Posted Monday, June 16, 2025 at 10:41pm
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.
