Brandon Semenuk clinched a fourth ARA National title in Ojibwe – but Conner Martell was close to crashing the party
Photography by Jacob Halfman
Words by Alasdair Lindsay, Head of Digital Strategy
Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Williams secured their fourth successive ARA National Championship presented by Kubota title on the Ojibwe Forests Rally, though was made to work for it by a rapid Conner Martell.
Semenuk needed victory plus a top-two finish on the powerstage to clinch the title with two rounds remaining and initially looked set to fall short, with Martell flying aboard his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Fastest times on stages four, five and eight by Martell meant he led Semenuk by 15.6s midway through Friday’s evening loop. A slow puncture for Martell, with a stone cracking the rim, cost him almost a minute and paved the way for Semenuk to clinch the win.
Martell didn’t give up the chase and won Sunday’s opening stage. The opening splits of Kanten Trail were also looking good, with Martell pushing to make up time on the more technical sections early in the stage before Semenuk could open the taps on his Subaru WRX ARA24.
A pacenote error would spell Martell’s demise, flying into the trees and landing his Fabia RS on its side. He retired at the site of the crash; both he and co-driver Alex Gelsomino were unhurt in the crash.
Until his crash Ojibwe had been Martell's most competitive ARA outing to date
“It was a left five minus,” Martell explained. “We didn’t have tightens over brow and it tightened to a four plus. We just went wide and collected the trees.”
Though it ultimately left Martell with nothing to show from his Ojibwe efforts on the leaderboard, fighting tooth and nail for victory with Semenuk left him emboldened and more confident he can fight for victory on Overmountain, the next round of the ARA National season.
“To come here and do well right off the get-go and battle back and forth with Brandon is huge for me and my confidence,” Martell added. “I don’t think this really hurts my confidence much as it was a pacenote that was wrong, not a driving error. Tennessee is super tight and technical and we should be able to give them another battle there.”
There was still drama to come though, as Semenuk suffered a power steering failure, followed by a small fire on the next road section. But both issues were remedied and with no Martell left to battle, Semenuk was able to clinch his fifth win of the season from six starts.
“The box is checked so it’s a nice feeling,” said Semenuk after crossing the finish line. “It’s been an eventful week for sure but I enjoyed the roads for the most part. It’s a good event so I’m happy to wrap it up; now I’m looking forward to having some fun for the rest of the year.”
Travis Pastrana was peerless in the LN4 class aboard his works WRX ARA25L, finishing second overall and almost nine minutes up on George Megennis’ Ford Fiesta Rally3.
Ojibwe has always been a happy hunting ground for Pastrana; he won his first Rally America event here in 2006 and has eight career wins in the Minnesota lakes region
“We were pretty sideways,” said Pastrana. “I was worried we were going to spin it backwards. I opened the diffs to make it slide pretty well but it’s not quite the same horsepower as a Gymkhana car.
“We should’ve locked the diffs; Dylan our engineer told us how to do it but then it rained and we were worried we’d break the car!”
For Pastrana, the event was as much about continuing the real-world test and development of the WRX ARA25L before a planned rollout to customers.
“When I had the flat [tire] it yanked something off but it was a good test,” said Pastrana. “Like the old car we had, after years and years you find the weak points. Before we go production with this, we get the price point down and reliability up as far as we can. This is going to be a great class for the future, to have a US-built car.”
Megennis took their first top five ARA finish in only their second start in American stage rallying, clinching fourth place overall in addition to a second consecutive LN4 podium; Alastair Scully completed the top five aboard his Hyundai i20 N R5, 1m21.2s behind Megennis.
Rocks causing strife was a running theme up and down the field. In addition to Martell’s high-profile deflation, erstwhile O2WD class leader Matthew Nykyanen suffered a broken wrist in a crash caused by hitting a rock, and O4WD runner Cameron Steely’s hopes of a podium were also ended by a rock impact.
Sean Donnelly crashed out of the O2WD lead on Saturday but returned on Sunday, his 208 Rally2 wearing plenty of battle scars
Seamus Burke scored his first O2WD win of the season aboard his V8-engined Ford Escort MkII, aided by problems for Sean Donnelly.
A lack of spare parts for his Clio Rally3 meant a switch back to two-wheel-drive for the 2023 L2WD champion, taking the wheel of a rented Peugeot 208 Rally4. Despite the obvious power deficit he’d actually taken the lead on Friday but crashed out on the second pass of Steamboat. He returned on Saturday, finishing the rally with his car still sporting plenty of visible damage. Richo Healey and his co-driver, DirtFish instructor Michelle Miller, completed the class podium.
The Tabor family secured a 1-2 finish in Limited 2WD, with Henry Tabor beating his father Mark to first place by over four minutes. Scott Pedersen completed the podium, having run second for much of the rally before a late charge from Mark Tabor on Sunday demoted him to the bottom rung of the podium.
Aidan Hicks and Levi Johnson were locked in a battle for Regional victory where tenths of a second were the difference between first and second. But the lead fight took a decisive swing on Sunday’s first stage, as Johnson went off the road at 80mph with two corners to go and became beached.
Jack Nelson came to Johnson’s aid and towed him back onto the stage, allowing to continue with only minutes to spare before the cutoff for maximum lateness. Alas, his rally would end regardless, breaking an axle on SS14.
Hicks clinched the win aboard his Subaru Impreza WRX wagon, beating Peter Farrow by 2m30s. That Nelson, who returned from retirement for the final day, finished at all was a miracle: his engine blew on Saturday, so he drove home – three hours away – fitted a new engine and then returned to Ojibwe to take on the final day’s action.
Words:Alasdair Lindsay
Tags: ARA 2025, Brandon Semenuk, Conner Martell, Ojibwe Forests Rally, Ojibwe Forests Rally 2025, Subaru Motorsports USA
Publish Date August 24, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/xUZEN526-Jacob-Halfman-OFR25-Sat-SS17-1-780x780.jpg August 24, 2025
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