Johnson City, Tenn (September 16, 2024) ~ Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Williams officially claimed their third American Rally Association National Championship in a row Sunday evening at Overmountain Rally Tennessee.
The 2024 running of Overmountain marked the event’s first time as a National Event, having been run as the Bristol Forests Rally in years past as part of the East Region Championship.
Now as the seventh round of the ARA National Championship, Overmountain saw a total of 49 teams start the rally on Saturday, all ready to take on the over 100 miles of mountain roads that had been set out before them.
With 131 competition miles and 14 stages planned for the National teams, and 116 miles planned for the Regional competitors’ 13 stages, Overmountain welcomed three brand new stages to the calendar, and reimaginations of former Bristol Foreast Rally stages, some with over 1800 feet in elevation change, and others that totaled over 20 miles in length.
The stages were some of the most technical US rallying has ever seen, with endless hairpins, ones, and twos filling teams' pace notes, making for a rally characterized by precision, patience, and carrying momentum.
Stages were also quite rocky, and posed a big threat to tires, with many competitors picking up punctures along the way, even in recce!
The rally kicked off each day with a Parc Exposé, and held an additional one between SS6 and SS7 Saturday, as the seventh stage was a Super Special hosted at Newport Speedway, where competitors raced head-to-head on the 0.4-mile oval.
With WRC2 stars, local favorites, and the usual suspects all entered here’s how things played out as Overmountain Rally Tennessee wrote its name in the history books.
One and Two for Subaru, as Semenuk Clinches Championship
The competition at the top of the field was the closest we’ve seen all year, as not only were Semenuk and Williams fighting with their Subaru teammates Travis Pastrana and Rhiannon Gelsomino, but with WRC2 star Josh McErlean, co-driven by Eoin Treacy in John Coyne’s Hyundai i20N Rally2 car.
After finishing Saturday in the lead, Semenuk had back-to-back bad luck, getting a puncture on the first and second stages of the day, dropping him from a 16.7-second lead over McErlean to a one-minute deficit.
With Semenuk behind, Pastrana moved into second, and just 10 seconds off of McErlean pushed hard to take the lead. Fortunately for the 199 car, McErlean’s luck would soon run out, as on the 20-mile Hellbender stage, a mechanical issue with the Hyundai forced him and Treacy’s retirement.
While disappointing, McErlean and Treacy’s performance was one of the best fights against Subaru the ARA has seen in recent years, often finishing stages within just a few seconds of the two WRXs, and even holding the overall rally lead for two stages.
“Really gutting, but I think we have proved the point this weekend,” McErlean said in a post on Instagram. “Huge thank you to John Coyne , Eoin Treacy , PCRS Rallysport, and the Motorsport Ireland Academy for putting this together.”
With the Hyundai out and 45 seconds separating the two Subarus, Pastrana pushed hard to keep his lead, winning two of the three stages in the second loop, and maintaining a 45-second gap heading into the final stage.
Fortunately for Semenuk, he didn’t need to take the overall win to claim his championship, he only needed to stay in second and take home a few Power Stage points to earn his third championship, and when it came time for that, he delivered.
Semenuk won the Power Stage by a massive 27 seconds, to close the final gap between him and Pastrana to just 18 seconds, and seal his and Williams’ names as the three-time reigning ARA National Champions.
“That’s a wrap on Tennessee,” Semenuk said at the after-party in Johnson City. “Wasn’t an event win for us, Travis was just on it today, he killed it so hard, but we got second place, and we won the Power Stage which gets us enough points for the championship, so that’s the third ARA Championship in a row. Pretty relieved to have locked that up!”
While Semenuk was celebrating his championship, Pastrana was celebrating back-to-back event wins.
“What a heck of a day, man!” he said. “We won the first two stages to get it kicked off, and then two more stages, it felt awesome. We actually, as the points and everything was going, we had a chance to win the championship, or at least keep it alive, but Brandon, man on that Power Stage he was just gone. Right foot to the floor and let her eat.”
