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Transcript

Rebelle Rally 2021 · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:07
Speaker 1: Scott Brady, and I'm here with my illustrious co hosts,
0:10
Speaker 1: Matt's co host Matt Scott and Ashley Jordano. So thank
0:15
Speaker 1: you all for being here because we're going to talk
0:17
Speaker 1: about the Rebel Rally, which is I think one of
0:21
Speaker 1: the coolest events that we have in North America. I
0:23
Speaker 1: think it's one of the coolest events on the planet,
0:26
Speaker 1: and it has been so successful because of a lot
0:28
Speaker 1: of reasons that we're going to talk about today. Matt
0:31
Speaker 1: and Ashley were just there. We were there actually about
0:34
Speaker 1: a week about a week ago. You both had different roles,
0:36
Speaker 1: so maybe start off by telling the listener what you
0:39
Speaker 1: guys were both doing there at the event. Why don't
0:42
Speaker 1: you start because mine was fluid.
0:44
Speaker 2: Okay, So I was social media manager and so I
0:47
Speaker 2: captured the essence of what was going on on the
0:50
Speaker 2: ground and posted so the fans back home could see.
0:53
Speaker 1: So you were doing you were doing active posting during
0:56
Speaker 1: out the whole event. Yes, okay, so you were the
0:58
Speaker 1: one that was keeping us all up the date. I
1:00
Speaker 1: love that.
1:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was great. I guess that was internal media.
1:03
Speaker 2: So that was pretty cool to be on the other
1:05
Speaker 2: side of the event and see it from the inside out,
1:07
Speaker 2: which was cool. That's my third year as part of
1:09
Speaker 2: the internal media team there.
1:11
Speaker 1: And were you involved with the event before that in
1:14
Speaker 1: a different capacity or you've only worked in the internal
1:16
Speaker 1: media side And how did you get connected with Emily
1:21
Speaker 1: Miller and the whole.
1:22
Speaker 2: I don't really remember exactly how I had this idea
1:26
Speaker 2: that I wanted to help out, but I just sent
1:28
Speaker 2: Emily an email one day asking if I could volunteer
1:31
Speaker 2: and she said yes, So I was pretty stoked about that.
1:34
Speaker 2: And then we worked at King of the Hammers together
1:37
Speaker 2: and she got down on one knee and proposed to
1:39
Speaker 2: me and asked if I could.
1:40
Speaker 3: Help with the social media next year through Belle Ally.
1:43
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
1:44
Speaker 3: It was great. She's wonderful.
1:46
Speaker 1: Yes, well, and thanks to this week's sponsor, GCI Outdoor.
1:50
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2:29
Speaker 1: for their email list. Thanks again, GCI. We can't talk
2:32
Speaker 1: about the Rebel Rally without talking about Emily Miller because
2:35
Speaker 1: she is one of the most professional and accomplished event
2:38
Speaker 1: organizers in the country, and she's also a very accomplished
2:41
Speaker 1: racer and driver in her own right. And if I
2:44
Speaker 1: recall correctly, she started off by participating and racing in
2:48
Speaker 1: the trophy I Ishade Gazelle's that's conducted in Morocco. Is
2:52
Speaker 1: that correct?
2:52
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I think she did some. Yeah, she did.
2:55
Speaker 1: Toured by Rod Hall, a really really close friend to hers,
2:58
Speaker 1: so I think she did a lot of score stuff
3:00
Speaker 1: and Nora Yep. I don't know the classes because there's
3:04
Speaker 1: like a new class every week, but I know she
3:06
Speaker 1: did one of them, yeah, and had quite a bit
3:08
Speaker 1: of success on that and then definitely went onunder the rally,
3:10
Speaker 1: I should take his seals. And then I'm just glad
3:13
Speaker 1: that she brought kind of that similar format of the
3:15
Speaker 1: Navigation Rally. So I mean, I guess let's back up
3:18
Speaker 1: and let's talk about what the Rebel Rally is. So
3:20
Speaker 1: first off, it's the longest off road race off road rally,
3:23
Speaker 1: don't say race, it's a rally in the United States,
3:25
Speaker 1: which is incredibly impressive. The course this year was twenty
3:28
Speaker 1: two hundred kilometers, of which I would say ninety percent
3:33
Speaker 1: of that would have been dirt. You know, there's just
3:36
Speaker 1: some areas. The course this year started actually at Hoover
3:39
Speaker 1: Dam so that's where tech inspection was. So that was
3:41
Speaker 1: really cool to be able to like, I don't know,
3:42
Speaker 1: hangout at Hoover Dam sure, and then the tech inspection Damn.
