Three Days of Rally Action Await at Overmountain Rally Tennessee
- masonrunkel
- 23 hours ago
- 15 min read
(Newport, Tenn., September 16, 2025) — With just two rounds remaining in the 2025 season, the American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship Presented by Kubota heads south for the second running of its newest national event, Overmountain Rally Tennessee.
After a few years running under the name “Bristol Forests Rally” as part of the East Regional Championship, the tight, technical Overmountain stages expanded to a full two-day national round last year to great acclaim.
This year, the rally expands into a three-day showcase from September 19–21, with 51 teams set to tackle 98 miles across 16 stages winding through the Cherokee National Forest.
Headquartered in Newport, Tennessee, the 2025 event will feature three Parc Exposés and two dedicated Super Special stages at Newport Speedway, allowing fans more chances to get up close and personal with the teams and their cars and more opportunities to see high-flying rally action in person. Last year, crowds filled the grandstands to watch rally cars go head-to-head around the speedway’s high-banked turns, with added jumps on each straight creating an exciting showcase.
This year, that same stage will kick off the rally on Friday night at 9:00 p.m., following a Parc Exposé beginning at 6:30 p.m. The field will return to Newport Speedway Saturday morning for the second Parc Exposé at 9:15 a.m., before heading into the forests. The first stage of the day begins at 10:45 a.m. as teams tackle “Weaver Bend,” then transit briefly across the border into North Carolina before returning to Tennessee for “Middle Road Up” and “Wasp Short.” The loop finishes with a repeat of “Weaver Bend” ahead of service back at Newport Speedway.
The second half of the day revisits each stage once more before returning to Newport Speedway for service, followed by a 7:30 p.m. Super Special. This crowd-pleasing stage sends competitors from the oval to pit lane, back across the same jumps as Friday night, with a few donuts thrown in for good measure to close out the day’s action.
Sunday’s action begins with an 8:30 a.m. Parc Exposé at Newport Speedway before competitors head out to tackle “Big Clifty,” “Max Attack Patch,” and “Middle Road Down.” After service, teams will repeat the same loop to finish the regional rally, while national competitors will hit “Big Clifty” one more time for the extra-points-paying Power Stage, before returning to Newport Speedway for the podium ceremony.
Overall Win Up For Grabs
With reigning ARA National Champions Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Williams unable to compete this weekend, the battle for the overall win at Overmountain will be wide-open, with a variety of cars and drivers capable of ascending to the top step of the podium.
Among five RC2 Class entries and three Open Four-Wheel-Drive class (O4WD) cars, at least eight teams are bringing the right equipment and talent to challenge for victory. But the benchmark may come from an unexpected place: a Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) entry.
Subaru Motorsports USA’s Travis Pastrana and Rhianon Gelsomino continue their debut tour in the Subaru Impreza WRX ARA25L — the team’s new limited-class development car first introduced at Olympus Rally in April. Since then, the pair has won the L4WD class at four of five events and stood on the overall podium just as many times.
Overmountain offers them a rare chance to put a limited-class car ahead of the entire national field. As the winners of last year’s inaugural Overmountain Rally Tennessee, Pastrana and Gelsomino will once again carry a target on their backs.
Their biggest threat comes in the form of a red Škoda named Roxy, as Conner Martell and Alex Gelsomino return in the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Since switching from their O4WD Subaru WRX mid-season, the 2C Competicíon-backed duo has shown blistering pace, including a win at the ARA East Super Regional Boone Forest Rally, but they’ve yet to translate that speed into a National-level result, with retirements at both Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR) and Ojibwe Forests Rally.
Now, with more seat time in the Fabia and one less blue Subaru to contend with, Overmountain feels like Martell and Gelsomino’s rally to lose, if they can keep it clean.
“Tennessee is a beautiful event,” Gelsomino remarked. “These are the same stages we raced nearly 25 years ago at Cherokee Trails Rally, super technical, with so many slow first- and second-gear corners, plus rocky, hard-base surfaces that are really tough on tires and cars. Some stages run three times, and others in reverse, so by the end we’ll be down to bare rock. I suspect there will be a lot of punctures this weekend.
