2025 Rebelle Rally Field Update: DAY 6 Presented by YETI
October 15, 2025 (Needles, California)
- Weather at start line (Ridgecrest, CA): Muddy and cold, 41° F (feels like 29° F) with 12 mph winds
- Time limit: 10 Hours
- Distance: 250 miles / 402 km
- Difficulty: 3.5-4 out of 5
- Weather at finish line (Needles, CA): Sunny and warm, 76° F and a slight breeze
Day 6 Presented by YETI was a long distance day that led teams to their final base camp location on the banks of the Colorado River. They started with checkpoints in the Spangler open area then to a new checkpoint zone to the north of Red Mountain before they arrived at the large Cuddeback Dry Lake Bed.
Teams began traveling to the east, skirting the Grass Valley and Black Mountain Wilderness while using a 1:200,000 map. Then they received a curve ball: a surprise 1:80,000 supplemental map that included X and regular checkpoints. Upon arrival at the 3rd Green checkpoint of the day near Barstow, teams used a roadbook for the transit to Water Road in the Heart of the Mojave Desert to navigate their final checkpoints of the day.
From start to finish, teams experienced a wild weather swing from the cold and soggy Base Camp 2 to sunny and warm Base Camp 3. As the difficulty levels heat up for the last few days of the rally, participants will welcome the reprieve from the pervasive cold that has marked the first two-thirds of the competition.
Starting the day, teams were tasked with packing up wet and muddy gear to get ready for the next stage. Everyone, including the staff, was happy to leave this base camp behind after the barrage of rain that transformed packed dirt into crevices and sticky traps.
Tomorrow, the teams head to the Glamis Sand Dunes, the largest mass of sand dunes in California. Veteran teams will be faced with checkpoints that are deliberately confusing to keep them on their toes, and one key handrail road has been erased from the map altogether. For the rookies, this could be a daunting day. Or it could be an introduction to a terrain they’ll love to drive for the rest of their lives.
Great Quotes From the Day
- Team 150, Rori Lewis: “There’s plenty of points on the board, so it’s mainly strategy, but trying for as many points as possible. And keeping a really good pace, like not taking too long at certain black checkpoints if things aren’t adding up then you move on to things that are worth more points. It’s mainly push, push, push, and you get as many points as possible.”
- Team 129, Teralin Petereit: “We started off with some pretty bad weather on Tuesday. The rain came down pretty hard, and it was so cloudy that we couldn’t see any of the terrain, so we were just basing everything on headings on roads, basically. You kind of picture your map coming alive, like 3D with the mountains coming up around you and navigating using topography. But that wasn’t really an option because it was so foggy and cloud covered and rainy that it was just basically marking out turns and going distances, but it cleared up. We got greedy at the end of the day. We wanted all of the points. We didn’t have time for all of the points, so we got kind of squirrely, and we didn’t get the points or back to base camp on time.”
- Team 101, Renée Vento: “Time has been a bigger consideration. This year, Emily has packed in a lot of checkpoints and a lot of distance in and a lot of days in. That has certainly made it more challenging just to get to everything. We haven’t been able to.”
- Team 182, Lauren Judy: “I did better at time management today. Until today, I’ve been wanting to go to every checkpoint, which is unrealistic, and today I feel like we did a much better job of picking out which ones we wanted to go to to create a better route.”
Spotlight: The Third Teammate
You don’t need a tricked-out rig to compete in the Rebelle Rally, and in fact many Rebelles use their personal vehicle straight from their driveway to the dirt. Rebelle Rally Founder and Director Emily Miller often says the most important skill as a driver is to be able to pilot a stock vehicle successfully. The stock vehicle in your driveway is more capable than you think it is, and competitors have brought everything from decades-old SUVs to brand-new trucks to rally.
Michelle Kerby (Team 127) lives in Park City, near sponsor Tony Warner’s Ineos dealership. Kerbey’s daily driver is an Ineos Grenadier, and Warner provided an Ineos Quartermaster for her and her teammate Sabrina Howells to use in the Rebelle Rally. Knowing that vehicle lineup the way she does has given her a lot of comfort getting through these challenging routes and conditions.
