McKee, KY ~ Two days of Bluegrass rallying through Appalachian Kentucky have come to an end as the Boone Forest Rally successfully completed its second year as part of the ARA East Championship.
Expanding this year into a two-day Super Regional format, Boone Forest Rally traversed over 70 stage miles with a unique format allowing for recce in the morning each race day, and multiple Parc Exposés across three days, including a festival in McKee, Kentucky on Thursday night which welcomed fans, drivers, vendors, and more to come and experience the rally community.
This is all very intentional on the part of event organizers Backroads of Appalachia and Erik Hubbard who are pushing hard to make sure that the rally community and local community grow together year after year to drive motorsport tourism to the region and grow rally in the community.
“As the Executive Director of Backroads of Appalachia, creating a top-tier rally in Central Appalachia has long been my dream,” Hubbard explained. “Seeing this dream come to fruition is a true blessing, especially with the collaboration of rally legends such as John Buffum, Mark Everett, Lance Smith, and Art Gruszka. Their involvement has exceeded all our expectations, and we feel incredibly fortunate.”
“The support from our local community has left a significant impression on the ARA, and we take great pride in showcasing our culture and region. Most importantly, the Boone Forest Rally brings vital economic benefits to our area, filling our hotels, restaurants, and shops.”
“A personal highlight for me was witnessing the excitement of our children as they received awards on stage. Additionally, the dedication of our volunteers and firefighters was truly inspiring.”
“The Boone Forest Rally is made possible through partnerships with the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Kentucky Department of Transportation, and the Rockcastle, Lee, and Jackson Fiscal Courts. We are deeply grateful for their support.”
“This year, we raised over $2,000 for the New Zion Food Pantry and engaged more than 25 crucial volunteers in addiction recovery. Seeing these individuals take on responsibilities and be accepted by the community was the most rewarding part of my year-long efforts.”
The bedrock-based gravel roads of Kentucky are touted as being some of the best in the nation, as they stand up against damage, and provide a smooth, consistent surface through the mountains and valleys of the region.
With 35 miles of racing on Friday and 39 on Sunday, the 25 entries enjoyed a 74-mile itinerary of seven brand-new stages that challenged driver and co-driver alike as they twisted and undulated through the foothills of Kentucky.
Two clear front-runners were chosen before the rally even began, as the Vermont SportsCar WRX STI of Connor Martell and Alex Gelsomino and the Green APU Hyundai i20 Rally2 car of Patrick Gruszka and Ross Whittock both seemed like clear choices for the event overall win.
Being a Super Regional rally, cars capable of winning National overall rallies aren’t usually present, but the incredible Kentucky roads beckoned these two teams to compete despite not being part of the National calendar.
Apart from those two teams, there were still plenty of big names in the US rally scene in attendance.
The HART Rally Team was present with their 2017 Civic and 2023 Integra both competing for the L2WD class.
L2WD points leaders Richo Healey and Michelle Miller were also in attendance, as well as the two-time regional L2WD champion team ANY% with Chris and Sara Nonack.
2023 Boone Forest Rally runners-up John Schrage and Nick Balzer entered in their NA4WD 2007 Impreza, and a former L4WD favorite Phil Wearn was back, this time in the same WRX STI but converted to rear-wheel-drive to compete in O2WD with Keegan Helwig navigating.
After SS1, Turkey Foot on Friday, Martell and Gelsomino opened up a 23-second gap on the field, with Gruszka and Whittock in second, another 24 seconds ahead of Tom and Karl Mayer in third.
This pattern of pulling away at the front would continue to the end of day one, where after six stages, Martell and Gelsomino led by 1m36.7s over Gruszka and Whittock, who were another 2m28.6s ahead of the Mayers.
While the competition for the main podium wasn’t close, class battles across the field were some of the fiercest the ARA has seen all year.
The most exciting had to be the 10-car L2WD class, where John Sharps and Craig Ackerman won SS1 by 1.7 seconds in the HART Rally Integra over Healey and Miller, and 1.8 seconds over Chris Sladek and Cole Clements in the HART Rally Civic. Just 10 seconds separated the top five cars on stage one, with Casen Pedersen and Michael Hordijk’s Lexus and Nick Bukky and Kyle Williams’ Honda Fit taking fourth and fifth respectively.
On SS2, Turkey Hill II, Sladek jumped Healey to take first by 4.7 seconds, while Sharps fell back to third. SS3, Hale Ridge saw Healey make a big push to take the stage win by over 10 seconds, pushing Sladek back to second, now just two-hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate Sharps.
While it looked like the HART Rally Team would be the battle to watch on SS4, White Ash, Pedersen and Hordijk made a strong push themselves and moved into third, dropping Sharps to fourth. While Sladek took a win on the final stage of the day, the running order stayed the same for the final two stages with the top five all still within battling distance to the competitors around them going into day two.
O2WD saw similar excitement on Friday as Emmons Hathaway and Zane Jackson rocketed into the lead on SS1 in their Honda Civic. Wearn and Helwig’s RWD WRX STI finished just eight seconds behind but suffered an engine fire at the end of the stage that forced their retirement.
Sean and Max Burke put their Honda CRX in second with that retirement, but quickly had it taken away by Keenan Phillips and Helen Park on SS3 in their BMW 328i. The Burkes would re-inherit second place one stage later when Phillips and Park had to retire due to motion sickness.