“Conner and I always approach rallies the same way: don’t worry about the entry list, just do your job and drive as close to 100% as you can. Reliability and tires will be huge factors here. Last year, Travis and Rhiannon won, but others were winning stages until punctures or damage took them out. Ryan Booth will be a big contender after winning in Ohio, though he has a new co-driver to adjust to.”
“We’re looking forward to it. We have a test Thursday, then recce. I’m glad we did the recce last year without competing. Seventy-five percent of our notes are already done, so hopefully that pays off.”
Ryan Booth also returns after missing Ojibwe, making Overmountain his first rally back since claiming his maiden overall victory at SOFR. Now back in the Škoda Fabia RS Rally alongside new co-driver Michel Périn, the pair are set to fight for another win as they take on Tennessee’s stages.
“I’m looking forward to getting back out after missing Ojibwe,” Booth said. “It will be fun to mix it up in the RC2 class again. Connor had really impressive pace at Ojibwe, and it will be hard to match him. Pat [Gruszka], Alastair [Scully], and Javier [Olivares] have all been picking up the pace too, so it should be a fun event.
“I have a new co-driver joining me for this round, so that will be a fun learning experience too. The stages at Overmountain are fantastic and suit the RC2s extremely well, very technical but extremely abrasive, so tire management will be pretty crucial.”
As Booth pointed out, the Green APU Hyundai squad brings two strong RC2 entries: the No. 243 i20 R5 of Pat Gruszka and Florian Barral, and the No. 191 i20 R5 of Alastair Scully and Stefan Trajkov. Both drivers have steadily improved their Speed Factors—a measure of average pace against the field—throughout the 2025 season. With that momentum, either crew could spring an upset and contend for a class win, or even the overall victory.
And of course, with two RC2 wins already in 2025, Javier Olivares will no doubt be pushing for a third in the Element Rallysport Ford Fiesta Rally2. With an overall victory also within reach, the crew has plenty of motivation to set the pace.
On the O4WD side, fan favorites and familiar faces will be pushing hard on the roads of the Cherokee National Forest.
Making his class debut, rock-and-roll legend Vivian Campbell returns to the stages with a brand-new build after several years away. The guitarist, who has played with the likes of Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy, Dio and Whitesnake, is making a big step up from the Naturally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) Subaru Impreza and Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) Civic he’s piloted in the past.
“The car is a Mitsubishi Mirage, an R4 kit from French company Oreca,” Campbell explained.
The Mirage R4 was assembled over the past three years by Ryan Thompson’s team at TRF in Michigan, a well-respected builder in American rallying with an impressive list of clients.
“Due to work and health commitments, it's been three years since my last rally event, LSPR in 2022. I'm both nervous and excited about making a return, especially in such an upgraded car,” Campbell continued.
“I have no previous experience with Overmountain, but by all accounts, it's a super-technical rally, and as such, my only real goal is to ease my way back into rally and to make it to the finish line cleanly.”
“I'm fortunate that I have my co-driver, Michael Hordijk, back with me for the event. I've learnt a lot from Michael on previous rallies, and it affords a lot of comfort to have him back in the car with me again.”
Fans and competitors alike are excited to see Campbell back on stage. With the continued support of Hordijk, progress and pace are sure to follow as the duo settles into their new machine.
Also battling for overall podium positions, the O4WD Chevy Sonic of Pat Moro will be roaring through the woods with a brand-new heart.
While Moro has long been known for his LS3-powered Sonic, a new partnership with Chevrolet Performance has seen PMR Motorsports rework the project with a 6.2-liter LT1 V8, offering a fresh take on an already iconic car.
“I couldn’t be more excited to team up with Chevrolet Performance to bring the LT1 to American rallying,” Moro said in an announcement earlier this year. “We’ve had one of the most popular cars in the sport for years thanks to the LS3, and upgrading to the LT1 with the support of Chevrolet Performance will only take us to the next level.”
Moro and Chevrolet’s collaboration marks is the newest manufacturer-supported program in ARA competition and is expected to be followed by multiple others in the next several months, another exciting step in ARA’s rapid growth.
