The Battle in the Desert Heats Up for Prescott Rally
- masonrunkel
- Sep 11
- 10 min read
(Camp Verde, Ariz., September 11, 2025) ~ The American Rally Association (ARA) West Region Championship returns to the northern deserts of Arizona next week for the fifth round of the championship, the Prescott Rally, September 12–13.
Hosted this year in the towns of Camp Verde and Chino Valley, the 2025 Prescott Rally will mark the event’s 33rd running. The area’s dusty mountain trails have long tested rally drivers, with legends like Paul Choiniere, Rod Millen, and Mark Lovell all taking victories here dating back to the SCCA ProRally days.
Organized by Ringtail Rallysport, Inc. in conjunction with the Arizona Rally Association and Rodnoc LLC, the 2025 Prescott Rally will see 21 teams competing across 14 stages and 126 competitive miles in a two-day itinerary. New for this year, organizers are inviting the community to get involved with two spectator-friendly Super Special stages at the Camp Verde Equestrian Center on Saturday, scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. Local RallyCross drivers will also offer ride-alongs on the stage following its completion.
Each day of the Prescott Rally will begin with a Parc Exposé at the Camp Verde Equestrian Center, giving fans the chance to see the cars up close and meet the drivers. Friday’s Parc Exposé is scheduled for 9:00 a.m., with Saturday’s beginning at 8:30 a.m.
On Friday, teams will take on the “Penske Pass” and “Witty Tom” stages before turning around to run them in reverse as “Tom’s Witt” followed by “First View S.” A mid-day service at the Camp Verde Equestrian Center will give crews the chance to re-prep their cars before heading back out for a second loop of the same stages.
Saturday, teams will leave Parc Exposé and open the day on the “PFO” stage before returning to “First View S” and then tackling the “Verde Special” spectator stage. After another service break, cars will run a second spectator stage, the “HOLY Guacamole! Special,” before heading into the mountains one last time for “Penske Pass” and “Perkinsville West” to close out the weekend.
Continued Rally Colorado Battle Takes Center Stage in Prescott
One of the most anticipated battles at the Prescott Rally will be between the Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD) entries of Arto and Mary Ylikangas in their 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX, and Charles Watson and Ben Triplett in their 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Both are rising competitors in the ARA West Region, and while they’ve faced off multiple times, their most recent clash at Rally Colorado was decided by just 32.6 seconds, 20 of which came from penalties, with Watson and Triplett taking the edge.
While the two teams battled for eighth overall at Rally Colorado behind national-level Open-class and RC2 competitors, the Ylikangas’ performance at Prescott last year, where they earned a second-place overall podium, shows they have the pace to contend for a top position again. This year in Arizona, the battle is expected to be for a podium or even the win.
“Prescott is looking like our first event where we can push for the overall win, so Ben and I are super excited!” Watson said. “Colorado last month was more of a race of attrition given the temperatures and elevation: that was the first race we’ve had to lift off the throttle on stage to protect the car. We know Arizona is going to be hot, but we’re hoping the lower elevations are going to let us push at full pace again.”
“I’ve got my eyes on Arto in Car 902, as we’ve been neck-and-neck at the last two Western Regional events this year: there was only a 0.07mph average speed difference between us in Colorado!”
Watson and Triplett are bringing upgrades to their car for Prescott, including a new turbo that moves them from the Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) class into Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD). While they added in-car streaming via Starlink at a previous event, this weekend they’ll debut in-car audio, allowing every stage to be broadcast live on Twitch for family and friends.
Arto Ylikangas is also excited for the competition, stating, “This is our third year running Rally Prescott. We love the stages; they are fast and tend to have a flow to them that makes the roads predictable. Perkinsville is definitely in my top three favorite stages I've ever raced on.”
“We're excited to see the spectator stage and service area in Camp Verde. Spectator areas and stages are important to the sport and are a great way to show the communities we race in thanks.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the teams we normally race against are not participating, but we are looking forward to racing against Zach Lord and Charles Watson. We had a really good battle with Charles and Ben at Rally Colorado and are looking to continue that.
“Last year we got our first overall podium at this event, this year we are hoping to build on that result. This is a great race and we can't wait to get out there and do our best!”
