Ridgecrest, CA
For the Rebelle Rally competitors, it’s a relief to make it through their marathon leg and move on to one of the Rally’s favorite basecamp locations, Ridgecrest. Warmer temperatures and rocky trails greeted the teams as they looped through Gold Point and the beautiful Joshua Trees before heading down to basecamp. Described as a fun and flowing day of driving, teams collected checkpoints for 6.5 hours and then headed to a longer transit along the eastern slope of the Sierra Mountains to their evening Ridgecrest camp.
At the end of Day 3, teams could see their scores from the marathon leg. Back up on top today were Team #129 4xEventures (Nena Barlow/Teralin Peterit) for the 4×4 class. This is proving to be a very competitive class again this year with the top three finishers today all within nine points. Second place today went to Team #187 Limestone Legends (Alex Anderson/Lilly Macaruso) who climbed up two places from their finish yesterday. Third for the day was Team #152 Toyota Way-Finders (Becky Brophy/Samantha Barber). Navigator for Team #152 had the following analysis of their marathon leg and strategy for the two days, “On the marathon leg we just went for it all and went for the X’s we knew. On both days, we knew that we had to really focus on time because it was tight closing times on everything. We really focused on keeping to our closing times and watching those and trying to make quicker decisions than what we had last year.”
All the teams today fought for each and every point, keeping the other teams chasing them on their toes.
For the X-Cross™ class, the team who came out on top on Day 3 after the marathon leg was Team #202 Mach-E Rally (Bailey Campbell/Kaleigh Miller) in their all-new Mustang Mach-E Rally. They were one of only two X-Cross™ teams who didn’t receive a penalty today. Following closely on their heels was #200 Built Wild (Melissa Clark/Jessica Moore) in the Ford Bronco Sport Badlands and finally breaking into the top three was Team #206 KiAloha (Susie Saxten/Verena Mei) in their 2024 KIA Telluride X-Pro as the third-place finisher.
Teams now prepare for a day of chasing checkpoints in the open OHV areas around Spangler and Ridgecrest.
PARTNER HIGHLIGHT – PIRELLI
Pirelli is constantly looking for solutions that meet the new mobility needs of consumers. For the Rebelle Rally, that means looking to the new Scorpion™ family of products that were specifically designed for SUVs. Tires are an important element for any team during the Rally as it is a critical link between their vehicle and the terrain.
As a returning partner for the third year, Pirelli has proven that they are more than just a brand for luxury vehicles and has proven its capabilities as an off-road tire.