Rebelle Rally Field Update: DAY 6

October 20, 2023
Imperial Dunes, CA

Competitors have finally made it to Glamis and have arrived at the final basecamp of the eighth Rebelle Rally. After their second marathon leg of the event, teams reached camp where they learned their scores from the past two days. Day 6 was a continuation of the previous day’s checkpoint hunting that kept teams in Johnson Valley for the morning before a precision enduro that was designed by Course Director, Jimmy Lewis. As a former Dakar Rally competitor, the enduro roadbooks he creates use internationally recognized symbols and notations to guide teams along their route. Once complete, teams had a long transit down to the Imperial Dunes, commonly referred to as Glamis. There were a few final points available for competitors to capture before heading into basecamp as teams prepared for their final day of competition.

At the end of the two days of scoring, the teams saw only a handful of points separating them for the stage. Ending the Day 5/Day 6 stage on top in the 4×4 class was Team #187 Limestone Legends (Lilly Macaruso/Alex Anderson) who were one of only three overall teams who scored more than 80% of the available points. Close on their heels was Team #129 4xEventures (Nena Barlow/Teralin Peterit) and Team #131 Team Velocity (Karisa Haydon/Trista Smith).

As teams head into their final day, Team #129 leads the overall standings, “both of us are tired to our souls. That’s one stole that from [fellow competitor] Liz Long actually. I’m tired and in my soul, we’re wiped. Emily Miller is wiping the floor with us. And we love it, but it’s it’s hard.” said Barlow about their competition so far. “We had to watch our time today. We’ve had to worry about fuel, which is not something I’ve ever had to worry about. I’ve always had plenty of range but now we’ve had to watch fuel and time all day long. We’re not used to chasing the clock. We usually set a pace and are ahead of schedule. In the past we’ve had to worry about making sure we didn’t click before an opening time but today we made it to our green with one minute and 38 seconds to spare.”

For the X-Cross™ class, Team #205 Wild Grace 8.0 (Rebecca Donaghe/Sedona Blinson) confidently led their BMW X2 M35i to the top of the scoreboard for the marathon stage. Following behind them was Team #200 Built Wild (Melissa Clark/Jessica Moore) in their 2022 Bronco Sport Badlands and Honda Engineering Team #208 The Co-Pilots (Hillary Tate/Liz Long). While Clark and Moore have the overall lead going into the final day, the competitors know that the dunes can often change the luck for teams chasing the final podium.

Follow along live for Day 7 presented by Total Chaos as teams hunt for the final checkpoints in the Glamis dunes.