A third O4WD entry will join the field: the 2001 Subaru Impreza of Zach Lord and Garrett Larson. While still in their first year of rallying, the duo has shown impressive pace and could find themselves competing at the top of the field if they play their cards right.
Lord also notes that they may be the tallest driver/co-driver pairing in ARA history, with a combined height of 13 feet, 4 inches.
“Car 610 is really looking forward to the fast and flowing desert roads as we continue through our novice season,” Lord said. “Rally Colorado highlighted some vibe and thermal failure modes with new fixes we are looking to validate. As one of the few O4WD teams, we're aiming to string together some fast runs and make a lot of noise for the spectators.”
Large Limited Two-Wheel-Drive Entry in Battle for the Win
Interestingly, one of the biggest threats to the O4WD contenders for the podium comes from a pair of Limited Two-Wheel-Drive sibling cars: the Scion FR-S of Chris Miller and Crystina Coats, and the Subaru BRZ of Tim Wickberg and Matthew Trott. Both have the pace to contend for an overall win.
Despite being in the closest class to stock the ARA runs, these two sport coupes and their teams have shown strong pace all over the country, and look to continue that push at Prescott.
Wickberg, in the Vertical Disambiguation BRZ, is looking to make up for a missed opportunity at a previous year’s event with a new build and a bigger engine.
“We're looking forward to finally debuting our FA24D-swapped Hyper Blue BRZ,” Wickberg said. “This is two years since crashing out of the overall lead in our original World Rally Blue BRZ, with two stages remaining.”
The engine swap allows the 2016 BRZ to remain in L2WD, as it uses the same block offered in the second-generation BRZ, while still providing improved torque and horsepower over the original FA20 and adding minimal weight despite the larger block.
As Wickberg stated, their previous FA20-powered BRZ was leading the Prescott Rally when an off resulted in the car rolling three times. With that in mind, the Vertical Disambiguation team is ready to prove their new build’s mettle.
On the other hand, Miller and Coats are just as prepared in their FR-S. The pair took their Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) Ford Focus to second overall at Prescott in 2023. Now in the L2WD FR-S, they’ve shown promising pace and enter Prescott carrying the highest Speed Factor, a formula used to calculate the average pace of a competitor.
With eight additional entries, L2WD is by far the busiest of the rally, with all levels of experience, from Wickberg and Miller, all the way down to first-timers and teams still cutting their teeth, one of whom is Lyle Gee, competing in his fifth ever rally.
Driving Gertie, his 2000 BMW 323i, and being navigated by Elizabeth Austin, this will be their first time at Prescott, after Gee has volunteered at the event in the past.
“This will be my first time racing at Prescott after volunteering there for the last few years,” he said. “I'm very excited to take the lessons we learned from Colorado and apply them to some similar stretches of road in Arizona.”
“My primary goal for the 2025 campaign is to start and finish events with Gertie mostly in one piece. We had an off at Olympus in 2024 (don't drive in a ditch...who knew?) and otherwise have run mostly clean for the other events. We've been doing a good job so far and hope to continue our streak at Prescott.”
“Personally, I want to run down some of the other L2 cars that are immediately in front of us; however, I believe that increased pace will come with more seat time. Rally is my first motorsport, and I didn't start with it until 2019 with a trip to DirtFish, so I need to keep being patient and not put the car or my team in a bad position.”
“I also want to take a moment to thank Calvin and Kelsey at Cooper Autoworks, who built Gertie and who have been huge supporters throughout my rally career to date. Without them, there's no car and no racing. I also want to mention my co-driver, who is brave/foolish enough to keep strapping into the silly seat with me and Gertie. Our connection and teamwork are growing exponentially, so I look forward to learning with her at each event. It's incredible to be supported by such fantastic people, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to race with such an incredible group of humans.”
In addition to Gee, Austin, and Gertie all learning at Prescott, the L2WD class will also host first-time rallyists Ezra and Timothy Johnson in their 2002 Mini Cooper S.
Organizers Get Involved on Stage
Rally has always been a passion project for those involved, and at Prescott Rally, it’s no different—several competitors are actively involved in organizing the event.
Justin McBee and Sean Spring are the founders of the Arizona Rally Association, an organization created to foster the local rally community in partnership with SCCA RallyCross. This weekend, they will enter their first rally together in their Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) Subaru Forester.
