Tänak Tops in U.S. Debut at Overmountain Rally Tennessee
(Newport, Tenn., September 23, 2026) — 2019 FIA World Rally Champion Ott Tänak enjoyed a triumphant American Rally debut at Overmountain Rally Tennessee September 18-19. The 38-year-old Estonian and co-driver Martin Järveoja bested a packed field of international rally champions to give TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) its fourth victory of the 2026 American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship.
Competing against a field that included four-time ARA National Champion Brandon Semenuk, 2026 championship leader Lia Block, multi-time Mexican and reigning Canadian champion Ricardo Cordero, and his own TGR-WRT teammate Seth Quintero, Tänak prevailed not only against series regulars, but a collection of international, returning, and one-off competitors who made the trip to Tennessee to measure themselves against the World Champion.
As one of the newest rallies on the ARA calendar, Overmountain has quickly grown in stature over the past few years, with the tight and technical gravel mountain roads of the Cherokee National Forest providing a unique challenge for competitors. Frequent hairpins, steep climbs and descents, rough sections, and large exposures leave little room for error on stage.
The 58-car field set off Friday morning for a 99.87-mile, 13-stage itinerary, culminating Saturday night with a two-lap, head-to-head Super Special Stage at Newport Speedway. Cars started on opposite sides of the 0.4-mile banked oval and tackled two dirt jumps as fans packed the speedway for the rally’s final competitive miles.
With teams fighting for points as the National Championship entered its final two rounds and the East Regional Championship contested its final in-region round, the stakes were high. Some crews left Tennessee having secured championships one round early, while others now face a much tougher task heading into next month’s season finale, the Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR).
Tänak Takes Victory as Championship Battle Rages Behind
Tänak and Järveoja’s presence in Tennessee came amid a deep nine-car RC2 field, joined by 2026 WRC2 competitor and 2025 Overmountain winner Conner Martell, who returned to ARA competition for the first time this year behind the wheel of the Open Four-Wheel-Drive (O4WD) Subaru Motorsports USA (SMSUSA) WRX ARA25, subbing for the injured Travis Pastrana.
Right from the start, however, four-time ARA National Champions Brandon Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams took the lead on SS1, winning the stage by just one-tenth of a second in their Standard Motorsports Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Tänak slotted into second, with Martell and co-driver Ross Whittock third.
TGR-WRT’s Seth Quintero, who came to Tennessee second in points behind Lia Block, and substitute co-driver James Morgan, filling in for Topi Luhtinen who is recovering from injuries sustained at WRC Rally Chile, sat just outside the podium positions, while Pat Gruszka, who was returning after missing two ARA rounds due to medical issues, and Florian Barral held fifth in their Green APU-backed 2025 Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Multi-time Mexican National champions and reigning Canadian champions Ricardo Cordero and Marco Hernandez followed in sixth in their Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale.
The order shifted on SS2 as Tänak moved ahead of Semenuk by 1.2 seconds, while championship leaders Block and Alex Gelsomino climbed from eighth to fifth in their Rockstar Energy-backed Hyundai i20 N Rally2. The leading positions remained largely unchanged for the rest of Friday, save for Martell overtaking Semenuk for second on SS4, the final stage of Day One.
Semenuk reclaimed second on Saturday morning, while Tänak continued to control the rally from the front. Semenuk remained the only driver able to take a stage win away from the World Champion, beating Tänak by 0.7 seconds on SS6.
Martell’s strong run came to an end on SS8 when a damaged brake line knocked the Subaru out of competitive contention. While the SMSUSA car ultimately completed the rally, the issue ended Martell’s hopes of repeating his 2025 Overmountain victory.
Incoming weather forced the cancellation of SS12, “Big Clifty 3,” which had been scheduled as the rally’s ARA Power Stage. Instead, SS11, the third running of “Weaver’s Bend,” was designated the Power Stage, where Tänak claimed another stage victory and the maximum five bonus points while the championship contenders fought for the remaining points behind him.
After the rally-ending head-to-head Super Special at Newport Speedway, Tänak and Järveoja secured victory by one minute, four seconds over Semenuk and Williams. Quintero and Morgan completed the podium in third, giving TGR-WRT a one-three finish.
“It was definitely a challenging one, but it was nice to fight some of the locals here,” Tänak said. “I think the lineup was quite competitive this time around, and Brandon was definitely pushing quite hard, so I had to build myself up to speed as well.
