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Double-Header Prescott Rally Crowns Two First-Time Winners

Photo by Daniel Vester

Prescott, Ariz. (September 23, 2024) ~ Last weekend the American Rally Association headed west to the Grand Canyon State for a double-header weekend as 19 teams took place in the Prescott Rally.

Running for the 32nd time, this year’s Prescott Rally was split into two separate events, one covering Friday’s four stages, and another covering Saturday’s eight stages.

Three different stages were run in two directions each, making six different routes utilized for the rally, traversing up and down mountains and snaking through rock formations in the Arizona desert.

Thankfully the weather stayed nice for the rally, with highs in the mid-70s, and some overnight rain even dampening the roads and reducing dust to make visibility better as teams pushed for the fastest times possible.

With 12 stages and 113 competition miles, Prescott offered plenty of stage action for the ARA West Regional Championship drivers and co-drivers, and despite both days having the same competitors entered, the results between the two varied greatly!

Photo by Toua Herr

Goad Gets Gold on Friday

Albert Goad and Loren Bench were the big winners on Friday night after the first four stages of the event weekend. The win came as their first overall rally win in their career, as well as their first class win as they also took home the gold in NA4WD with their 2007 Subaru Impreza 2.5i.

Goad and Bench started the day in second after finishing 40.7 seconds behind NA4WD competitors Trenton Koury and Matt Michell who subsequently retired from Maximum Possible Lateness after getting stuck on the following stage.

This allowed Goad and Bench to take the lead and hold it for the remaining three stages to come away with a win. The pair were the only finishers in their class as the 1993 Impreza of Ralph Kosmides and Doug Nagy also retired after the second stage.

Second overall was the O2WD 1987 VW Golf GTi of Erik Christiansen and Amy Floyd, who started third after SS1, and stayed in second the rest of the day after Koury’s retirement.

“Prescott was an amazing event!” said Christiansen. “Riley Trout and her team put on a challenging and fun rally, and Amy and I are incredibly grateful to them for bringing it back to the rally calendar. I first competed at Prescott in 2004, so to finish Friday with a class win and second overall twenty years later was especially sweet!”

Christiansen and Floyd had the biggest field of cars for their class with four competing teams, and looked like they would have a good battle with the BMW of Jonathan Compton and James Veatch who finished SS1 just nine seconds behind, but after Compton and Veatch retired on SS2, Christiansen, and Bench held a minute lead to their nearest competition, Flynn Baglin and Andres Bautista’s 1973 Ford Ranger desert truck.

Baglin and Bautista would hold on to second in class for the first day, while Benji and Gerardo Carvallo took third.

Arto and Mary Ylikangas took third overall and first in the O4WD class in their 2002 WRX. The pair was fifth fastest overall on the first stage, but fastest in their class. While they fell to second in class to Brett and Hunter Livingston on SS2, the Livingston car got stuck on SS3, and the Ylikangas’ took their lead back, holding it the rest of the day.

O4WD saw only one other finisher on Friday night, the 2002 WRX of Ryan Bouffioux and Steven Winnat who finished fifth overall.

While four teams started SS1 in the L4WD class, only two teams reached SS2. With the field halved, Michael Thomas and Krystal Lockwood started off with a healthy 36-second lead, which they extended to nearly a full minute on SS2.

Photo by: Lorne Tresize

Unfortunately for Thomas and Lockwood, a one-minute penalty on SS3 would drop their lead back to 14.5 seconds over the 2002 WRX of Robert Shibao and Dillon McKenna.

On the final stage, Shibao and McKenna made a push and took the class lead by just 5.1 seconds for the win.

In L2WD, the 1987 VW Golf GTi of Jennifer and Terry Stonecipher started off strong despite the pair adjusting to a new suspension setup with a one-minute 28-second lead, but while continuing to get used to the changes, James Besing and Travis Harrell moved ahead to take over the lead, eventually pulling out a two-minute lead to end the day with.

The Stoneciphers took the silver medal at the end of the day, while third place went to first-time stage rallyists Grant Steen and Phillip Dozeman.

Prescott Rally Friday Results

Goad/Bench (Subaru) 40m26.6s
Christiansen/Floyd (Volkswagen) +1m3s
Ylikangas/Ylikangas (Subaru) +2m13.8s
Baglin/Bautista (Ford) +2m20s
Bouffioux/Winnat (Subaru) +4m8.6s
Shibao/McKenna (Subaru) +6m11.7s
Besing/Harrell (Honda) +6m15.4s
Thomas/Lockwood (Subaru) +6m16.8s
Stonecipher/Stonecipher (Volkswagen) +8m20.3s
Steen/Dozeman (Ford) +13m53.5s

Photo by Daniel Vester

Shibao Seals Saturday

Also winning their first-ever overall ARA event, Robert Shibao and Dillon McKenna took home the gold on Saturday’s rally after a close battle with Trenton Koury and Matt Michell.

Koury and Michell started in the lead after beating Shibao and McKenna by just 2.5 seconds on the 7.68-mile opening stage, but fell back to second on SS2 and SS3, still keeping close with less than five seconds separating them from Shibao and McKenna.