3:47
Speaker 1: There's a lot of damn jokes. But then the next
3:52
Speaker 1: left from Lake Las Vegas. That's kind of the hotel
3:56
Speaker 1: that was like the host hotel, and there's prologue stage
3:59
Speaker 1: which went up by Area fifty one, So it kind
4:02
Speaker 1: of did like a loop of Southern Nevada No abductions
4:06
Speaker 1: in Area fifty one that you're were of No, no,
4:08
Speaker 1: I did, I did, unaccounted for a little aley inn.
4:13
Speaker 2: I saw the earth Rower park there.
4:17
Speaker 3: What is happening there?
4:18
Speaker 4: Yeah?
4:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was like this really kooky dive bar.
4:22
Speaker 1: They have basically an alien burger that is served on
4:26
Speaker 1: a hogie, which is if you're a fan of dive bar,
4:28
Speaker 1: cheeseburgers and those really cheap pickles. Yeah, it was on point.
4:32
Speaker 1: It was on point. Some kook's working there for sure.
4:35
Speaker 1: No loss of time for you, No loss of time, okay,
4:38
Speaker 1: got it, you know, except for that one thing. So
4:40
Speaker 1: first base camp basically they kind of most of the
4:43
Speaker 1: base camps. You're at for two nights and you'd transit
4:46
Speaker 1: to the base camp and then do a loop from
4:47
Speaker 1: that base camp and then transit to the next base cool.
4:50
Speaker 1: So you know the first base camp for stage one, no,
4:53
Speaker 1: Stage one and.
4:53
Speaker 3: Two, yes, Stage one and two.
4:55
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, two nights, two nights. Yeah. So it
4:58
Speaker 1: started from there was maybe forty five minutes north of Rachel,
5:01
Speaker 1: which is on the Extraterrestrial Highway. It was it was
5:03
Speaker 1: an interesting area, like it was super pretty. Is that
5:06
Speaker 1: where the storm came in or was that later? No?
5:08
Speaker 1: That was we got to talk about that the storm
5:12
Speaker 1: that that looked fantastic others maybe more than it did me.
5:15
Speaker 1: In the earth, I felt really bad you didn't sort
5:18
Speaker 1: of I shared it with my friends.
5:21
Speaker 3: But there was a ranch at that. Yeah, there's a
5:23
Speaker 3: ranch the first base camp as well, and they've.
5:25
Speaker 1: Been ranching there as a family since the eighteen hundreds. Amazing.
5:29
Speaker 1: It was really cool. So that one was particular was
5:31
Speaker 1: on private property. A lot of the events on BLM
5:33
Speaker 1: land because there's just so much BLM land, especially in Nevada.
5:38
Speaker 1: Everywhere the event has such a great relationship with the
5:40
Speaker 1: land managers, and I think, yeah, that's kind of one
5:43
Speaker 1: of the themes I see is I don't necessarily want
5:45
Speaker 1: to call it conservation, but it's an incredibly healthy respect
5:48
Speaker 1: for the land, for the agencies that allow this an
5:51
Speaker 1: event like this to happen. What do you think they
5:53
Speaker 1: do different to help maintain that religion? Drink sponsors got it?
5:57
Speaker 1: Maybe just less energy during being consumed, to know, you know,
6:00
Speaker 1: I think I think one, it's a different style of competition.
6:03
Speaker 1: It's not let's see how fast we can go, so
6:05
Speaker 1: you know, it's limited to fifty mile an hour, which
6:08
Speaker 1: let's let's approach the elephant in the room here is
6:10
Speaker 1: certain types of men love to hate this event, whether
6:13
Speaker 1: they're jealous or insecure or too stupid to read a
6:17
Speaker 1: map or entitled or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, so
6:20
Speaker 1: this this is a navigation rally. So what you're trying
6:24
Speaker 1: to do is you're given a map and a compass
6:26
Speaker 1: the day, you know, day one. Your phones, devices, cameras
6:31
Speaker 1: that aren't even allowed, that have little GPS functionality and things.
6:34
Speaker 3: Oh, sure, you wrap them up, I believe right.
6:37
Speaker 1: They wrap them up. They cover screen, like if your
6:39
Speaker 1: car has like a navigation screen, that's all like kind
6:42
Speaker 1: of tape and covered. Cool. And I don't know what
6:46
Speaker 1: the term for it is, but in quarantine has a
6:48
Speaker 1: different meaning. After the last year, anything that has the
6:52
Speaker 1: capability of providing navigational assistance, you get a map and
6:56
Speaker 1: a compass. Got it. Cool. So you're navigating from checkpoint.
