October 16, 2025 (Needles, California)
- Weather at start line (Needles, CA): Crisp and clear 54° F (feels like 47° F) with a slight breeze
- Time Limit: 10.5 Hours
- Distance: 220 miles / 354 km
- Difficulty: 5 out of 5
Weather at finish line (Glamis, CA): Warm and sunny 81° F (feels like 77° F) with light wind
For Day 7 presented by TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication, teams woke up in Needles, overlooking the Colorado River and the Arizona border. They had to move quickly to get ready for a 6:30 a.m. start line and head to Glamis, where competitors were confronted with a decision: 10 X checkpoints on the east side of the dunes or 10 regular checkpoints on the west side. Valuable points were in the X checkpoints but presented a higher risk of getting stuck or turned around. West side checkpoints were easy to drive and gave less experienced teams an opportunity for challenge and the ability to collect points, but didn’t offer the same point value reward.
Oldsmobile Hill is a favorite amongst veteran drivers, and some teams chose to cross the dunes from the washes for efficiency as opposed to accessing the area via the less-risky sand highway. All teams met up at the second green checkpoint and then chased the second half of the points in out of order checkpoints.
Five-time Baja 1000 champion Ryan Thomas was on site as a friend of Emily Miller’s, and he gave a media guest an overview of the checkpoint process in the sand.
“Growing up in the sand dunes and going on rides, I learned the right way to ride in Glamis is to connect the dunes together and go through them,” Thomas said. “You knew the direction you were going, but you were always linking one bowl to the next bowl; you never wanted to have to make a sharp turn. It’s exactly like surfing.”
Teams were advised to avoid making assumptions about where points are, as well as a reminder that heading and distance are the key tools of the dunes. After completing the west side, a final checkpoint challenge required teams to plot a decimal degree heading to get the X option.
“I think the teams played the game the way it was designed, which was really good,” said Rebelle Rally Founder and Director Emily Miller. “I saw people out of their cars using dead reckoning, not just relying on Gecko Road or man-made things. And what surprised me was there were some teams that made some good strategic decisions that looked at risk versus reward. The risk was high on the east of the dunes, and they went for the regular route, but they were able to get good points without a lot of high risk.”
At the end of the day, teams turned in their 1:50,000 map and set up camp in the washes.
“I designed the course to drive dunes the way you would actually drive dunes, not just to play the game but how you should think about crossing dunes,” Miller continued. “And finally for the first time, I felt like people really did it. But it took a lot of designing and taking away some of the distractions they’ve used in the past they thought was working for them but didn’t really work.”
Great Quotes From the Day
Team 114, Patty Upton: “A lot of people say the Rebelle Rally is life changing. It’s not the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I don’t expect it to be life changing; I’m a little old in life to have things start changing. But I find it very mentally challenging for intense periods because of the plotting and the scheduling.”
Team 124, Nykki McGee: “I’ve gone to a couple of trainings, and actually, this might have been the most comfortable I have ever felt in the dunes. I had no hesitation with any other drop-ins or anything like that, which felt really good today. My 2007 Lexus GX 470 performed great. It’s tough in the whoops and although we don’t have the same suspension as a Bronco or something like that, she’s a beast.”
Team 102, Adriana Stovall: “I feel I could do the rally for another week. The camping and being away from home and not having my phone, those are not hard for me. As the days go by, I get in my groove and I get better and I wish that I had more days to operate at this level. We get into our groove and it gets easier as we go. I love camping and I like this sort of stuff, so I could do this all day, every day for weeks and be fine.”
Team 103, Dana Benyo: “I felt like we were much more adventurous this year than we were last year. We got more confident coming into the dunes in totality. We spent a lot of time training in sand so that we would feel much more confident about the whole thing and being here.”
Team 158, Amy Drill: “I cannot just yeet my daily driver up and down the dunes every day. I have to keep in mind that I have to bring it back home in one piece.”
Spotlight: The Game
While the Rebelle Rally is undoubtedly a world-class competition, that doesn’t mean teams have to be cutthroat. Nor does it mean that competitors must ignore the awe-inspiring views 360 degrees around them.
“The beauty of the rally is taking time to appreciate the nature around us,” Azure O’Neil (Team 142) said. “I’m finding the moments of joy in this. One day, we were super tight on time and I made Eva turn around on a very tight trail. I said, ‘But look, there’s this really beautiful cactus bloom right there in front of us.’ And it’s 30 degrees and raining out, and here we are. I remind myself of the fact that this is just a competition. This is a game that we are incredibly fortunate to play. Don’t miss out on the beauty of everything around you being too focused on the actual game.”
In this year’s Rebelle Rally, Ford entered five factory teams. They train together, but they also compete against each other and that could create a strange dichotomy. Somehow, though, the cluster of teams has given them all a leg up.
“There is trust, camaraderie, and you know that they’re looking out for you,” said Team 199 driver Melissa Clark. “Even if they can’t help at that moment, they’re going to make sure you’re okay.”
Day 7 Results
At the top of the 4×4 class on Day 7, Team 129 (Nena Barlow and Teralin Petereit in a 2025 Jeep Gladiator) is in first place with 1498 points. Team 131’s Karisa Haydon and Trista Smith jumped into the second spot with 1458 points, and Team 128 (Susan Pieper and Elise Young) in their 2025 Warner INEOS Grenadier is right on their tail with 1457 points.
Holding onto first place in the X-Cross® class, Team 200 (Carey Lando and Andrea Shaffer) scored 1328 points in their 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid Touring. Team BMW (Rebecca Donaghe and Rebecca Dalski, Team 205) is in second with 1161 points in a 2024 BMW X5 40i xDrive. And Team 210 (Emme Hall and Kendra Miller) trail behind them in third with 1153 points in a 2025 Subaru Crosstrek.
Top Rookie teams after Day 7 include Team 117 (Jill McAdoo and Tina Chang) with 1125 points, Team 116 (Jillian Schaible and Daisy Maxcy) with 1108 points, and Team 123 (Andrea Mueller and Elena Kintzel) with 1003 points.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of riding in a TOTAL CHAOS-equipped vehicle in the imposing Glamis Sand Dunes, what you’ve been missing is an astonishingly smooth ride. Even when driving over whoops, arcing over giant sand dunes, and rolling through rocky terrain.
Learn more about TOTAL CHAOS and its world-class approach to off-roading at chaosfab.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.