“Our entry into Prescott Rally also marks our first attempt at building a stage rally car from scratch, with the 2002 Subaru Forester being our first roll cage and, most importantly, Justin's first stage rally,” Sean said.
“We've been helping with setup and volunteering with this rally for the last three years and are proud to be able to add another aspect to the rally in the Super Special we will be hosting. Our goal for the super special is to offer rally fans the opportunity to come see the cars up close without that traditional obligation of volunteering.”
“As part of our efforts to bring more interactive experiences to the fans of rally locally, we are co-sanctioning with the SCCA Arizona Region to offer ride-alongs after the super special is over, with a large number of drivers from our RallyCross program being invited for not only their driving abilities but also their enthusiasm and willingness to grow our community.”
“We know the gap from RallyCross to stage rally is a large one to overcome, but we also believe in RallyCross being the foundation for the community that can make rally events a reality for those who choose to make that leap. The volunteers and crew members are what make these events possible, and we want to show our appreciation by trying to give those who aren't already driving some more incentive to come out and have some fun with us. So we will be hosting a rallycross event on Sunday, following the rally, and invite all volunteers, crew members, drivers, and co-drivers to come on out and enjoy a fun day driving cars together at 50% of the price of entry.”
“Our team will be handling the ongoings at the arena and are looking forward to playing host to everybody that's excited about the rally and wants to learn more about this awesome event!”
In their class, they’ll be battling the 1997 Subaru Impreza of Michael Thomas, who made his Prescott Rally debut last year with a second-place class finish, as well as the 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STI of Santiago Caballero and Andres Bautista.
Also part of the organizing group, Rodnoc Racing’s Lexus SC400 returns in the O2WD class with Jimmy Veatch III and Jenna Cooper inside.
The people behind Rodnoc have been involved in RallyCross and other rally-adjacent events for years in the California area and surrounding region, also supporting the sport from the grassroots level up.
This weekend, Veatch enters his third rally as a driver with the SC400, and is hoping to make a splash.
"We’re excited to bring out the only rally-prepped Lexus SC400 to Prescott Rally 2025.
“The 155 Lexus has already had a wild season, a DNF at Oregon Trail Rally with electrical issues that didn’t let us see Saturday’s first stage, and a hard-fought second place at Rally Colorado after losing a clutch pedal and floating gears for 131 miles. We’re hoping the fixes made over the last couple of weeks make this the most reliable race yet.
“We’ve got King off-road shocks under the SC400 with some extra height. I’m hoping that we’ve got the setup to handle anything the Arizona dirt throws at us.
“Some people suit up for the office, I suit up for roll cages and rally stages. Part style, part superstition, all cotton. I retired my tie in Colorado after our podium, and now a fresh one is ready to tackle Prescott.
“We’re ready to push the SC400 even further and have a blast on some of Arizona’s best rally roads. Thanks to wide open skies, you can catch us live-streaming ourselves and other in-car’s on Rodnoc Racing’s Youtube Channel!"
The SC400 faces stiff competition from Benji Carvallo and Gerardo Carvallo, who are making their third Prescott Rally appearance, as well as Erik Christiansen and Amy Floyd, who enter with two consecutive class podiums at this event.
Finally, in the Naturally Aspirated (NA4WD) class, the duo of Fritz and Brooke Croy is debuting their home-built Subaru Impreza on Prescott’s stages.
After tackling their first stage rally at this year’s Rally Colorado in their L2WD Ford Focus, the husband and wife are back for more at Prescott with their new build.
“We competed this year in our first rally in Colorado, and took second in L2WD and 13th overall in the YawNation Ford focus called ‘Fred!’” Fritz said.
“But for Prescott Rally, we will be piloting a 2002 Subaru Impreza that I personally built in my carport to compete in the NA4WD class.
“Our goal for Rally Colorado was to get a speed factor and finish the rally. Our goal for Prescott Rally will be the same, but to increase my speed factor while also finishing!
“This is a local rally for us, and I am super excited to finally be competing as this awesome husband and wife team. I have spent many years spectating and volunteering here at my local rally, and I’m excited to finally rip the roads myself!”
Follow the action live on the ARA social media channels and on ara-rally.com.
~Mason Runkel for the ARA