7:00
Speaker 1: There's three types of checkpoints. There's green, blue, and black.
7:03
Speaker 1: So green checkpoints are staffed, so everyone has to go
7:06
Speaker 1: through the green checkpoints and that kind of gives you
7:08
Speaker 1: your base level of points. If you complete just the
7:11
Speaker 1: green checkpoints each day, that means you've completed the roots. Okay,
7:15
Speaker 1: if you can and then on top of that, you
7:16
Speaker 1: have blue checkpoints, which are harder to find than greens,
7:20
Speaker 1: but not as hard as black checkpoints. So they have
7:23
Speaker 1: a small little flag that competitors basically get. Ah, there's
7:27
Speaker 1: a whole punch or so little. No, it's actually like
7:29
Speaker 1: a GPS there based you know, they're they're judged on
7:33
Speaker 1: how close they were to that point, and that where
7:35
Speaker 1: it becomes really challenging and what separates the winners from
7:38
Speaker 1: those who don't, those who are competing in those who are.
7:41
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of people, I think respectfully
7:43
Speaker 1: that just go on the rebel to tred and experience
7:47
Speaker 1: great adventure. Are these black checkpoints. They're generally in technical
7:51
Speaker 1: terrain no flag, there's no flag, so you have to
7:55
Speaker 1: with you know, map, compass, dead reckoning and however you're
7:58
Speaker 1: doing this, you have to eyeing these places that are
8:01
Speaker 1: in the desert, and it's set up to where you
8:03
Speaker 1: can't just get everything. So there's a strategy like I'm
8:05
Speaker 1: going to try and get you know, checkpoint sixteen, nineteen
8:09
Speaker 1: twenty one and twenty seven because that's a route and
8:11
Speaker 1: there's no way that you could get back to checkpoint
8:14
Speaker 1: fifteen and whatever numbers that I didn't say.
8:18
Speaker 3: And then the checkpoints.
8:19
Speaker 2: You know, every team's not necessarily going to the same ones,
8:22
Speaker 2: they have different ones that they've been I guess assigned.
8:25
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, you can't follow another team because that might
8:28
Speaker 2: not be your checkpoint. Ah.
8:30
Speaker 1: So it's a way to kind of prevent people hedging
8:33
Speaker 1: by following maybe a team that has a great reputation
8:35
Speaker 1: for navigation or something that was mine. Always just follow.
8:38
Speaker 2: Nina, but an easy way to remember, like ski hills,
8:42
Speaker 2: you have your green, blue.
8:44
Speaker 1: Black, so black. The black points are not only more
8:48
Speaker 1: difficult terrain wise, but then they're also not you don't
8:52
Speaker 1: know that you've actually made it. You don't know, and
8:54
Speaker 1: so then and then what do you do? You push
8:55
Speaker 1: a button to say you should button and the track
8:57
Speaker 1: or so okay, all of the cars have There's also
9:00
Speaker 1: some safety stuff that goes in. You know, when you're
9:02
Speaker 1: taking people's cell phones, are locking people's cell phones away,
9:04
Speaker 1: there are mechanics on the event that can come and
9:07
Speaker 1: help you. So you know, there was a Porsche that
9:10
Speaker 1: like totally destroyed an axle, axle shaft and CB joint
9:14
Speaker 1: and stuff. So there's actually a satellite phone in the
9:16
Speaker 1: car Okay, this satellite phone is emergency only.
9:20
Speaker 3: Sure.
9:20
Speaker 1: There's also a vehicle tracker, like when your staff you
9:22
Speaker 1: can actually go on and well, actually anybody can go
9:25
Speaker 1: online and track during the competition, live scoring and where
9:28
Speaker 1: the competitors are throughout. That's impressive. It's actually pretty technical.
9:33
Speaker 1: A lot of the stuff comes from sailing races, yachting
9:36
Speaker 1: and kind of stuff. Well that makes sense if someone
9:38
Speaker 1: was to have a rollover and maybe they're unconscious, or
9:42
Speaker 1: or maybe the vehicle caught on fire and they needed
9:44
Speaker 1: to get out, they would see that the signal has dropped,
9:46
Speaker 1: this was the last known location, or the vehicle hasn't
9:50
Speaker 1: moved in two hours or whatever. Yeah, that's interesting.
9:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so in comms, like all the staff, most of
9:56
Speaker 2: the staff they have comms, so obviously the medical allowed there.
10:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, push to talk satellite communications this year which was
10:04
Speaker 1: really really cool. So cool. Yeah, but it's it's just
10:07
Speaker 1: a fantastic race. This year was eight.
10:09
Speaker 3: Rally matt rally. Sorry, it's not a race like still fast.
