisville-based Nathan Coulter and co-driver Bryce Proseus took second overall and first in Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) in their 1990 Subaru Legacy.
Their trip to the final stage wasn’t easy, however, as the Eastern Regional Championship-leading RallySport Direct-backed 2002 Subaru WRX of Tom Mayer and Dillon McKenna kept them under pressure throughout the day.
Though Coulter started the rally ahead, he only managed to build a 9.8-second gap over Mayer on the opening stages before Mayer overtook him on SS4 by just 3.3 seconds.
Coulter refused to let the gap grow, slowly making the time back before retaking second overall on SS7 and holding the spot to the end of the rally. He ultimately finished just 14.7 seconds ahead of Mayer, earning second overall and the NA4WD win while Mayer completed the overall podium and won the Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) class.
Mayer’s finish furthered his Eastern Regional Championship lead to 46 points(pending the outcome of a Stewards Review of results from the earlier Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally). Chris Nonack remains second with 26.
“We had an insanely fun battle out there today,” Mayer said. “It was all-out on every stage, and we reined in a couple sketchy moments.
“Ultimately, Nathan had an extra gear on ‘Hale Ridge’ both times, and we ran out of time to come back. Congrats to him on second. I know he drove amazing based on what was going on in our car.
“Clean drive by Castro as well in the Audi. A little out of our league, but the fans in Kentucky are great, so it’s awesome they got a bit of a show.”
Just off the podium in fourth overall, stunt driver Tyler Witte scored his best-ever ARA finish, taking fourth overall and second in L4WD alongside co-driver Cray Dumeah in his 1996 Mitsubishi Evo IV.
Though he took a few stages to get up to speed after more than a year out of competition, Witte turned in times from SS3 onward that were on par with, and often faster than, Coulter and Mayer. The performance left him just one minute behind Mayer for second in class and only 16.3 seconds off Mayer’s pace from SS3 through SS11.
Peter Farrow and Jackson Sedivy finished a comfortable third in L4WD in their 2002 Subaru Impreza.
Earning their spot on the NA4WD podium, Erik and Jordan Buetow took second in class in their 2008 Subaru Impreza while also finishing fifth overall. Michael Branning and Brandon Pace, the third and final NA4WD entry, suffered an off on SS8 and retired their 2004 Subaru Impreza.
Hathaway Overcomes Tree Impact to Win O2WD
Among the two-wheel-drive entries, it was the Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) 1993 Honda Civic of Emmons Hathaway and Zane Jackson that took first in class despite issues early in the rally.
After taking the O2WD lead over the 1991 Honda CRX of Sean Burke and Nathan Werner by just 7.5 seconds on SS1, the Civic crew saw that gap cut to 3.6 seconds on SS2.
Trouble struck a few miles into the third stage when Hathaway and Jackson slid off the road and impacted a tree with the side of the car, just behind the passenger door. Undeterred, they pressed on, losing hardly more than ten seconds on the stage.
Burke took a narrow lead that was halved on SS4 before pulling away to a 25-second advantage over Hathaway after SS6. Unfortunately, Burke suffered an issue on SS8 that dropped him to third in class after losing nearly seven minutes.
Hathaway and Jackson inherited the lead from there and held on to win O2WD by nearly three minutes after an extremely hard-fought day.
“It was a rough day,” Hathaway said. “Smoked a tree on SS3. Rubbed a tire down to the cords. Banged it out at service. Exhaust fell off twice. Clutch was acting up at the end. Massive overheating due to a wrong turn down an ATV trail. Car fell off the jack twice at service. It was a struggle, to say the least.”
The 2001 BMW 330i of Steve Rowlands and Boyd Smith took second in O2WD, while Burke and Werner still managed third.
In Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD), Joel Bruns and Makisa Upton took an early lead in their 2015 Ford Fiesta, opening a 15.2-second gap on SS1 over stunt driver Becca GT and co-driver Tiago Lourenco in their 2017 Ford Fiesta. Honda of America Racing Team (HART) Rally Team’s Cole Clements and Gabriel Nieves sat third in their Honda Civic, another 9.1 seconds back.
SS3 saw the HART team push into second, just 1.3 seconds off the lead, before taking first on SS4. Bruns held second and was pushing to take time back from Clements on SS10 when he had an off and was forced to retire from the rally.
In his absence, Clements cruised through the final stage to win the class, while GT moved back into second and Greg Haley and Caleb Heffner slotted into third in their 1994 Volkswagen Golf to complete the L2WD podium.
“I love this rally,” Clements said. “Having finished second in L2WD as a co-driver here in 2024 and 2025, getting my first class-win as a driver here feels great.
“Gabe’s notes were excellent all day, our service crew did an awesome job getting us set up for the second section of stages, and the Civic handled the whole event with no problems. This team’s ability to consistently produce quality results is remarkable and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”
The final round of the ARA Eastern Regional Championship will be the Super Regional round alongside the National Overmountain Rally Tennessee, September 18–19, while the next ARA National Championship event on the calendar will be Ojibwe Forests Rally, August 27–29.
To see images for Boone Forest Rally - visit the 2026 Boone Forest Rally gallery on Apexiel.
~Mason Runkel for the ARA