Finally, aiming for overall podium contention, Cam Steely and Leah Brisset will bring the O.D.D. Racing O4WD Ford Focus RS to Overmountain. After coming close to a podium at Sno*Drift Rally earlier this year, Steely is eager to showcase the car’s potential once again, this time at the same event where the build first debuted last season.
While not expected to match the outright pace of the front-runners, the light and nimble Rally3 cars make up the rest of the Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) field behind Pastrana.
Garage 126’s Sean Donnelly and Zach Pfeil return in their Renault Clio Rally3 after a one-off test in the Argonaut Peugeot 208 Rally4 at Ojibwe Forests Rally. The pair are locked in tight battles within the combined L4WD and NA4WD points championship (LN4) — Donnelly trails Madelyn Tabor by just three points in the drivers’ standings, while Pfeil holds an 11-point advantage over Sophia McKee in the co-drivers’ race.
Tabor and McKee are back in their Ford Fiesta Rally3 and seem to get faster with every outing. With Overmountain’s tight and technical stages suiting the Rally3 platform perfectly, this could be one of their strongest opportunities yet to shine.
And finally, Irish driver and regular European Rally Championship (ERC) competitor Aoife Raftery makes her return to ARA competition for the first time since Oregon Trail Rally in May. This time, she’ll be behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally3 instead of a Subaru WRX STI, with Hannah McKillop calling the notes. Together, the pair could pose a serious threat for the class win in Tennessee.
Open Two-Wheel-Drive Ringer Looking to Interrupt Championship Battle
Amid a tight championship battle in the O2WD class between Seamus Burke and Michael Hooper, former WRC2 competitors Sean Johnston and Alex Kihurani return to ARA competition to tackle Overmountain Rally in a Peugeot 208 Rally4.
The duo’s last ARA outing was at the Olympus Rally in April, where they earned a class win in the same Peugeot Rally4. Prior to that, their last ARA event was the inaugural Overmountain Rally Tennessee in 2024, where they placed a Ford Fiesta Rally3 on the overall podium and claimed the L4WD class victory.
This time at Overmountain, Johnston and Kihurani will be playing spoilers, mixing it up with the class championship leaders.
Burke has been switching between two configurations of the famed Ford Escort MkII platform this year and currently leads the championship with 65 points, while Hooper and his Lexus IS350 trail by just five points in second.
Burke enters Overmountain with co-driver Gary McElhinney at his side and decades of experience to his credit. That said, last year Burke and Hooper went head-to-head at Overmountain, with Hooper coming out on top in his home event. This year, Claudia Barbera will serve as co-driver for Hooper in the River City Rally Lexus as he looks for another win.
Looking to fight their way onto the O2WD podium, three additional competitors will be challenging the class leaders. Richo Healey and Michelle Miller are continuing to build chemistry in their first season together in the Lexus IS350, aiming to improve their pace with each stage.
U.S. rally legend Tim O’Neil returns in his crowd-favorite AMC AMX, alongside co-driver Mika Rajasalo, ready to push their car to its limits on the twisting Cherokee National Forest roads.
Finally, Mike Arsenault and Matthieu Belhacene bring their Peugeot 208 Rally4 to the fray, coming off a strong second-place finish in class at Olympus Rally behind Johnston and Kihurani, and looking to translate that form into another solid result at Overmountain.
In the Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD) class, championship leaders Chris Cyr and Glen Ray return in the Bearly Cyrious Ford Fiesta ST. Having won the class in 2024 and four of their five races so far in 2025, the pair are unquestionably the competitors to beat at Overmountain.
The father-and-son battle between Mark Tabor, co-driven by Kathryn Hansen, and Henry Tabor, co-driven by Dylan Hooker, also continues at Overmountain. With only eight points separating the two in the L2WD standings, the fight for bragging rights around the family dinner table promises to be fierce. Riding the momentum from his first national win at Ojibwe Forests Rally, son Henry Tabor is sure to push hard throughout the weekend.
Four more teams round out the L2WD field at Overmountain, including the pairs of Ryan McGrath and Crystina Coats, and William Tung and Michael Szewczyk.