10:14
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful event. Tried criticizing that one. It's a
10:20
Speaker 1: wonderful event. I want to say. This year was eight stages.
10:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe yeah.
10:24
Speaker 1: And are any of the stages like a special task
10:28
Speaker 1: where like you said that you'd see in the Camel
10:30
Speaker 1: Trophy where they need to build a bridge or or all.
10:33
Speaker 1: They are all some version of a driving event. Pretty
10:35
Speaker 1: full on. There's twenty two hundred kilometers of primarily dirt
10:39
Speaker 1: that's covered. And you know, as I was saying earlier
10:42
Speaker 1: with the route went up Extraterrestrial Highway kind of over
10:45
Speaker 1: towards Tonapa and then down towards Death Valley. This year
10:49
Speaker 1: they actually were the first competition that ever got permission
10:52
Speaker 1: to do Titus Canyon. Oh sure, that's cool. Through there, beautiful,
10:55
Speaker 1: super super special, it's beautiful. I think that just goes
10:58
Speaker 1: to say, you know, how much work and how much
11:00
Speaker 1: respect the event does have for those lands. But yeah,
11:03
Speaker 1: that is where where.
11:04
Speaker 3: Things got interesting.
11:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was like sixty five mile an hour winds
11:09
Speaker 1: and we were camped. The photos were awesome, but if
11:12
Speaker 1: you haven't seen them, it's so great. I think I
11:14
Speaker 1: posted some stuff on Overland Journal. I know there's stuff
11:18
Speaker 1: on the Rebel Rally Instagram page. It was apocalyptic. I
11:23
Speaker 1: also had my t Rex there that I learned to
11:25
Speaker 1: Chris Walker for he was driving media around I had
11:28
Speaker 1: to get in that thing and go like three miles
11:31
Speaker 1: down the valley to find what are the silver tents called?
11:35
Speaker 3: Sure, oh yeah, I know you're talking about.
11:37
Speaker 1: The space pod something shift a shift pod, like you know,
11:41
Speaker 1: they look like alien spacecraft. And you're this time, you're
11:45
Speaker 1: on the other side of Area fifty one, and then
11:47
Speaker 1: and then you just kind of like in this white out,
11:50
Speaker 1: you see the silvery thing just kind of like pick
11:52
Speaker 1: off and you're like, okay, you know, so it like
11:57
Speaker 1: exited the whole area, exited, found miles away.
12:02
Speaker 2: Rachelle Croft's belongings were still inside of it.
12:05
Speaker 3: When they found it, miles and miles away.
12:08
Speaker 2: All intact, so she was pretty happy to get all
12:10
Speaker 2: of her stuff back.
12:11
Speaker 1: On her That's hilarious. Another question that comes to mind.
12:14
Speaker 1: You mentioned the fifty miles an hour. Since it's a rally,
12:17
Speaker 1: do they actually deduct points if you go over that
12:20
Speaker 1: fifty mile an hour? Yeah, And that was a problem
12:23
Speaker 1: this year, like on the first it was the first day, right,
12:26
Speaker 1: first or second day?
12:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was.
12:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all a blur now, to be honest, some
12:31
Speaker 1: people were you know, you'd look down on the tracker
12:33
Speaker 1: and people are doing like seventy mile an hour. Sure,
12:36
Speaker 1: and you have to put it into context. You know. Again,
12:39
Speaker 1: people will kind of criticize the event for this fifty
12:41
Speaker 1: million hour speed limit. These are public lands, These are
12:44
Speaker 1: public land, open roads, stock vehicles without roll cages. Sure
12:48
Speaker 1: it has I was struggling to do fifty in my TRX.
12:51
Speaker 1: Sure that's seven hundred horse power. Sure, all of the travel. Yeah,
12:56
Speaker 1: you know a lot of this is everything from us.
12:58
Speaker 1: There was a stock super cross track this year. Sure,
13:00
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's less. This event is less
13:03
Speaker 1: about what you put on the vehicle and how you
13:05
Speaker 1: modify it and how much money you spend. There's less
13:08
Speaker 1: ego and vehicle, and the ego is in the competitor,
13:11
Speaker 1: and it's in the skills of that. Yeah, the driver
13:14
Speaker 1: and the navigator.
13:14
Speaker 3: Sure, you know, it's love that strategy is super important.
13:18
Speaker 1: I love that you couldn't drive fifty on a lot
13:20
Speaker 1: of these roads. A lot of them are really technical.
13:21
Speaker 1: They're not just like open flat desert stuff. I mean,
13:24
Speaker 1: although there is parts of that.
