Hardwood CUP Rally Recap!

Rally fans, your Central U.P. organizers once again delivered a spectacular 2025 Hardwood CUP Rally! This event, known for its beautifully flowing gravel roads and competitor friendly format lived up to its reputation, challenging competitors across its demanding stages. As round 3 in the 2025 Atlantic Rally Cup, the stakes were high, and the teams absolutely brought their A-game, making for some truly compelling competition.

This year the weather really delivered with perfect road conditions, raining just the right amount to remove any concerns for dust and make for fantastic traction.  Check out stage times compared to previous years and you'll find that everyone was significantly faster than usual requiring an extra level of commitment from our winners out there. In fact this was the second fastest Hardwood Rally overall time yet, only topped by Al Dantes Jr and Keegan Helwig in 2022, even with stages that were 1.2 miles longer!

Speaking of winners- Taking the top spot overall in the 2025 Hardwood CUP Rally were Silas Himes and Rubin Hatfield in their Subaru Impreza, clocking an impressive total time of 1:03:04.3.  This is especially impressive when you consider that this was Rubin's first rally as a competitor! 

Not far behind, and especially impressive in an Open 2WD Light class Volkswagen Golf, Adam VanDamme and Morgan Engle secured second overall with a total time of 1:05:41.1, followed by Stephen Gingras and Joseph Boburka (Subaru Impreza) in third overall with 1:07:03.1.

Event Class Battles Let's dive into the event classes, where every second counted.

• Open AWD Heavy (OAH): Leading the charge in OAH were the overall victors, Silas Himes and Rubin Hatfield, proving their dominance was no fluke. James Pelizzari and Bryce Proseus, also in a Subaru Impreza, secured a solid second place in the OAH class by persisting to the finish despite car troubles throughout the rally. 
• Open AWD Light (OAL): The OAL class saw an exciting battle, with Stephen Gingras and Joseph Boburka (Subaru Impreza) taking first place. Timothy Michel and Alexander Ferencz (Audi A4 Quattro) followed in second with a successful comeback after a few years off, and Jordan Locher and Cray Dumeah (Subaru Impreza 2.5RS) earned third.  We'd be remiss not to mention the true rally spirit shown by Michael Ryan.  He not only towed all the way up from around 1000 miles away, but also ran the rally solo (no codriver), and managed to finish the rally after some pretty heavy damage to the car from catching a tree with the rear corner.
• Open 2WD Heavy (O2H): Shanti Witt and Keegan Helwig (BMW 325i) drove exceptionally well to clinch first in O2H and fourth overall. Chase Blakely and Michael Callaway (Volkswagen Golf GTI) secured second, while Eric Anderson and Taylor Haelterman (Toyota Celica GTS) rounded out the top three.
• Open 2WD Light (O2L): The O2L class was won by Adam VanDamme and Morgan Engle (Volkswagen Golf), who also secured a fantastic second place overall!. Derek Denti and Josh Remmetter (Acura RSX) continued to show their signature clean and fast driving style with a second place finish, and James Walker and Yannis Burnell (Chevrolet Aveo) took third.

Atlantic Rally Cup Competitors Charge Hard! The 2025 Hardwood CUP Rally served as the third round in the Atlantic Rally Cup (ARC) series. The ARC is an exciting championship series that includes various competition categories: PRO, All-Wheel Drive (AWD), Two-Wheel Drive (2WD), and RallyMoto (RM) classes. Hardwood CUP Rally is designated as a "Single" point event, meaning the results contribute a standard amount of points towards the overall ARC standings. Points are allocated based on performance, with 32 points for a first-place finish, 27 for second, and so on, plus 4 starting points for simply starting the event.

Here's how the ARC classes played out at Hardwood:

• ARC AWD Class: The AWD category for ARC combines the NRS Open AWD Heavy (OAH) and Open AWD Light (OAL) classes. At Hardwood, the top spot in ARC AWD was claimed by Silas Himes and Rubin Hatfield, showcasing their dominant performance in their Subaru Impreza. Following them in second place were Stephen Gingras and Joseph Boburka in their Subaru Impreza, and rounding out third were Timothy Michel and Alexander Ferencz in the Audi A4 Quattro.
• ARC 2WD Class: The 2WD category for ARC encompasses both the NRS Open 2WD Heavy (O2H) and Open 2WD Light (O2L) classes. Taking first place in the ARC 2WD class at Hardwood were Adam VanDamme and Morgan Engle in their Volkswagen Golf. Securing a strong second place in ARC 2WD were Shanti Witt and Keegan Helwig in their BMW 325i with Chase Blakely and Michael Callaway (Volkswagen Golf GTI) rounding out third.

A massive shout-out to all the competitors, dedicated crew members, and incredible volunteers who made the 2025 Hardwood CUP Rally a resounding success! Your passion and dedication are the fuel that drives this community.

What were your favorite moments from Hardwood? Did you witness any incredible saves or brilliant driving? Share your stories and photos with us on the NASA Rally Sport Facebook Group or on the NASA Rally Sport Event Pictures and Video Facebook group! We love hearing from our rally family.

If you missed out, don't miss your next chance at the CUP Iron Mule Rally August 22!