“In the beginning, I was a bit rusty. I haven’t been driving for almost a year, but step by step it was coming back, and by the end, I think I was already in quite a good rhythm.”
Asked whether he might return for another ARA event in the future, Tänak left the door open.
“I’m not going to say no.”
“It was an amazing weekend for us and the Toyota team with first and third,” Quintero agreed. “The car worked absolutely amazing and the team did a stellar job; everybody worked so hard all weekend. It was a big weekend for me to have Ott here and to be less than a second per kilometer off him. I’m really proud of that, and I feel like I took a big step in pace this week. I’m very happy with the result, very happy to continue making improvements, and we’re still in the championship fight, so let’s get it done.”
Semenuk was the only competitor other than Tänak to claim a stage victory, taking two wins across the weekend and finishing just over a minute behind the World Champion after spending part of the season competing internationally in Rally2 machinery.
Block and Gelsomino finished fourth overall and placed fifth on the Power Stage in their first Overmountain outing, leaving Tennessee with a 17-point championship advantage. By the current drop-score calculation—which includes each driver’s best six scores and all of their accumulated Power Stage points from the year—the 2023 O2WD Champion needs 11 points at LSPR to secure her first ARA overall championship if Quintero secures maximum points, which would mark the first time in American Rally history that a woman claimed the overall title of national champion.
Behind the championship contenders, Cordero and Hernandez brought the Lancia home fifth on their second ARA start of the season in the new car, while first-time Rally2 driver Sean Donnelly took sixth with Alex Kihurani in their 2022 Ford Fiesta Rally2, and 10-time FIA North and Central American champion Ricardo Triviño and co-driver Sergio Salom Lopez completed their ARA debut in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in eighth.
Shalev Clinches O2WD Championship Victory in First ARA Season
Just one round ago at Ojibwe Forests Rally, seven Open Two-Wheel-Drive (O2WD) teams entered the event capable of leaving with the championship lead. Two rallies later, Danny Shalev has turned the closest class battle of the season into an early title, clinching the O2WD National Championship with one round remaining in his first ARA season.
Joined by co-driver Betsy Nguyen in the Argonaut Motor Club Peugeot 208 Rally4 for the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood and Olympus Rally, Shalev earned his first ARA class podium at 100 Acre Wood before recording his only DNF of the season so far at Olympus. Glen Ray joined him for the following four rounds, with the pair taking runner-up finishes at Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR) and Rally Colorado before breaking through for consecutive victories at Ojibwe and Overmountain.
Shalev and Ray opened Overmountain third in class after SS1, behind fellow Peugeot 208 Rally4 competitors William Tung and Michael Szewczyk in the lead and the River City Rally (RCR) Lexus IS350 of Matthew Nykanen and Will Ross in second. Shalev quickly moved into second as the nimble front-wheel-drive Peugeot proved well suited to Overmountain’s tight and technical roads.
Shalev continued to pressure Tung through Friday’s second loop, but an off for Tung on SS4 handed Shalev the class lead. Michael Hooper and Michael Farrow moved into second in the other RCR Lexus IS350, while Andy Cowan and Tiago Lourenco climbed to third in their 1990 Volkswagen Jetta VR6.
On Saturday, Shalev began opening the gap at the front while Hooper remained his closest challenger. An electrical failure, however, eventually forced the Lexus to retire, promoting Cowan and Lourenco to second and the returning 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G5 of Brad Morris and first-time co-driver Vivin Vimal to third.
“I actually wasn’t going to do Tennessee or Ohio,” Shalev said. “After the DNF at Olympus, I added Ohio, and then I came to Tennessee because I realized the ARA National Championship was within reach. I can’t believe I’ve done it. If you told me right now that I won it, I still wouldn’t believe you. I think I need to sleep on it.
“Now it’s straight back to focusing on LSPR because it’s only three weeks away, and then Charlevoix comes right after that. Both are double-points rounds for the Stellantis Rally Cup, so they’re very important. I’m excited to finish the full ARA season and be able to say I’ve done everything from Sno*Drift to LSPR, then go to Canada and do something unique as well.”
“We’ve got a good thing going,” co-driver Ray said. “Instead of ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ we’re trying to win by a thousand micro improvements. We’re always trying to get better together mentally, physically and emotionally, while working on the notes and the setup of the car. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
With the Overmountain victory securing the ARA O2WD title, Shalev can now turn his attention to the Stellantis Rally Cup North America, the single-make championship for Peugeot 208 Rally4 competitors across selected ARA and Canadian Rally Championship events. Shalev, who entered Overmountain tied for the points lead in the Stellantis Rally Cup with Canadian Vincent Lalande, and Tung will continue their Cup campaigns at next month’s LSPR, which serves as the double-points semifinal before the season-ending Rallye de Charlevoix in Canada.