13:25
Speaker 3: And you helped monitor the on time ninduro.
13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I did. I did. I think it was.
13:30
Speaker 1: I did two of the on time endurows where they
13:32
Speaker 1: you know, they have to average a certain amount of
13:34
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's really difficult. It's really really difficult. And
13:37
Speaker 1: the interesting thing was this how close people actually were,
13:41
Speaker 1: which gave you, you know, a clue. And as to
13:43
Speaker 1: the talents of these women, you know, I want to
13:46
Speaker 1: say the one that I did, they had to finish
13:47
Speaker 1: it within seventeen minutes and there's like a two minute interval,
13:50
Speaker 1: and like most of them came in like within seconds.
13:53
Speaker 1: And is there a rally computer on board that gives
13:56
Speaker 1: them average speed? But have trips? Okay, yeah, so that
14:01
Speaker 1: trips and tear trips, and some of them have icos.
14:04
Speaker 1: But what really can set it off is wheel spin.
14:07
Speaker 1: Instead of taking the center of the route that they go,
14:10
Speaker 1: they cut all the apexes or they maybe they blow
14:13
Speaker 1: some corners and it adds time and distance. People blowing
14:16
Speaker 1: corners on mine I had, I had somebody like almost
14:19
Speaker 1: roll and roll into my earth rummer. That's part behind
14:22
Speaker 1: the turn. I think that was the day that that
14:25
Speaker 1: was the day.
14:25
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, that's that was probably the day.
14:28
Speaker 3: There's a little chat at base camp.
14:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was not super happy, but it makes sense.
14:34
Speaker 1: As the event gets more and more popular, and there's
14:36
Speaker 1: more and more at stake. These are some people are
14:38
Speaker 1: now sponsored and there's big OEM involvement. So it's going
14:42
Speaker 1: to make sense that seven OEMs involved this year, which
14:45
Speaker 1: I think is the coolest part. I mean, it's just
14:47
Speaker 1: to see so much support at every single level, from
14:51
Speaker 1: Matt you being there with Max Tracks, to Volkswagen and Volkswagen, Rivian,
14:56
Speaker 1: Rivy I, g Kia, Nissan, Yep, Porsha. I mean, these
15:01
Speaker 1: are these are.
15:02
Speaker 4: Big Toyota, Toyota and fifty I think it was fifty
15:09
Speaker 4: percent almost fifty percent of the teams were rookies this year,
15:12
Speaker 4: which is yeah.
15:13
Speaker 1: And some of them did really good. That the Toyota
15:15
Speaker 1: engineers yep, what's the story on the Toyota engineers. I'm
15:19
Speaker 1: gonna turn that one over to you.
15:20
Speaker 3: Oh, they just rocked it.
15:22
Speaker 1: So they were they were both they were both Toyota
15:24
Speaker 1: Engineers Product engineers.
15:26
Speaker 4: Oya.
15:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the she Koya Like.
15:31
Speaker 1: What a great name.
15:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:32
Speaker 2: So they won the Rookie of the Year award and
15:35
Speaker 2: they just placed really really well and did a great
15:37
Speaker 2: job for the first year or.
15:38
Speaker 1: So, and and was the vehicle totally stock or or
15:42
Speaker 1: like a TRD. It was probably a TRD TRD version
15:45
Speaker 1: of the Sequoya. It sounded great five to seven, Sure,
15:49
Speaker 1: it was. It was it was throaty. I think it
15:51
Speaker 1: was pretty much stock. Yeah, it definitely didn't have that
15:54
Speaker 1: much done to it. And then what stood out in
15:57
Speaker 1: your mind of what they did different or better than
15:59
Speaker 1: the other rookies. But I think that the top teams.
16:02
Speaker 1: The thing that I saw, you know, Elizabeth Williams and
16:06
Speaker 1: her sister friends of Scott and I, they were I
16:10
Speaker 1: think they were the second highest scoring team. And the
16:12
Speaker 1: thing that I saw between between those two teams was
16:15
Speaker 1: they were really really comfortable and they had great communication,
16:19
Speaker 1: sure with their co driver and their navigator sure or
16:22
Speaker 1: the driver vice versa. This is maybe a little controversial
16:25
Speaker 1: on the rebel. It's like, I think the driver is
16:27
Speaker 1: kind of an uber driver. You know, you're being told
16:29
Speaker 1: where to go by the navigator, sure, and you have
16:32
Speaker 1: to have that trust and you have to work together.
