ARA Rally America 2026

[saco0o]

calendar is out and for 2026 im going to try to keep an eye on it. i have been seeing so many intersting things coming from this series. cool cars, cool drivers, fans are craaazy about the championship. it looks more "open" and fun. im for sure going to follow it more in '26. im getting kinda bored with wrc, idk why. lets give ARA a try!

February 6-7 - Sno*Drift Rally
March 13-14 - Rally in the 100 Acre Wood
April 17-18 - Olympus Rally
June 11-13 - Southern Ohio Forest Rally
July 18-19 – Rally Colorado
August 27-29 - Ojibwe Forests Rally
September 18-19 - Overmountain Rally Tennessee
October 9-10 - Lake Superior Performance Rally

[focus206]

What cool cars are you talking about? Apart from 2 or 3 weird cars that you don't normally see in rallying, I see their entry lists look not even on the level of small European countries. 20-30 drivers with sorta group N Fiesta, old Subaru, old Lexus...
In comparison, countries like Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia have 50 to 90 entries, with a much bigger variety...

[saco0o]

you are probably right but dirtfish covers the series in a language I can understand hehe i watched some of the highlights here throught this season and they have some cool cars. maybe im too used to the R5s and rally1 only? maybe...
i love following the new zealand championship too. theres lots of great championships out there, but they gotta have something that i can watch online =/
not sure it'd be that easy for me to find stuff from these euro national series, but i bet they are all incredible too

[Hackinator]

https://rallyjournal.com/a-fierce-ru...matti-latvala/

[Andre Oliveira]

Toyota develops GR Corolla RC2 for ARA

Developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing, the new car will be driven by Seth Quintero in America



More than a quarter of a century since the last one, Toyota has developed a new Corolla rally car – and this one’s coming to America.

Toyota Gazoo Racing has created the GR Corolla RC2 with world championship stars Jari-Matti Latvala and Juho Hänninen running the car’s test program. The all-new Corolla will make its ARA debut at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in March, with US off-road racer Seth Quintero driving.

The 23-year-old will compete on the seven remaining rounds of the series. Toyota is considering a second car on selected ARA rounds through 2026.

This will be Toyota’s third iteration of the Corolla, following the TE20/27 (a car which Hannu Mikkola used to win the 1975 1000 Lakes Rally) and more recently the Corolla WRC which took the Japanese manufacturer to the top of the world with the 1999 WRC manufacturers’ title in its final season.

Since then, Toyota’s been all about the Yaris. Until now.





Working in collaboration with Stateside firm Rallysport Services, development on the rally version of the GR Corolla began soon after the road car’s Tokyo Auto Salon debut at the start of 2025.

The GR Corolla RC2 utilizes the learnings from the GR Yaris Rally2 – the car which has just secured back-to-back WRC2 titles – and includes the same 1600cc, three-cylinder turbocharged engine and transmission. As the RC2 nomenclature indicates, the car will run at what Toyota describes as “roughly equivalent to Rally2” performance. It will be classified in the ARA’s RC2 category.

Explaining its arrival in American rallying, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s statement said: “By developing a GR Corolla rally car, TGR-WRT is harnessing the pedigree of the Corolla model within rallying and further expanding its efforts to use motorsport to help make ever-better cars for the road.

“It also hopes to support the development of rallying in North America, where the GR Corolla is available as a rally-bred performance car for the road.”






Already very much part of the TGR fold in the World Rally Raid Championship, Quintero admits he has a lot to learn as the GR Corolla RC2 replaces the DKR GR Hilux he used to win two stages at this year’s Dakar. The Californian has already tested the Corolla alongside Latvala and Hänninen.

Quintero, who will be co-driven by Finn Topi Luhtinen, said: “I’m very excited and grateful to Toyota Gazoo Racing for this opportunity. It’s truly an honor to link up with this team and to hopefully enjoy it and learn a lot.

“It’s a new challenge for me to go stage rallying. I’m used to driving 500 kilometers a day or more in W2RC, so doing up to 100km a day will bring a different intensity, and switching between the light and nimble GR Corolla and the bigger DKR GR Hilux will be two different worlds – but they are also similar in a lot of aspects and in the driving characteristics.

“So far, driving the car in testing has been so awesome, and the team has been so welcoming. I’ve got so much respect for everybody involved and I’m really hoping to make the team proud and have a lot of fun together.”


https://dirtfish.com/rally/ara/toyot...a-rc2-for-ara/

[JRodrigues]

Who's driving for Subaru next year? Any strong candidates? Martell seems to be sticking with the Skoda.

[saco0o]

theres also some chevy sonics to be raced in that class right? I saw something last week or so
i dont fully understand their classes but I assume these RC2 cars can actually be right there with some of the top o4wd cars right? (or limited 4wd?)