Though the O2WD championship is secured, second place is still open to five competitors entered at LSPR, including Cowan who currently holds second, Nicholas Tippman who sits third, Hooper in fourth, and Tung in fifth.
Madelyn Tabor Celebrates 24th Birthday with LN4 Championship Lead
The LN4 class, which combines Limited Four-Wheel-Drive (L4WD) and Normally Aspirated Four-Wheel-Drive (NA4WD) machinery, produced one of the most dramatic class battles at Overmountain, with several championship contenders entering Tennessee capable of shaking up the standings.
Among the favorites were the Irish driving duo of Aoife Raftery and Hannah McKillop in the DirtFish Women in Motorsport-backed Ford Fiesta Rally3. Raftery arrived in Tennessee just one week after clinching the British Rally Championship [BRC3] title at Rali Ceredigion and leading the ARA LN4 Championship, looking to strengthen her advantage before LSPR.
Also in the fight were Richo Healey and Michelle Miller, still in their first season of four-wheel-drive competition in the Eagle Rock Racing Ford Fiesta Rally3, along with the Ukrainian pairing of Nick Pysklyvets and Roman Romanchuk in the Standard Energy Racing L4WD Subaru WRX STI, fresh off their first class victory at Ojibwe last month.
Madelyn Tabor and Sophia McKee ultimately emerged as the crew to beat, however, taking their Steven Redd Racing (SRR) Ford Fiesta Rally3 to the top step of the podium and into the championship lead by the end of Saturday.
Healey and Miller’s rally ended before it could begin when their Fiesta was unable to make the start of SS1, bringing an extremely early end to their hopes.
Raftery and McKillop opened the rally in the lead, with Tabor and McKee second and Pysklyvets and Romanchuk third. On SS2, the NA4WD 2005 Subaru Impreza of Eliza Coleman and Ryan Scott moved ahead of Pysklyvets, as did the MINI USA and John Cooper Works Race Team Countryman JCW of Luis Perocarpi and Mark Wells.
Pysklyvets and Romanchuk regained fourth on SS3 and climbed back into third on SS5 the following morning. The biggest change came on SS6, however, when class leaders Raftery and McKillop suffered an off, handing the lead to Tabor and McKee and promoting Pysklyvets and Romanchuk to second and Coleman and Scott to third.
Despite taking multiple class stage wins through the remainder of the rally, Pysklyvets and Romanchuk were unable to overhaul the Rally3 Fiesta on Overmountain’s tight Tennessee roads. Tabor and McKee held on to claim their first class victory since 2024 and leave Overmountain atop the championship with 87 points, ahead of Pysklyvets on 76 and Raftery on 72.
“It was a pretty good way to celebrate my 24th birthday,” Tabor said. “People brought cupcakes, my whole service area was decorated, and my dad got me a new intercom for the car because the one I had wasn’t very good. It was a very practical birthday gift.
“We kind of inherited the lead after Aoife unfortunately went out, and then Nick and Roman were pretty close behind us, so I knew I had to lock in. I’ve never really had a battle like that before in my racing career, so it was really fun.
“Ultimately, we weren’t thinking about trying to stay in first place. We were focused on what I needed to work on, where I could improve, and what we could do better on the next loop. Sophia and I had a lot of really good pep talks between stages, and I’m really thankful for that partnership.”
The LN4 field also accounted for two of the three recipients of the Subaru “For the Love of Rally” Award, which provides cash prizes to the highest-finishing non-factory Subaru teams among National entries. Pysklyvets and Romanchuk earned the $1,000 first-place award, while Coleman and Scott received $500 for second.
Henry Tabor Takes L2WD Championship
While Madelyn was making moves in LN4, her brother Henry Tabor secured his first National Championship in Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD) with a victory of his own at Overmountain.
The 2025 championship runner-up entered 2026 ready to go one better. After skipping the season-opening Sno*Drift Rally, Tabor began his campaign alongside co-driver Dylan Hooker with a perfect points haul at Round Two, the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, taking both the class victory and Power Stage win.
After a fifth-place finish at April’s Olympus Rally with Jack Gillow-Wiles in the right seat, Hooker returned as navigator for a runner-up finish at Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR), followed by back-to-back victories at Ojibwe Forests Rally and Overmountain to secure the championship.