16:34
Speaker 1: And if you're not working together, you know, and to
16:37
Speaker 1: a point that the drivers say no, this isn't you know,
16:39
Speaker 1: they have to have their their own common sense. But
16:41
Speaker 1: the navigation is the really really hard part. I think
16:44
Speaker 1: the success for teams is mastering the navigation and having
16:47
Speaker 1: trust as a team. Yeah, because if there's no trust
16:50
Speaker 1: in your driver's second guessing, you know, I mean like
16:52
Speaker 1: there's there's definitely people on the event that I talked
16:55
Speaker 1: to that really were struggling, you know, with their teammates,
16:58
Speaker 1: and you know they you could.
17:01
Speaker 2: See it, And that must be a special person that
17:03
Speaker 2: you can spend a week of a time with in
17:06
Speaker 2: a vehicle all day, every day, making strategic.
17:08
Speaker 1: Decisions in a tent, stressful environment, sleep in a tent together.
17:13
Speaker 2: Sure, they can be separate, they can bring your own tent,
17:16
Speaker 2: but I think a lot of them, yeah, share tents too.
17:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it makes sense with Elizabeth being her sister.
17:22
Speaker 1: They they've communicated together their whole life and and even
17:25
Speaker 1: if something feels contentious with a sibling, it's usually very brief, Yeah,
17:29
Speaker 1: because we're usually isn't like you don't have like the
17:32
Speaker 1: big meltdown, you have like the mini meltdown kind of
17:35
Speaker 1: a thing. I would have a meltdown like every five minutes.
17:39
Speaker 1: It is an incredibly challenging event.
17:42
Speaker 3: I think there were several mother daughter teams.
17:44
Speaker 1: Which, yes, that is so cool. That's so cool, benzis
17:48
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the other the classes. So there
17:51
Speaker 1: there is a stock crossover class. Yeah, it's it's called
17:57
Speaker 1: x cross and okay, that's a I guess that's a class,
18:00
Speaker 1: uh you know, specific to the rebel Okay. So that's
18:03
Speaker 1: everything from a Porschchayanne to a Subaru. You know. This
18:06
Speaker 1: year a Ford broncos Sport won it. Okay, who was
18:10
Speaker 1: driving the Bora Jonikin was driving and Fissure okay, you know,
18:16
Speaker 1: and then he actually sponsored two vehicles this year, and
18:19
Speaker 1: I want to say they're like Korean spec pH e vs.
18:23
Speaker 3: Okay, they both were yeah, second and third place.
18:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, second and third so uh in a May.
18:28
Speaker 3: And Tanna White even second place.
18:30
Speaker 1: And that's in the PHEV class.
18:32
Speaker 3: That was an ex cross cross class.
18:34
Speaker 1: Okay.
18:34
Speaker 3: I think that the electrified designation is a separate.
18:38
Speaker 1: So it's a crossover electrified.
18:40
Speaker 2: It's kind of there's like an electrified designation, okay, but
18:44
Speaker 2: they don't compete against each other specifically, they're all competing
18:48
Speaker 2: against each other, so it's like a designation, I guess.
18:51
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, and that's within the four by four class,
18:54
Speaker 1: so that the bulk of I'm not going to say
18:56
Speaker 1: that the real competition that's the totally wrong way to
18:58
Speaker 1: say that the X Cross class is a super Hue Challenge.
19:00
Speaker 1: But these are all wheel drive, all wheel drive vehicles.
19:03
Speaker 1: I mean they can have four wheel drive. I don't
19:05
Speaker 1: think there's anything that, you know, it necessarily prohibits them.
19:07
Speaker 1: You know, there are different routes that the X Cross
19:10
Speaker 1: class is going to take. And the cool thing with
19:12
Speaker 1: X crosses it just opens it up to more people. Sure,
19:15
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't have a you know, a
19:17
Speaker 1: four wheel drive, and you know, you can just take
19:19
Speaker 1: what's in your driveway, you put some tires and wheels
19:22
Speaker 1: on it. I want to say, is pretty much what
19:24
Speaker 1: most people will do when you go maybe a bash
19:26
Speaker 1: plate or something. Yeah. Yeah, there's also so within the
19:30
Speaker 1: four by four class, which is probably the more contested class.
19:34
Speaker 1: I guess is what qualifies it as a four drive?
19:36
Speaker 1: Does it have to have low range? Low range? Although
19:39
Speaker 1: I don't think it has.
19:40
Speaker 3: To have I think it's about the transfer case.
19:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, is probably then low range, you know. I
19:44
Speaker 1: guess I always looked at as like that's a that's
19:46
Speaker 1: a crossover. It's in the Exure S class. That's a
19:49
Speaker 1: four wheel drive, that's in the four by four class. Sure,
19:51
Speaker 1: you know that's what you're seeing. Jeep's FJ cruisers, pickup trucks,
19:56
Speaker 1: that that kind of stuff. I mean, Jeep was the
19:57
Speaker 1: most popular this year. A Jeep. Yeah, they actually swept first,
20:03
Speaker 1: second and third in the four x four class, which
20:05
Speaker 1: was really cool. And who won that Nina Barlow and
20:09
Speaker 1: tarylnd Wnina fantastic driver, fantastic world drive trainer, Taryln's an
20:13
Speaker 1: insane navigator. And they actually did it. They actually got
20:17
Speaker 1: the bone stock win. So there's also a if the
20:19
Speaker 1: vehicle is completely stock, there's an additional trophy for that.
20:23
Speaker 1: And wasn't it a PHEV Wrangler. It was four by
20:26
Speaker 1: e so first, so cool. Second this year we're Wrangler
20:30
Speaker 1: four by ease, so cool, both completely stock. Third, third
20:34
Speaker 1: place was a well, here's the argument is third place
20:37
Speaker 1: was a was a twenty twenty one Wrangler Eco diesel
20:40
Speaker 1: that had you know, it had bumpers that were factory
20:43
Speaker 1: mopar bumpers. Sure had factory mopar beadlock wheels, it had
20:47
Speaker 1: a factory mopar lift. So it wasn't necessarily bone stock,
20:51
Speaker 1: but I mean, I guess now you could just go
20:52
Speaker 1: it essentially mimics the recon extreme package. You know, maybe
20:56
Speaker 1: next year that'll be the so cool. It's so cool
20:59
Speaker 1: to see g part the event. You know from the beginning. Yep,
21:02
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21:04
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21:45
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21:48
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21:51
Speaker 1: with the right navigators like that's tough to beat. I mean,
21:55
Speaker 1: she she had a pretty commanding lead.
21:58
Speaker 3: This year that she went for it.
22:00
Speaker 2: Like on the day that we had that crazy storm,
22:02
Speaker 2: they were still out there in these gales.
22:06
Speaker 1: See twenty feet and she was in the dunes driving,
22:10
Speaker 1: you know, trying to use a compass that's insane, that's impressive,
22:13
Speaker 1: and getting and they were getting stuff. So they were
22:16
Speaker 1: again like so much of this rally comes down to endurance,
22:20
Speaker 1: Like I guess Emily's thing is that there's a rally
22:22
Speaker 1: within the rally for the staff. Yes, and it takes
22:25
Speaker 1: a while to even recover as staff, it does. So
22:29
Speaker 1: how did that How did that feel to you, Ashley,
22:33
Speaker 1: being having to keep up with that kind of output
22:36
Speaker 1: on the media side.
22:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's challenging.
22:39
Speaker 2: I think the lack of sleep that's one of the
22:41
Speaker 2: things that gets you and working those long days. It's
22:45
Speaker 2: nice to be able to work with a really good
22:47
Speaker 2: team as well, Like Emily always talks about she has
22:49
Speaker 2: the best team in the world, which is very flattering,
22:52
Speaker 2: But we each have our own team within the bigger team. Sure,
22:56
Speaker 2: it's all about Obviously, for my role, I rely on
22:59
Speaker 2: the photographers lot and my lead Kirsten, who is amazing
23:02
Speaker 2: working with her and the photo manager and all of
23:06
Speaker 2: the different.
23:06
Speaker 3: Media people to get shots.
23:08
Speaker 2: Even sometimes I'll ask Dan who he flies the drone
23:11
Speaker 2: and he has amazing shots to lend me a go
23:14
Speaker 2: I can.
23:14
Speaker 3: Post them one.
23:14
Speaker 1: Some of those were incredible.
23:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's very talented.
23:17
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we have to think about it
23:20
Speaker 2: like a marathon, not a sprint, and just take one
23:22
Speaker 2: day at a time. And yeah, but it's very rewarding
23:25
Speaker 2: to have.
23:25
Speaker 3: You're like, oh, I.
23:26
Speaker 2: Got through that as well. I also looked at the
23:28
Speaker 2: women after that storm night. They had to go right
23:31
Speaker 2: onto a marathon stage, which means they don't have any
23:34
Speaker 2: food truck or what else. There was like not very
23:37
Speaker 2: many facilities. I guess at that next base camp is
23:40
Speaker 2: basically like dry camping. And so they went from this
23:43
Speaker 2: crazy storm to the super remote camp with two days
23:46
Speaker 2: of really a long, hard competition, and I just, yeah,
23:49
Speaker 2: I was in such admiration of them all because that's
23:51
Speaker 2: so tough.
