The 2025 Rally’s Begun: Rebelle Rally Teams We’re Keeping a Keen Eye On
The Rebelle Rally, also known as the world’s longest and toughest women-only off-road challenge, has officially begun. Here’s who we’re rooting for.
In case you didn’t know, “Rebelle” is a combination of two words: “Rebel” and “Belle.” The first word is self-explanatory, while the second is French for “beautiful,” so in essence, the race is titled “beautiful rebel.” So, not only is it cleverly titled, but it’s the longest, toughest, and most isolated off-road challenge in the nation.
The 10th Rebelle Rally is an 8-day competition (Oct. 8-18 this year) that combines two coveted talents: driving and precision navigation. So, the winning team isn’t the one that drives the quickest–it would be the one that worked together the most effectively to navigate the terrain as one. Rigorous training all year round isn’t suggested, it’s required.
This year, teams started in the scenic region of Mammoth Lakes, California, and will end up in the deserts of Nevada, without their phones, internet, or GPS. All they have is survival equipment, a paper map, and themselves. Sixty-eight teams are competing this year, which is the most of any year before, but there are a few teams we’re paying special attention to.
This story is 100% human-researched and written based on actual first-person knowledge, extensive experience, and expertise on the subject of cars and trucks.
Team #150: Desert Roots, With Shelby Hall and Rori Lewis
Shelby Hall has a long family history of racing in the desert, thanks to her father and grandfather. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that she’s also a desert racer for Ford Performance, piloting a decked-out Bronco. Her race-ready family happened to be on good terms with the rally’s founder, Emily Miller, and Hall couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel.
In fact, she quit racing (temporarily, of course) to join the rally’s inaugural year of 2016, and told me she was in for a “rude awakening.” She took a break, but came back in 2019 with Ford Performance, and she met Rori Lewis during the 2022 rally when she was part of another team. They’ve been inseparable ever since and have come back to compete in the 2023 and 2024 rally.
During my interview, she said the Rally taught her patience, resilience, leadership, and, of course, friendship.
“We’re not just competitors looking to win, but we’re also incredible friends. Of course, we’re competitive and want to make our sponsors proud, but at the end of it, we’re two friends who are doing what we love,” she said. “We love exploring, we love getting rid of our phones, and making memories and laughing as two best friends.”
Hall’s incredible driving skills, paired with Lewis’s insanely potent navigation skills, make them a team worth tracking. Especially since they’ve held pole positions for several years in a row. You can find their team page here, with links to their social media pages.
READ MORE: What Makes the Ford Bronco Stroppe Edition So Cool? We Test Drove It to Find Out!
Team #128: Warner Grins & Grit, With Susan Pieper and Elise Young
Susan Pieper is a true go-getter, having built and sold a business, and now acts as a consultant for those looking to build and sell their businesses. Her business just so happened to be outdoor-focused, which put her in the sights of a dealership owner selling vans and Ineos Grenadiers. After finding out about the rally, she mentioned he should enter an Ineos Grenadier into the event, and since he or his wife couldn’t drive, he suggested she act as the driver. She’s been the team’s pilot since 2018.
Her teammate, Elise Young, is an exceptional navigator, thanks to her experience with hunting, camping, and backpacking in the mountains of Montana. The two work so well together because of their dynamic: Young does the thinking, and Pieper does the doing.
“Elise counts on me to do a lot of the structuring, media interviews, dealing with the truck, and making sure it’s ready, and campaign-level work,” explained Pieper. “In the car, Elise expects me to use the car as a navigational instrument. I take a heading every single time after she tells me where to drive, I tell her what I’m seeing, all that. I’m the driver, but I’m the extension of the vehicle, and her brain in the computer. My job is to make sure there’s nothing else for her to worry about but navigating.”
Young confirmed that, saying their team’s structure has only strengthened over time. Not only does she trust her instincts more compared to the team’s first rally together, but she trusts Pieper’s abilities to conquer most anything–as long as she can focus on where they’re going.
“[Pieper] keeps a big picture view, and I’m thinking more in the details or micronavigational tasks. I have the mental endurance and self-confidence in [Pieper’s] decision-making, and I’ve definitely grown in that,” said Young. “When I know we’re there, I don’t feel like I’m double-checking as much compared to how I used to. Things happen, little wrenches in the plans, but I’ve learned to roll with them.”
You can find their team page here, with their social media information.
Team #201: Sol Seekers, With Jill Ciminillo and Lisa “Lola” Wolford
Obviously, we’re keeping an eye on Jill Ciminillo, as she’s a contributor and dear friend of our site. She’s written more than a few pieces for us, including what it means to “win” a Rally. Aside from our site, she’s written for several other automotive outlets and has her own Instagram, YouTube, podcast, and website. She acts as the team’s navigator, as she enjoys a good old-fashioned challenge.