The title also carries a family connection for Tabor. His father, Mark Tabor, won the Production championship in the 2004 SCCA ProRally Championship alongside co-driver Kevin Poirier.
The younger Tabor has spent much of this season battling the 2007 Lexus IS250 of Ryan McGrath and Crystina Coats, but at Overmountain his biggest challenge came from professional drifter Ryan Tuerck, who made his stage rally debut in another River City Rally (RCR) IS250 alongside co-driver Mika Rajasalo.
Tabor and Hooker ended Friday second in their 2015 Ford Fiesta ST behind the first-time rally competitor, but Tuerck suffered an off on Saturday’s opening stage, handing the lead to Tabor. From there, Tabor and Hooker took control and carried the advantage through the remainder of the rally.
Photo by Codey Dahl
“It’s a childhood dream come true,” Tabor said. “Back in the SCCA days, my dad won the championship in 2004 in our Acura RSX, and I did my first-ever stage rallies in that car. Growing up, I always wanted to be like Dad.
“He really revitalized our program in 2024 to go chase a 20th-anniversary title, and we’ve just been getting better every year. I owe it to Dad, the whole team and crew, Madelyn, my mom, everybody with Tabor Racing Team and UNOH. I’m kind of speechless. I’ve dreamed about this day forever.”
Tabor celebrated the championship with a “shoey,” fulfilling a promise he made to himself at his first stage rally.
“I said I would never do one, but at my first-ever stage rally I made a bet with myself that if I ever won a National Championship, I would do one,” Tabor said. “That would be the only one I would ever do. I made another bet about half an hour ago that if I ever win the Overall Championship, I have to do a double, so hopefully I have a few more years.”
The victory secured Tabor’s first-ever National Championship, while McGrath and Coats finished second both at Overmountain and in the final championship order after also taking the Power Stage victory. Stepan and Bohdan Kravets completed the Overmountain L2WD podium in their 2014 Ford Fiesta ST.
The 2026 ARA National Championship concludes at Lake Superior Performance Rally, October 9-10.
Mayer Secures East Regional Championship as Williamson Wins Overmountain Regional
As with every round of the ARA National Championship, Overmountain Rally Tennessee ran a concurrent Super Regional event alongside the National competition, giving grassroots and local competitors the opportunity to test themselves on the same roads as the international stars. The Regional field tackled nearly the same two-day itinerary, omitting only the National Power Stage loop for an 87.64-mile, 11-stage event that served as the final in-region round of the 2026 ARA East Regional Championship.
While the overall championship is sealed, multiple class championships remain open, as the ARA’s regional championships allow the top points finish from an outside-region performance to count in another region’s championship. With 20 of the 25 regional entries from Overmountain entered at the Central Regional Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR), the event acts as an unofficial bonus round for the Eastern Regional Championship for teams still fighting for their title.
Coming into the event, Tom Mayer and Dillon McKenna needed only an overall podium finish to secure their respective championships in the RallySport Direct-backed L4WD 2002 Subaru WRX. After opening the rally fifth overall on SS1, the pair climbed to fourth by the end of Friday before moving into third on the first stage Saturday morning.
Their charge continued on SS8 when the early rally leader fell back to third, promoting Mayer and McKenna to second overall. They held that position for the remainder of the rally to secure the championship, a L4WD class victory, and their best overall finish yet at Overmountain.
The title caps a season that has seen Mayer and McKenna earn three overall podiums in four East Region events, including victory at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally.
The only crew ahead of them at the Overmountain finish was Andrew Williamson and Julia Stewart in the Bit by Bit Racing NA4WD 1993 Subaru Impreza. The victory marked the pair’s first-ever overall Regional win, and their pace also stood out against the National field. Across the stages shared by National and Regional L4WD and NA4WD competitors, Williamson and Stewart recorded the quickest cumulative time of any entrant in those classes.
Williamson and Stewart opened the rally fourth overall after SS1 before climbing to second on the first stage Saturday morning. Ryan Pryzbylkowski and Betsy Nguyen had led the Regional rally since SS1 in the Vilko Motorsport NA4WD 2001 Subaru Impreza “3.0RS,” but dropped to third on SS8, allowing Williamson and Stewart to take the lead and Mayer and McKenna to move into second.
Williamson and Stewart remained out front for the rest of the rally to take the overall and NA4WD victories, while Pryzbylkowski and Nguyen held third overall to finish second in NA4WD.
