Ryan Booth took advantage of reigning champion Brandon Semenuk's error to stand atop the overall podium
Photography by Jacob Halfman / ARA
Words by Alasdair Lindsay, Head of Digital Strategy
Reigning American Rally Association presented by Kubota National Open 2WD champion Ryan Booth secured his first outright rally win at the top level, taking advantage of a first-day Brandon Semenuk crash and fending off his fellow RC2-class drivers for the overall spoils.
Booth, who switched from a Ford Escort Mk2 to a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for the 2025 season, was fastest out of the blocks on Friday and had led a four-way battle for the podium places behind reigning National champion Semenuk early on.
When Semenuk slid off the road and got stuck in the thick and plentiful undergrowth of Shawnee Forest on stage five, Booth then had a trio of contenders hoping to steal the win away from him.
First of those battlers to fall was Javier Olivares; he arrived at Friday midday service 37.8s off the lead but left said service in a world of trouble, discovering only after checking out that his brakes had failed.
Olivares had an outside shot at the win – and a very likely shot at an overall podium – until the brakes failed on his Fiesta Rally2
Given a choice between breaking the rules and retiring, Olivares and Element Rallysport chose the former, conducting an illegal service directly adjacent to the service park itself to replace a broken master cylinder. He picked up 13m40s in penalties – 10 minutes of which was for the illegal service, the rest for being 22 minutes late to start stage seven.
Semenuk’s Subaru team-mate Travis Pastrana is driving a WRX ARA25L this season, a Limited 4WD-spec version of the current WRX that has a narrower power band and limited downforce compared to the full-fat WRX driven by the reigning champion.
Pastrana won the Saddle Up test immediately after Semenuk’s off to move into third place at Olivares’ expense but failed to make further progress: the searing heat in Ohio was causing problems for everyone and in Pastrana’s case, reduced his turbo’s ability to generate full boost.
“We’re a little confused on what exactly it is,” said Pastrana of his car trouble. “But just the way they’ve got this car running and handling, and the fact it made it to the end, is awesome.”
Booth ended Friday’s action with a 46s lead over Pat Gruszka’s Hyundai i20 N R5 and managed his lead from there, taking a first ARA National win. Pastrana, struggling with his turbo issues, wasn’t able to make significant inroads into Gruszka and had to settle for third overall – clinching the L4WD class win in the process.
Without full power on tap, Pastrana was unable to make significant inroads on the Rally2 cars ahead of him
“We had good pace early on,” said Booth at the finish. “When I saw Brandon off I toned it back a little bit, which maybe wasn’t the right move because it was tricky driving-wise; this car doesn’t work very well if you’re not on it. But we just kept our heads down and brought it home.”
Despite Semenuk’s Friday disaster he retained a healthy lead in the championship and still scored seven points, helped by winning the powerstage by 20s. Chief title rival Conner Martell retired on Thursday evening after the Yoctangee Park superspecial, as co-driver Alex Gelsomino suffered compression fractures on two vertebrae on the landing of the superspecial’s iconic final jump.
Michael Hooper set the internet on fire at the opening superspecial, spinning while traversing the aforementioned jump and finishing the stage in reverse and racking up millions of views across social media. But more importantly, when the car was pointing the right way again he clinched the win in Open 2WD, beating Seamus Burke’s V8-powered Ford Escort Mk2 by over three minutes.
DirtFish Rally School alumnus Casen Pedersen proved that a sensible head and pace management were the key to success in the Limited 2WD category, coming from 3m34s down and fifth place to win on his ARA National debut.
Casen Pedersen, a regular at DirtFish Rally School prior to his driving career kicking off last year, won his class first time of asking at National level
Chris Cyr was fastest out of the blocks in class but crashed on stage seven, giving Santiago Iglesias a comfortable advantage out front. But with four stages to go it was Iglesias’ turn to end up off-road, sliding his Subaru BRZ off and needing a tow from Adam Brock to get running again.
With Iglesias losing 20 minutes with his off, it should have been Ryan McGrath’s rally to win – but he also crashed on the second pass of Bolster Hollow, promoting Pedersen to the lead. Mark Tabor and Nicholas Tippmann completed the L2WD podium.
“I can’t tell you how good this feels,” said Pedersen. “I didn’t think this was going to happen this weekend.
“We didn’t really have any big moments, we just found our pace. We wanted to finish, that was the goal and the rest is gravy.”
Bucky Lasek, competing for the first time in three years, joined Travis Pastrana on the LN4 podium in second place and eighth overall; Madelyn Tabor completed the class podium in a Ford Fiesta Rally3.
Booth is now a firm contender for the RC2 title
Booth’s win closes the RC2 title race gap to 27 points but crucially the Škoda driver has done one fewer event than Gruszka, so has a higher points ceiling for the season ahead (147 vs 140). Hooper’s second win in a row has promoted him ahead of Matthew Nykanen in the race for O2WD championship honors. Seamus Burke wheeled his venerable Mk2 Escort to second in O2WD in Ohio, with reigning L2WD champions Richo Healey and DirtFish’s own Michelle Miller bringing their Lexus home on the podium.
Sean Donnelly’s retirement with head gasket failure has cost him the lead in the LN4 title fight, with Pastrana’s win promoting the factory Subaru driver to the top spot in the championship standings.
Words:Alasdair Lindsay
Tags: ARA 2025, Javier Olivares, Michael Hooper, Ryan Booth, SOFR, SOFR 2025, Subaru Motorsports USA, Travis Pastrana
Publish Date June 15, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/06/RbFgdLo4-Jacob-Halfman-SOFR-2025-Sat-SS15-2-780x520.jpg June 15, 2025
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