She said what inspires her is her dad’s diagnosis with dementia, which showed her that she can truly overcome anything.
“Until [my dad] developed dementia, he was always able to overcome pretty much every physical and mental challenge he encountered through patience and persistence,” she wrote for the Rebelle Rally’s website. “He taught me that I could do anything I wanted — if I wanted it enough, and he always inspired me to push my boundaries.”
Her teammate, Lola, is quite the busybody. She always loved to dive deeply into something new, and as a driver, she’s learning something new every year. This year, she said she wants to put her sharpened skills to the test–so they can be sharper for next year.
“I know I can do better. I want to do better. This may or may not show in the numbers that others look at. But it will show inside me,” wrote Wolford. “I have been taking advantage of every training and practice opportunity that I could. These are the things that make me smile.
Check out the Sol Seeker’s team page here, where you can read more about what inspires them, as well as follow them on social media.
Team #155: Overland Her, With Liza Beres and Jenne Fribley
Liza’s Rebelle Rally story is something straight out of a movie. She and her husband had always had an affinity for off-roading and Land Rovers, but one day, her husband pointed to an article in Rover’s Magazine covering the event, and encouraged her to enter it. She’d had an infant at home, and competing wasn’t on the table. But she watched and she researched, and decided to compete in 2022.
It soon became an addiction. Every rally teaches her something new about herself, and even after four back-to-back rallies, she shows no signs of slowing down as the team’s driver.
“You think you know who you are in your comfort zone,” she wrote for the Rally’s site. “Sleeping in your own bed, driving your daily routes, living with predictability. But the Rebelle strips all that away. It pushes you to face your fears, to get uncomfortable, to discover what you’re really capable of.”
Jenna, Liza’s good friend of many years, learned about the Rally from her enthusiastic friend–and was quickly enamored by the idea, but wasn’t pressured to push herself to become a navigator until Liza told her she’d signed up for the rally’s training camp. They went to dip their toes in the water, but found themselves loving every second almost immediately.
“By the end of the first day, we were completely on board and were thankful to make it off the waitlist and compete in the 2022 event. It. Was. Awesome,” wrote Fribley. “We’ve now competed 3 times, and we can’t wait to do it again!”
These two make such a good team that they’ll be competing in the Dakar Rally in 2027 as part of the Classic Competitors class. You can read more about the dynamic duo on their team page here, and follow their journey on their socials.
Team #210: Desert Disco, With Emme Hall and Kendra Miller
Emme Hall is the kind of “car girl” we all aspire to be. She knows her stuff, she’s spent several years behind the wheel of a race car, and she’s built her own race cars (just check out her lifted Miata, “Buddy”). She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. Hall took a break from competing after the 2022 Rally, and said she’s coming back because: “I couldn’t NOT come back for the 10th anniversary.”
Kendra, like Emme, was part of the inaugural rally of 2016 and has competed every year except for 2022. Despite her being a rally instructor as her full-time gig, she lets Hall take the wheel as she navigates. Originally, she wanted to compete in her personal car, but never had the opportunity.
This year, Desert Disco is competing in a Subaru-sponsored Crosstrek Wilderness build, and Miller couldn’t be more excited.
“Since completing the inaugural year, I’ve wanted to compete in my car: a Subaru Crosstrek, but my teammates always wanted to drive in their Jeeps, Toyotas, or Kias. To have been offered the opportunity by Subaru to compete in their Crosstrek Wilderness feels like a full-circle moment,” she wrote for the Rally’s site.
Read more about this power team here, and be sure to follow their social media pages.
Team 101: Fun-Duh-Mentals, with Lyn Woodward and Renée Vento
Lyn, similar to Emme and Jill, is part of a small (but thankfully growing) band of women in the automotive media space. She’s competed on and off since 2017, and like Emme Hall, noted that she simply could not miss this year’s event after a decade. She writes, “It’s the TENTH ANNIVERSARY! Do you even know how massive the FOMO would be if I wasn’t out there with all my girls???”
Vento has a degree in underwater photography, but she’s the team’s navigator through the desert. When she’s not photographing the fish, she likes to keep busy on a mountain bike, skiing down a mountain, or surfing. She’s been off-roading since she was a teen, so the Rebelle Rally is natural for her.
Like a few others we’ve mentioned, the Rally helped her realize her own potential and capabilities.
“When I first competed, I was in a very low place in life… The Rally has taught me that I can get through it. Whatever it is. If I want to. And most of the time in life, we get back what we put in. The Rally reinforces that each year. The accomplishment when you cross that finish line is a reward unlike anything else. Even in a ‘bad’ year, being on Rally is better than not.”
Check out their team page here, and don’t hesitate to follow their socials to live vicariously through them.
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