East Regional Championship Season Finale
Running alongside Overmountain Rally Tennessee (i.e., the round seven of the eight-event ARA National Championship Presented by Kubota), the Regional Overmountain Rally Tennessee follows the same itinerary—minus the Power Stage—offering 26 teams a similar three days of rallying.
While Overmountain is the final scheduled round of the 2025 ARA East Region Championship, the titles won’t be locked in just yet. That’s because each regional championship also allows a team’s best result from outside their home region to be included in their annual points total. In other words, if a team competes in both East and Central (or West) events, their top finish from any non-home-region events will count toward their East Region championship points. With those extra scores in play, the final standings won’t be settled until the final regional event of 2025.
With first-place driver James Pryzbylkowski sitting at 22 points and 17 points available to the winner at Overmountain, over 40% of the entered field still has a chance to claim the lead in the last event of the East Region Championship proper, with many contenders planning to compete at next month’s Lake Superior Performance Rally to earn their “best outside region” points.
As far as Overmountain is concerned, most eyes are on the NA4WD entry of Kevin Allen and Elizabeth Cordara in the RallyCats Moterspurtz 1995 Subaru Impreza. The pair carries the highest Speed Factor of the regional field and posted the fastest pace of all regional competitors at Overmountain in 2024, finishing second only due to 70 seconds of penalties for lateness.
In his class this year, Allen will be fending off the likes of Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen, who have earned three consecutive class podiums in their Vilko Motorsports Subaru Impreza, as well as Cam Sheridan and Jeremy Frey, who claimed the class win and finished second overall at this year’s Sno*Drift Regional Rally in the Wide Open Rallysport 1999 Subaru Impreza.
“We're really excited in car No. 262 to continue our success,” Sheridan said. “Having just come from Sno*Drift and winning our class and running sixth across National and Regional entries combined, we're can’t wait to tackle the mountain's elevation and rocky terrain for the first time.
“We plan to come out swinging and leave little on the table for this event, so stay tuned for the purple and orange Impreza wagon! After beating some pretty heavy hitters like the Renault Clio Rally 3 and Alastair Scully, when he was in a different car, at Sno*Drift, we're excited to see what the gap will look like on gravel with them having the power advantage on a drier surface.”
With eight total entries, plenty of competition for the class podium should follow, including the 1993 Subaru Impreza of Andrew Williamson and Julia Stewart, who placed third overall last year, and the 2007 Impreza of Jon Schrage and Nick Balzer, who finished third overall at the Southern Ohio Forest Rally this year. The class also welcomes newcomers, such as Zachary Felton-Priestner and Dash Osmer in their 1999 Subaru Impreza.
“This will be my second stage rally, and I'm excited just to be competing,” Felton-Priestner said. “First competing at STPR [Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally], my goal was to finish and try not to be last. I have similar goals for Overmountain. Rally racing has been on the top of my bucket list for years; no other racing beats it for me. I never realistically thought that this dream would be realized so soon.
“I have so many helpful people to thank for helping me find my way in rally; I could not do this without them. I'm grateful that I saw the opportunity and took it, and I can only encourage anyone who is interested in competing to be prepared to recognize the opportunity when it comes their way.”
While the tight, twisty stages of Overmountain favor nimble all-wheel-drive entries, Mike Hurst and Randall Short are also among the favorites in their 1974 Ford Capri, which will start second on the road in the regional event. Having scored a class podium or a wins at each of their past six events, there’s no question they’ll be one of the top O2WD entries—but their recent pace also gives them a shot at an overall win if they can effectively put the power down with rear-wheel drive.
Brian Katz and Matt Vaught’s Lexus IS350, and Emmons Hathaway and William Ross’s Honda Civic will be battling for the class rights against Hurst, as will first-time rallyists Jonathan Pullen and Christian LaPrad in their 2015 Honda Civic.
LaPrad, who refers to himself as “The Rally Hobo,” is one of the busiest mechanics behind the scenes. Last year, he followed Keenan Phillips on a full U.S. rally tour and frequently crews for more than one regional team at a time in any given paddock.
Now, he and Pullen are pairing up for their first time on stage.
