The 2023 American Rally Association West Championship will be opening on a new regional event running this December known as The Ridge Rally.
The Ridge Rally is planned to take place on December 2nd and 3rd in Lancaster, CA, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles.
The two-day event will consist of roughly 70 gravel and sand stage miles, and is expected to draw up to 30 competitors for a night of super specials followed by a day of stages in the California desert.
Rally chairman, Ryan Bakeman, sees the event as a rebirth of the High Desert Trails Rally, and is using parts of many different famous rallies from US rally history.
“The Ridge Rally brings back the super special stages that Rim of the World ran for many years in the early 2000’s,” Bakeman told DirtFish. “The Ridge Rally also activates a set of roads that was first used back in the first High Desert Trails Rally in 1973 in Jawbone Canyon in the Mojave Desert.”
It’s not just historic roads for the sake of historic roads though, the paths planned for The Ridge Rally are meant to be a mixture of all driving styles.
Bakeman explains, “the rally consists of 70 stage miles of open “flat out” roads that change to switch backs and hairpins while traversing a 4,000 ft elevation change.”
The 70 stage miles make The Ridge longer than any regional event on the 2022 ARA calendar, saved for Super Regionals, and the location just outside of LA brings the ARA to a new area of the country, expected to draw regulars from Rally Nevada, as well as those commonly seen in the PNW rallies.
For more information on The Ridge Rally, stay tuned to the American Rally Association website, as well as the official site for the organization, here.
