Brandon Semenuk claimed a fourth 100 Acre Wood Rally win in a row to continue his unbeaten start to 2025, despite an early throttle issue, while Ryan Booth stole third place and the RC2 class win from Patrick Gruszka on a dramatic final stage.
But perhaps the star of the rally was Swede Calle Carlberg, who muscled his front-wheel-drive Peugeot 208 Rally4 to Open 2WD victory and a fine fifth overall – just 26.3 seconds shy of the overall podium.
Round two of this year’s American Rally Association National championship presented by Kubota, weather became a major factor at 100 Acre Wood with tornado warnings and two stages canceled due to spreading forest fires on Friday, but Semenuk was again the overwhelming favorite in his factory Subaru Motorsports USA machine.
However, failing to read the script was Conner Martell. Running an older WRX built by Vermont SportsCar, he vowed to push the Canadian harder in Missouri than he had at the season-opening Sno*Drift Rally, and after two stages it was Martell who held the lead over Semenuk.
Semenuk was compromised by a car that kept shutting down on him over the first loop of four stages, though. Once fixed, the three-time champion disappeared to record victory by 1m45.3s and the powerstage win.
“Another 100 Acre victory – this rally’s treated me well, so no complaints,” Semenuk told DirtFish at the finish. “I had a lot of fun out there.”
But the end result belied the issue that threatened Semenuk’s victory.
“It was basically just a throttle issue,” he explained. “The throttle would just completely go away. And with that because there’s no throttle we lose power-steering.
A throttle problem caused Semenuk trouble early on
“So essentially you’re flat out on these stages, you throw it into a corner and you might lose throttle and power-steering all at once.
“It could be a bad day if it happened at the wrong moment so we had to manage the issue, plus be a bit more reserved in the drive. It wasn’t the going out, pushing and creating a gap start to the rally I was hoping for; instead it was ‘let’s just get the car to service and then start over’.”
Second place for the fourth consecutive ARA National event in a row, Martell had no regrets – pleased to have at least put Semenuk under some degree of pressure.
“I had so much fun at this rally,” Martell told DirtFish. “We were very consistent, pretty close to Brandon throughout the rally.
“He got us quite a bit on the powerstage – we tried to save our tires and it just didn’t happen. Brandon’s great – he’s super consistent and I note he’s always got something left in the tank no matter what, but our performance was good this weekend and we’ll hopefully carry on to Olympus.”
Puncture drama in RC2
Giving the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 its US rally debut, Open 2WD champion Ryan Booth’s return to four-wheel-drive was rewarded with a class win and an overall podium.
But 5.5s were all that separated him and Hyundai i20 R5 pilot Patrick Gruszka as both suffered punctures at crucial points throughout the weekend.
Javier Olivares had been the early class pacesetter in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, but a crash on stage four – caused by a flat rear-left tire – ejected him from the battle.
Booth eventually won RC2 - but it was far from straightforward
That left Booth clear out front and seemingly on course for a dominant class win, only for a puncture on the third-last stage to dump him 53.3s behind Gruszka.
Despite going faster on the penultimate stage, all hope seemed lost for Booth with a 44.3s deficit heading onto the powerstage, but remarkably a flat for Gruszka tipped the balance back in Booth’s favor who finished the stage 15.5s ahead of his rival.
But the drama wasn’t over, as a puncture for Booth on the road section, three miles from the final time control, meant he checked in late and was given a 10s penalty.
Mercifully, that was still enough for him to be able to claim the second ARA National podium of his career.
“We got lucky enough and we made it,” Booth said. “There’s a lot left in the car and a lot left in me, but I’m happy to be here. It’s been about three and a half years since we drove a four-wheel-drive car so we’ll keep chugging along.”
Gruszka was left to ponder what might have been after picking up a puncture on the “first corner of the first turn of the last stage”.
“Rally is sometimes such a demoralizing sport,” he said. “For a second there we were in third place and pretty comfortably, managing what we were losing to Mr Booth. But props to Mr Booth, he definitely deserved that one – he’s been kicking a** all weekend.”