After falling to third when the Ylikangas car overtook them on SS4, Koury and Michell regained second with a gap of just 7.5 seconds to the leaders after SS5. The sixth stage of the day would seal their position though, as Shibao and McKenna opened their lead up to over 26 seconds. While Koury and Michell would win the final two stages of the rally, the margin of victory was too slim, and Shibao and McKenna took the overall win by just under 20 seconds, as well as the L4WD class win.

“With the overnight rain, dust was not as much of an issue compared to Friday’s night stages,” McKenna said after the rally, “so that allowed us to push hard and really commit on the really fast sections of what were great stages.”

“Buzzing to get an overall win in my second event on US soil and to get maximum points for the L4WD championship on what was a double points weekend.”

While Koury and Michell didn’t land on top of the overall podium, they did manage a dominant win in the NA4WD class over Friday’s overall winners, Albert Goad and Loren Bench.

“Coming into this rally we saw that we would be in the second starting position which was new for us,” Koury said. “It had us discussing things like road sweeping and grip levels.”

“Friday started out great with our first ever stage win on SS1. Unfortunately our lead was cut short when we stuffed it into an embankment on SS2. Our first ever “off” in stage rally.”

“The car was stuck pretty good and required us to spend lots of time digging it out resulting in a DNF for Friday’s rally. Luckily Matt and I were fine and the car hardly took any damage. Back at service the crew took over and got the car back to 100%.”

“Saturday was a new day and while the nerves were high from Friday's “off” we would be out for redemption. Matt and I focused and fell right back in the groove and got our second stage win on SS5 right out of the gate followed by SS9, SS11 and SS12.”

“It was such a great time battling it out all day for a podium position! There was no one dominant leader, everyone had to push and stay locked in! It was racing at its best in my opinion. All said and done Matt and I were extremely pleased with our first-ever first in class and second overall result for Saturday’s event! An incredible weekend to say the least.”

Shibao and McKenna’s class win was over the 2002 WRX of Scott and Elizabeth Crouch as well as the 1997 Impreza of Michael Thomas and Krystal Lockwood.

Arto and Mary Ylikangas managed third place overall and first in the O4WD class two days in a row, holding the lead the whole day over their competitors.

“The roads here are amazing,” Arto said. “The competition was really fast.”

“We had some new upgrades on the car that put us in a really tight battle for overall. Robert Shibao and Trent Koury really turned up the pace in the last couple of stages and we weren't able to match their pace. But we managed to hold onto third which gave us our first overall podium.”

“We want to thank all of the volunteers and organizers. Rally Prescott is a great race because of them.”

Second place in O4WD went to Brett and Hunter Livingston, who were in third for the first five stages of the day before a strong push earned them three stage wins and moved them ahead of Ryan Bouffioux and Steven Winnat, who finished third.

The O2WD class went to the 1973 Ford Ranger desert truck of Flynn Baglin and Andres Bautista who won all but one of the eight stages Saturday. SS5 was won by the second-place finishers and Friday’s class winners, Erik Christiansen and Amy Floyd, while Tony Chavez and Sterling Smith finished third.

Photo by: Lorne Tresize

“Our weekend went amazing!” Baglin said. “With the change from the AWD class I had been in for many years, we had quite a bit of teething to get through on Friday’s stages getting used to the RWD platform and the power & grip.”

“That being said, our comfort levels went up pretty quickly, and started feeling a bit more confident by the end of the day Saturday. We have lots left to learn for the truck and how to use it properly & look forward to the next even to get more miles & smiles.”

“Grateful for all the support from the volunteers & Prescott organizers - what a great event!”

Finally in L2WD, the Stoneciphers also put in a dominant day with seven stage wins to take gold in class over Friday’s winners Besing and Harrell.

“We had a last-minute suspension change and were getting used to it on Friday” Jennifer Stonecipher explained. “The new suspension worked well and an overnight thunderstorm gave us some extra grip which enabled us to attack the stages on Saturday and secure the victory.”

After the double-header weekend, many new leaders have emerged in the ARA West points.

Goad and Shibao both moved into second and third respectively on the overall driver's championship, with co-drivers Bench and McKenna moving to third and fourth respectively.

Goad and Bench also both lead their championships in the NA4WD class over Andy Miller and Shaun Tracy, while Shibao and McKenna now both lead their championships in L4WD.

Tony Chavez and Erik Christiansen are both tied at 32 points in the O2WD driver’s championship behind Dave Clark, while their co-drivers Sterling Smith and Amy Floyd sit tied with the same amount of points for the lead in the co-driver’s championship.

James Besing and Jennifer Stonecipher are also tied for the lead of the L2WD drivers’ championship with 30 points each, ahead of Casen Pedersen with 29 points. Terry Stonecipher now leads the co-driver’s championship by a margin of 7 points over Brie Moore.

The next round of the ARA West Championship will be Tour de Forest Rally in Shelton Washington October 5. For more information head to the event page on our website, or visit the official website, here!