Third in NA4WD went to the Wide Open Rallysport 1999 Subaru Impreza of Camden Sheridan and Jeremy Frey. The pair ran second in class early in the rally, but compounding mechanical issues followed by a flat tire on SS4 dropped them to third. After earning two class stage wins on Saturday, they held their position to complete the NA4WD podium.
Vilko Motorsport teammates James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis took second in L4WD behind Mayer and McKenna after a strong run in their 2004 Subaru WRX, while Leonardo Quintero and Leonel Fuerte completed the class podium in their 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
Rear-Wheel-Drive Impreza and Scion 2GR-86 Fight for O2WD
Regional two-wheel-drive fields frequently feature some of the most unusual machinery in the ARA, and Overmountain was no exception.
Perhaps the most confusing build to the casual viewer, Travis Mattonen’s rear-wheel-drive 1998 Subaru Impreza topped the list of atypical entries and, after SS1, the O2WD standings as well. Mattonen and co-driver Anikka Nykanen opened a lead of nearly 10 seconds over Chris and Sara Nonack in their ANY% V6-swapped Scion 2GR-86, competing in just its second event after debuting with a class victory at Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally earlier this year.
Mattonen and Nykanen (wife of ARA National competitor Matt Nykanen) held the lead through SS4, only to lose more than four minutes on Friday’s closing stage. The delay dropped them to third behind the Nonacks and the 1976 Ford Escort of Michael Gillespie and Brian McNamara.
On Saturday, the Nonacks set about extending their advantage with stage win after stage win, building a lead of nearly five minutes by SS8, when Mattonen and Nykanen moved back into second ahead of Gillespie and McNamara.
The Nonacks controlled the remainder of the rally and capped off their performance at Newport Speedway, where the 2GR-86 set the fastest Super Special time of the entire Regional field and placed in the top 10 of all competitors across the national and regional fields. Chris and Sara took the O2WD victory, with Mattonen and Nykanen second, and Gillespie and McNamara third.
In L2WD, Imogen Thompson and Steven Harrell led after SS1 in their 2012 Ford Fiesta, followed by Becca GT and Brandon Pace in their 2017 Ford Fiesta ST, with first-time rally driver James Letchworth and co-driver Lucas Mozes third in their 1994 Toyota Celica.
Unfortunately, Thompson and Harrell’s rally came to an early end when mechanical issues forced the Fiesta out on SS2. The team listed the reason for its withdrawal simply as, “Electricity is witchcraft and we were bested by its dark arts.”
GT and Pace inherited the lead after SS2, but Letchworth and Mozes moved ahead on SS3, while Joel Bruns and Makisa Upton climbed into third in their Ford Fiesta ST.
The order remained unchanged for the rest of the rally, allowing Letchworth and Mozes to take the L2WD class victory in Letchworth’s first-ever stage rally. GT and Pace finished second, moving GT into the lead of the East Regional L2WD Championship, while Bruns and Upton completed the podium.
Letchworth and Mozes were also awarded the Ken Block 43VER Award presented by 43i after embodying the press-on-regardless spirit behind the award. An early broken control arm damaged the Celica, but the pair straightened the car out and continued on to win the class in Letchworth’s debut. The award recognizes a team that best represents Ken Block’s “Ain’t Care” attitude, press-on-regardless mindset, and commitment throughout the rally, with 43i covering safety equipment for the recipients up to $1,430.
While Overmountain marked the final in-region round of the East Regional Championship, many of its competitors will meet again at LSPR in just a few weeks, where an out-of-region result can still count toward the final championship standings.
Mika Block wins ARA STRYKER Challenge Debut
Overmountain marked the third round in which the ARA STRYKER Challenge has joined the series.
Competing on the same stages but scored separately from the ARA National field, the STRYKER RX1 showed some of its strongest pace yet. Mika Block and Gary McElhinney took victory in their first STRYKER entry, recording an overall elapsed time that would be competitive among the national field.
STRYKER co-founder Cole Powelson and co-driver Stefan Trajkov finished second in the Challenge, while “Texas” Dave Carapetyan and KJ Miller completed the podium in third.
The cars continued to gather data and build pace on stage as both STRYKER and the ARA continue to develop the Challenge.
Complete Overmountain Rally Tennessee results: https://www.americanrallyassociation.org/event-results
To see images for Overmountain Rally Tennessee - visit the 2026 Overmountain Rally TN on Apexiel
~Mason Runkel for the ARA