“My background is attending 33 rallys in the past 5 years, transitioning from spectator to crew member and now to co-driver,” LaPrad said. “For the first few years, I was quite literally hitchhiking my way there with random rally people I met online, which is how I got my nickname.
“Jack and I met through rallycross and track events at Virginia International Raceway. He's been around a few small local stage rally events, spectating and crewing, where we have also worked alongside each other.
“We both started building stage rally cars around the same time and each offered the other the option of sitting in the silly seat whenever we started competing. Jack managed to finish his car first, so now we'll be taking on our first event together in his car, a mostly stock 2015 Honda Civic with fender flares that landed us in O2WD.
“Our goals for the event are to get as much experience as possible and hopefully finish the rally without any major issues. We will be starting in dead last as well, so it will be interesting to see how far back we still are by the end of the weekend.”
A new competitor to the ARA stages also poses a threat for the overall win, as the L2WD 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R of Corey McKenzie and Jason Smith makes its ARA debut. After several years competing in other rallies, the pair joined the ARA for the 2024 Tennessee Rally USA Exhibition, where they placed second overall. They now return for a full three days of Overmountain to back up that performance.
In their class, Chris and Sara Nonack will be the benchmark. Leading the East Region L2WD points, they are looking to take their fourth consecutive class win—and fourth consecutive class championship—at Overmountain in the ANY% Subaru BRZ.
“We wouldn't miss Overmountain for anything,” Chris Nonack said. “Which is why we'll be towing down from Pennsylvania pretty much immediately after flying home from the Netherlands, where Sara's competing in Rally Hellendoorn with Niels Kroeze. We’re looking forward to seeing the new roads and some favorites from last year.”
While the eight-car L2WD class features teams like Christopher Bersheim and Ethan Chuong in their 1991 Nissan 240SX, and Tevfik Peker and Jamie Beliveau in their 2019 Ford Fiesta, many will be watching to see how high-schooler Imogen Thomspon does alongside Steven Harrell in her 2012 Ford Fiesta.
“This is my first time running Overmountain, and I'm most excited to hopefully have a very good comeback after my last DNF in STPR,” she said. “I went out to Team O’Neil over the summer to train with Antoine L’estage and learned some cool stuff I'm hoping to put into action at Overmountain.
“My team and I have made sure everything is double-checked and ready to go. The race wouldn't be possible without my crew at TRF. I am in a new engineering program at school this year, which has been exciting. This does mean I have a lot of schoolwork to complete before the race, but it's totally worth it!”
Bersheim is returning for his second rally since 2019, after earning a class podium at STPR earlier this year.
“I love rallying,” he said, “but not for the competition. I love the uniqueness, the car builds, the scenery, and most of all the friends you make along the way. I'm thankful to be back in the sport after a few years off. I'm hoping to continue to shake the bugs out of the new car while exploring Tennessee in the most obnoxious way possible. Big thanks to Ethan for joining me in the right seat, and to my incredible friends and family for their unwavering support.”
Finally, in the L4WD class, a closely contested podium is expected among the top three cars. Gabriel Jacobsohn and Jason Hack will be first on the road in their Rally.Build Subaru Impreza WRX STi, but they’ll face stiff competition from the family team of Tom and Karl Mayer, who led the class at last year’s event before an early retirement took him out.
In addition, Scott and Elizabeth Crouch arrive fresh off a class podium at Ojibwe in their 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX, while James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis enter Overmountain leading both the overall East Region Championship and their class in the 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX. Two more entries round out the L4WD field, bringing the total to six.
“Vilko Motorsports is very much looking forward to our upcoming time again in Tennessee,” Curtis said. “The stages and atmosphere around the Newport area were a season highlight last year, and we’re excited to be located at the Speedway for the whole weekend this time around, to interact with fans and give a good show for the Special Stages.
“Ryan and Jamie have both been hard at work re-prepping their cars, and a consistent finish is what we’re after with Jamie currently leading the Eastern Championship overall, as well as the L4WD class, and Ryan sitting two points back from the lead in NA4WD.”
Follow the action live on the ARA social media channels and on ara-rally.com.
~Mason Runkel for the ARA