Back in second, Burke pushed hard on the final two stages of the day for two stage wins, reducing his gap to Hathaway from 27 seconds on SS3 to just 7.5 seconds after SS6.
NA4WD also saw some excitement, as Andrew Williamson, Nathan Coulter, and Schrage all took stage wins on day one, with the three cars finishing the day in that order, with Coulter just 21.9 seconds off of Williamson.
At the front of the field, day two went mostly the same as day one, with Martell, Gruzska, and Mayer all widening their gap on the rest of the field, but unable to catch each other. Gruszka and Whittock came close to a stage win on SS8, New Hope, because Connor had a close call and went off the road at a junction and took about 30 seconds to get moving again.
L2WD continued to be a heated battle on Saturday, as Sladek moved back into the lead over Healey on the second stage of the day, New Hope Tower, by less than a second. Healey quickly responded by beating Sladek on the next stage by 1.4 seconds to retake the lead by an even slimmer margin of 0.4 seconds.
Pedersen and Hordijk were also pushing hard to move up the rankings winning three of the five stages on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to jump any higher, and they ended up third on the podium behind Sladek and Healey at the end of the day, with Healey on the top step.
In O2WD, the Burke CRX started strong with a stage win that pushed the team into the lead over Hathaway and Jackson, and they followed it up with four more strong stages, ending the day first on the O2WD podium with Hathaway and Jackson in second, while the Volvo 244 of Adam Brock and Elena Huizar finished third.
“The roads and the spectators were fantastic!” Sean said. “Hathaway came out swinging on the first and second stage, but then we started pushing hard to not let him slip away into an insurmountable lead.”
“We were outpowered by Hathoway's K24-powered Civic "Beast", but pressed on regardless, taking back seconds stage-by-stage, taking the lead and running with it on the second day.”
“All of these 2WD cars and teams, all very fast, with sometimes tire condition being the only factor between first and a non-podium. All of these 2WD drive guys were going very fast this weekend. It was a stacked field for sure!”
The NA4WD battle also shook up on Saturday, as Coulter and co-driver Bryce Proseus inched closer and closer to Williamson and co-driver Julia Stewart over the first three stages of the day, finally making the overtake on SS11, S Tree Tower, and winning the final stage to take the class win, as well as fourth overall. Williamson and Stewart finished second in NA4WD, while Schrage and Balzer finished third.
At the end of the day standing atop the overall podium, Connor Martell took home his second Boone Forest Rally win in as many years, this time with Alex Gelsomino at his side on the top step.
“It ended up being a good weekend!” Gelsomino said. “We had our challenges, but otherwise it was a very good event because it was great practice for Connor and me for the Ojibwe Forests Rally, and winning on top of that is just the icing on the cake.
“This rally had beautiful roads that remind me a lot of the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. Flowy, some narrow bits but otherwise quite technical, so it did require quite a bit of work from everybody, not just us. On the pace notes, you have to be ultra-precise. We got great hospitality we got from everybody in Kentucky, from Backroads of Appalachia, from the organizers, from the workers, and everybody, it’s truly a beautiful place with amazing roads and I’m looking forward to going back there in the future.”
“We’ve got to work on notes, and we’ve got to get used to each other, but that usually takes three or four events so we are on the right path, and obviously the result was good and the team is happy! From now until the end of the season we’ll focus on a couple of National events.”
Finishing second, the Green APU Hyundai i20 Rally2 of Gruszka and Whittock stood second on the podium despite finding themselves a bit in no-man’s-land for most of the rally. Regardless of not having much direct competition, the Green APU team had a great time at the rally and enjoyed their time in Kentucky.
“It was a great event and I had a blast back in the Hyundai,” Gruszka said. “The roads were fantastic!”
“Massive thank you to Back Roads of Appalachia for putting on a great event as always and a massive thanks to the volunteers.”
Finally in third place overall and first in L4WD, Tom and Karl Mayer put on an incredible performance staying over two minutes ahead of the rest of the field behind them in their 2002 WRX, and dominating the entire field save for the high-end purpose-built rally cars from VSC and Green APU.
The overall podium was especially sweet after an issue on the last stage of STPR dropped them from second overall to a DNF.
“The roads at Boone were excellent!” Tom said. “It was very neat to be racing down Appalachian farm roads past parties on people’s front lawns. The landscape gave me rural European rally vibes, but the locals had that southern charm.”
“We were surprised to start third on the road, but quickly found a pace there that was right at home. It’s been invaluable to do three rallies in two months. With that kind of seat time, we’ve really been able to commit to every note and find the next level.”
The next round of the ARA East Championship will be the final round, as the East Championship heads to Johnson City, Tennesse September 14-15 for Overmountain Rally Tennessee. Dylan Gondyke currently leads the Drivers’ points, while Michael Farrow leads co-driver points.
Andrew Williamson and Julia Stewart both managed to move into the lead of the NA4WD East Driver and Co-Driver points with their performance at Boone, as did Tom and Karl Mayer in the L4WD East points. Mike Cessna and Jamie Lambert each lead O2WD Driver and Co-Driver points despite the Burkes’ dominance at Boone.
Chris Nonack leads L2WD East Driver driver points, but Sara Nonack is ineligible for the regional championship, so Daniel Baker finds himself leading Co-Driver points.
~Mason Runkle, for the ARA with photos by Seth Cox, Clayton Smith and Adam Bachi
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