“So he and Keaton get the championship this year, and for Rhi and I to get two wins back-to-back with the chance of another one next round, it’s going to be awesome.”
Standing third on the podium, WRC2 starts Sean Johnston and Alex Kihurani also won the LN4 class in their Ford Fiesta Rally3 in their first rally together in a year and a half!
“Amazing,” Johnston said after the rally, “so grateful to Aubrey’s Restaurants, M-Sport, and Element Rallysport for making this event possible. For my first rally in 1.5 years, our goal was just to get out there and enjoy the rallying, so to be on the podium was unexpected but we’ll definitely take it!”
“Heartbroken for Josh, but that’s rallying sometimes. It’s been wonderful to finally rally on home soil, and I’m so appreciative for all the fans and organizers who made this event so enjoyable. We’ll certainly be working to raise more money and come do more ARA rallying, Alex and I absolutely loved it!”
The LN4 podium also had second place Mark Piatkowski and Aris Mantopoulos, and third place Sean Donnelly and Zach Pfeil join in celebration.
Meanwhile, in the L2WD class, the closest battle the ARA has had all year was finally settled, although not in the way anyone thought it would be.
The main fight leading into Overmountain was down to the Lexus IS250 driving team of Richo Healey and Michelle Miller battling the Pura Vida Rally Ford Fiesta ST of Roberto Yglesias and, at this round, Ulices Agesta.
Healey and Miller came into the round hoping for a podium finish to secure their title but knew that with Roberto and multiple spoiler entrants in the event, it would be a tall task.
It came as a surprise to everyone then on Saturday when both leading teams retired, as the Lexus had an off into a tree, and the Fiesta clipped a log and landed on it’s roof.
Sunday however, Healey and Miller made it back out to compete again, while Yglesias was unable to, and finishing fifth in class to earn 10 points was enough for the Lexus to secure its championship victory.
But while the Lexus won the championship, it was Chris Cyr and Glen Ray taking their second class win of the year, and the Power Stage points in the Bearly Cyrious Ford Fiesta ST, with a winning margin of over three minutes.
Rounding out the L2WD Podium Santiago Iglesias took his eighth-straight National L2WD podium in the Escuderia Boricua Rally Subaru BRZ with Jordan Buetow at his side, while Chris Sladek and Cole Clements put the HART Rally Team Acura Integra on the third spot.
In O2WD, the hometown hero Michael Hooper took the win with Michael Hordijk alongside navigating. After starting off the day with a tight battle against Seamus Burke and Gary McElhinney’s V8 MK2 Escort, Hooper went from a 23-second lead to a nearly 10-minute lead when an issue dropped Burke to third on SS10, “Hellbender.”
After that, Hooper and Hordijk cruised to the finish, securing first place in their class ahead of the 2006 Mustang of Daniel Hayes and Boyd Smith, and Burke and McElhinney’s Escort.
“Fantastic rally,” Hooper said after the final stage. “The roads are super technical and challenging with some rough bits to keep you on your toes. Glad to have gotten the win after nearly 3 hours of battling the roads and Seamus/Booth, but fell short to Booth on the power stage.”
“Hats off to the organizers and volunteers for pulling off an amazing National debut. From the beautiful setting, tricky roads, and unique features like the banked oval super special I suspect this will be a favorite stop of the series for competitors and fans alike. Can’t wait to come back!”
Finally, in the RC2 class, Javier Olivares and KJ Miller won the battle of attrition in their Rally2 debut to take first place over the Hyundais of McErlean, and Enda McCormack to be the only finishers in their class.
“It was a super challenging rally,” Miller said. “Jumping into the new car for the first time was definitely a little difficult on day one but by the end of day two we were starting to get comfortable with the car.”
“Bristol has always been one of my favorites for both roads and organization so it was really cool to do this event for the first event in a Rally2.”