Alastair Scully completed his first event in an i20 R5 third in class and seventh overall.
Junior ERC star dominates O2WD
Calle Carlberg was peerless in the Open 2WD field behind the wheel of a Peugeot 208 for the first time, winning every single stage in class to beat Matthew Nykanen by over six minutes.
Carlberg loved his first visit to America, which ended in resounding class success
The Swede – who usually competes in the Junior European Rally Championship – claimed fifth overall by a handsome 2m35.2s ahead of Sean Donnelly, who himself was dominant in his class (Limited 4WD) in a Renault Clio Rally3.
Co-driven by his father Torbjörn, Carlberg couldn’t hide his smile at the finish of the 108-mile event.
“I’m driving a rally car on amazing roads, do I need to say more than that?” he grinned. “We had so much fun and there hasn’t been too much pressure other than to finish, so I’ve been able to enjoy it and smile my way through.
“I had no idea coming here [how we would do] against so many cars with different performance, but for sure I expected to be fighting for it. The goal was always to win and after stage two we thought it was possible without punctures or mistakes.
“We did what we should and I am very thankful to Stellantis and Peugeot Sport for selecting me to drive here. The whole week has been amazing, not only the rally.
“If it was up to me, I would be here for Olympus – the next round. I have some other stuff so I won’t be there but who knows [for the rest of the season], there are a lot of rallies.”
O2WD winner from Sno*Drift, Nykanen was living up to his spectacular reputation with sideways antics in his BMW, but he was slowed by multiple flat tires throughout the weekend and even bent a control arm on the last loop.
He claimed eighth overall and second in class, one spot ahead of Bradley Morris in his Mitsubishi Mirage.
Donnelly “leveled up” to win L4WD
Donnelly meanwhile was “proud” to have come out on top of what had been a tight fight with Nick Allen’s Ford Fiesta Rally3 in L4WD; the pair split by just 10.7s before Allen was forced out with a broken control arm.
Allen retired on the second day, leaving Donnelly unchallenged on his way to L4WD victory
Two years after making his rallying debut, Donnelly was in a reflective mood at the end of the event – having finished sixth from an initial starting place of 24th.
“I feel like Zach [Pfeil, co-driver] and I leveled up – our comfort zone is much higher now,” Donnelly told DirtFish.
“Full transparency – I had this goal to climb the ladder, and I feel a bit big step closer. I’m excited about the progress.”
Camerion Gholson (Subaru Impreza WRX) was second in class and 11th overall, 14.6s behind Limited 2WD winner Chris Cyr (Ford Fiesta ST).
Rethy reigns in Regional thriller
Ryan Rethy won the Super Regional event by a scant 4.5s over fellow Subaru steerer Dustin Peterke after a cautious final stage drive, but it was the battle with Todd Hartmann that grabbed all the attention.
Rethy didn't have it easy, but took victory in the Regional event
Hartmann’s Ford Fiesta Proto could barely be separated from Rethy’s Impreza Outback all weekend, with Hartmann nosing ahead by 2.6s with just two stages left to run.
But there was penultimate stage heartbreak for Hartmann as he started to feel some heat under the car, which turned out to be a broken exhaust.
Electing not to risk the car, Hartmann retired and paved the path clear for Rethy to grab the spoils.
“Really unfortunate about Hartmann, we were really enjoying that battle with him – would have liked to see him finish it out but, you know, rally!” Rethy said.
“We weren’t expecting to be as close as we were, and once we saw it was an icing of the cake type thing we unfortunately got a flat on stage nine, first stage of the day, and kind of had to limp it throughout the rest of the loop – to go four stages with no spare was a little nerve-wracking!
“So we ended up packing two spares for the final loop, and wouldn’t you know it? No flats.”
An impressive final stage win (by 17.7s) drew Peterke perilously close to stealing the win from under Rehty’s nose, but he had to settle for second with Michael Hurst’s Ford Capri completing the overall podium.
The next round of the ARA National series is the Olympus Rally on April 12-13.