“Yesterday, there was a lot of very steep and tight switchbacks that were super slimy with that rain and the mud that stuck to us like glue,” Kerbey said. “The truck handled those corners so well, and l didn’t have a problem getting around obstacles or up and over rocks. I just felt like I just had really good control of the vehicle.”
While her vehicle is far from Bone Stock (the bumpers have been replaced with tube frame, the SUV was fitted with a TOTAL CHAOS suspension, and more), Jillian Schaible from Team 116 is thrilled with the way her 2014 Toyota 4Runner is performing.
“My husband and I started an overland and off-road shop, Apex Overland, 10 years ago,” she said. “This truck was our flagship; that’s what started it all. It’s just been such a great platform.
It helps that Schaible’s teammate Daisy Maxcy is also very comfortable with a wrench.
“I prefer an older vehicle,” Maxcy says. “The newer ones have a lot of computers, a lot of crap. So if something goes to put a lot of stuff that we could put on trail, I am 100 percent confident that I can fix it and have us back up and running.”
Team 208 (Madison Russell and Vincetta Knight) work for Honda, which sent them to the 2025 Rebelle Rally in a 2026 Honda Passport. What’s interesting about this SUV is that it’s fitted with skid plates designed by former competitor and Honda employee Liz Long. While a typical family SUV consumer may not think of a Honda Passport as a vehicle that can complete an extreme off-road motorsports competition, Russell and Knight say it’s more than capable and can be driven straight from the lot to the dirt.
“Honda’s engineering is top notch for all of our cars, all of our products,” Russell said. Knight agreed and said the performance has been excellent on the trails.
“We’re using all the driving modes–Normal, Trail, and Sand–and I can feel a big difference between them,” Knight said. “To me, it’s very comparable to other four-wheel drive vehicles like a Jeep.”
Day 6 Results
The 4×4 class continues into Day 6 with Team 129 (Nena Barlow and Teralin Petereit in a 2025 Jeep Gladiator) holding at first with a strong lead over second place Team 128 (Susan Pieper and Elise Young) in their 2025 Warner INEOS Grenadier. Laura Wanless and Penny Dale (Team 188) pushed their 2025 Ford Bronco Raptor hard to elbow their way into third place, barely edging Team 131’s Karisa Haydon and Trista Smith into fourth. Shelby Hall and Rori Lewis (Team 150) are only two points behind in their 2023 Ford Bronco Raptor.
No big moves in the X-Cross® class, which continues to be dominated by Team 200 (Carey Lando and Andrea Shaffer) with 1164 points. Team 210 (Emme Hall and Kendra Miller) trail behind them in second place with 1120 points in a 2025 Subaru Crosstrek, and Rebecca Donaghe and Rebecca Dalski (Team 205) are in third with 985 points in a 2024 BMW X5 40i xDrive.
Watch for Rookie of the Year contenders like Team 117 (Jill McAdoo and Tina Chang) with 977 points and Team 116 (Jillian Schaible and Daisy Maxcy) with 947 points.
YETI founders Roy and Ryan Seiders have a deep love for the outdoors and created their company in 2006 with the belief that if something doesn’t work, fix it. And if it doesn’t exist, build it. It’s a lot like the Rebelle Rally in that way, and this is a partnership that shares a lot of values: adventure, fun, and community.
Every year, Rebelle Rally competitors use YETI products to stay hydrated, keep their gear safe and dry, and camp comfortably. In the last 20 years, the company has built a product lineup that covers everything from drinkware to coolers to dog bowls to apparel.
Learn more about YETI and all the ways it supports the people and places we love at YETI.com.
Ways to Follow the 2025 Rebelle Rally
Fans can follow the Rebelle Rally live through the Rebelle Rally LIVE Webcast Presented by Toyota, starting Friday, October 10th. Daily broadcasts will be available via rebellerally.com, YouTube, and Facebook, featuring morning competition day previews, scoring updates, and evening recap shows. For real-time updates, live tracking, scores, daily recaps, team bios, and more, visit the rally’s official website and connect with the community on social media @rebellerally on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