National Classification
Pastrana/Gelsomino (Subaru) 2h21m53.9s
Semenuk/Williams (Suabru) +18.3s
Johnston/Kihurani (Ford) +6m51s
Olivares/Miller (Ford) +12m20.4s
Rowley/Kennedy (Ford) +16m31.8s
Piatkowski/Mantopoulos (Subaru) +20m29.4s
Hooper/Hordijk (Lexus) +22m39s
Cyr/Ray (Ford) +26m5.9s
Iglesias/Buetow (Subaru) +30m9.2s
Burke/McElhinney (Ford) +15m57.1s
Gondyke Goes Three-in-a-Row After Tight Battle with Allen
In the Regional rally, Dylan Gondyke has continued a perfect season with his third straight overall win following his performances at the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally and Southern Ohio Forest Rally
Gondyke, co-driven this round by Zach Stewart found himself in a fierce battle all day Saturday against the Rally Cats team of Kevin Allen and Liz Cordara, with the two starting Sunday just 22.6 seconds apart to Allen’s favor.
Sadly for Allen and Cordara, on the first stage of the day, “Jacob’s Creek,” the pair entered Time Control six minutes late and incurred a one-minute penalty, dropping them to second, and putting them 40 seconds behind Gondyke and Stewart.
While Gondyke hit his share of trouble and then some with a puncture on SS9, a lost bumper on SS10, a broken windshield from another competitor’s gravel spray at a stage start, and completing the second half of the day with just three working brakes, he and Stewart were able to hold off Allen and Cordara enough for a 42.2-second lead after the final stage.
“Lots of things I could say about a physically grueling, car destroying two days highlighted by the 21-mile-long Hellbender stage,” Gondyke said after the rally in a Facebook post, “but Zach and I would not be standing here without the superhuman crew of Pat, Tim, and Cam keeping us in the fight when everything was going sideways.”
While Gondyke is now dangerously close to securing the 2024 East Region Championship needing only one point to secure victory, third place overall, and third in the NA4WD class, Andrew Williamson still holds the lead in the NA4WD Championship by four points over Gondyke, while his co-driver Julia Stewart earned the NA4WD Co-driver Championship at this weekend.
In L2WD, the super tight battle between Chris and Sara Nonack’s BRZ and Nick Bukyk and Emmons Hathaway’s Honda Fit continued to rage across all six stages Sunday.
At the beginning of the day, Nonack led by only 2.1 seconds, and after the first two stages of the day, he only extended that lead to 6.5 seconds.
After a winning performance on the 21-mile Hellbender, Nonack had the most breathing room of the rally thus far, but with a lead of just 16.6 seconds, it was still not enough to get comfortable, and on the next stage a win from Bukky and Hathaway dropped that lead right back down to just over two seconds.
With two stages left, Nonack continued to push, extending his lead again on SS12 to 18.4s, and winning the final stage by a mere 0.2s to take the win and secure the 2024 East Region L2WD Championship for the second time in his career.
“I don't know what else to say,” Chris said after the rally, “great event, incredible stages and just so happy to be back in the car with Sara and have such a good battle with bukky and DJ.”
Also securing a championship, Mike Cessna and Jamie Lambert won the O2WD class in their BMW M3 by a massive 22 minutes over the VW Golf GTI of Gavin James and Jamie Beliveau, and the Lexus IS350 of Brian Katz and Matt Vaught who returned to win most of Sunday’s stages after a retirement on Saturday.
The L4WD class was won by James Pryzbylkowski and Ethan Curtis, marking their second straight win and fifth straight podium together in the class. The class podium also saw Drew Staples second in his first event transition from co-driver to driver with Leah Brisset at his side, while Andrew and Ben Zapsky placed third.
And finally, in the O4WD class, lone entrants Nick Bragg and Dominic Depaoli stood atop the podium victorious over the high attrition rate of the Tennessee roads.
The final round of the American Rally Association National Championship takes place October 11-12, 2024. For more information visit the event page on our website, or the official LSPR website.
~Mason Runkle, for the ARA