23:52
Speaker 1: I was so impressed. I mean, there was not a
23:54
Speaker 1: single complaint that I saw from any of the teams
23:57
Speaker 1: about that. Most of them were like, that was epic,
24:00
Speaker 1: what an amazing adventure. There wasn't anything about sand in
24:03
Speaker 1: the sleeping bag. I mean it was just really only
24:06
Speaker 1: for me.
24:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, only for me too. Our tent was like completely
24:11
Speaker 3: you should see this photo, was like all of our
24:13
Speaker 3: stuff covered in sand.
24:14
Speaker 1: But like the competitors, they were in it. They were
24:18
Speaker 1: just in it and in the positivity in the tent
24:22
Speaker 1: once the tent reopened, because they had to kind of
24:24
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was gnarly. They had to
24:26
Speaker 1: kind of structurally inspect it. The vibes were great, people
24:29
Speaker 1: were excited, and it was either be in the tent or.
24:32
Speaker 3: Be not in like the main media tent that you mean.
24:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, What do you see, Ashley about that organization
24:41
Speaker 1: now that you've done it for three years? Because Emily
24:43
Speaker 1: Miller and her team, they're known for their professionalism and
24:47
Speaker 1: the level of I would say not only professionalism, but
24:50
Speaker 1: execution of the event. It's very impressive. It does not
24:53
Speaker 1: feel like a small time event. It feels very professional
24:56
Speaker 1: at a very high level. What are some things that
24:58
Speaker 1: you've noticed, and you two, Matt, but what have you
25:00
Speaker 1: guys noticed about that organization that's different? Like what makes
25:04
Speaker 1: it perform that much better? She doesn't sleep, Yeah, she doesn't.
25:07
Speaker 1: She doesn't sleep so good, She's great leadership. It sounds
25:10
Speaker 1: like incredible, incredible leadership.
25:13
Speaker 3: She really knows how to yell.
25:15
Speaker 1: At the smile, which is something that I took away
25:19
Speaker 1: from that.
25:20
Speaker 2: Yes, but I love it when Emily gives like her
25:22
Speaker 2: PEP talks to both the internal team and also to
25:26
Speaker 2: the teams.
25:27
Speaker 3: She's a leader through and through. I think you can
25:29
Speaker 3: see it is. You can see it.
25:31
Speaker 1: A lot of competence, a lot of specific knowledge because
25:34
Speaker 1: she's done it herself. And then she really seems to
25:36
Speaker 1: reflect a really high level of leadership for sure.
25:40
Speaker 2: And she lives and breathes it. You know, they're they're
25:42
Speaker 2: researching and running those courses all year round. Yea, so
25:46
Speaker 2: she lives, breathe, very passionate about it.
25:49
Speaker 1: And yeah, I think people will critique the cost of
25:53
Speaker 1: their rebelts. So there are bells fifteen thousand dollars. But
25:56
Speaker 1: that's why it turns out the way it does. You
25:58
Speaker 1: have Drew Deckman, who that's one of the howest restaurants
26:00
Speaker 1: in Mexico's in the Guadalupe Valley. Shout out to Drew
26:03
Speaker 1: doing another catering. I mean, it's wonderful food. You know,
26:05
Speaker 1: you have showers, you have good showers, bathrooms you know
26:08
Speaker 1: base camp. That's awesome, and it's it's almost a ten
26:11
Speaker 1: day event by the time that's what it's Wednesday, competitors
26:14
Speaker 1: get into. Yeah, Sunday they leave and again I get
26:18
Speaker 1: the Monster Energy flat bill crowd. Oh there's so much money.
26:21
Speaker 1: I'm like, I know what you spend on Modello for
26:23
Speaker 1: the one thousand, I know what you spend on tires,
26:26
Speaker 1: I know what you spend on all of this. Like
26:28
Speaker 1: you can't unless you've actually done it. Like I will
26:30
Speaker 1: almost guarantee you. This is not a huge This is
26:33
Speaker 1: not a money making project for Emily Miller. This is
26:36
Speaker 1: a passion project and she deserves to make a living. Yeah,
26:39
Speaker 1: she deserves. So does her staff. And yeah, she felt
26:42
Speaker 1: she pays people on the event. Well she she she
26:44
Speaker 1: looks after people. But you know, this year is kind
26:46
Speaker 1: of pretty to some like unexpected expenses. Sure, you know,
26:49
Speaker 1: five digit expenses that like damage from a giant windstorm
26:52
Speaker 1: that you a giant windstorm, or like catering went crazy
26:56
Speaker 1: or this or that.
26:57
Speaker 2: And it's true with an event of this magnitude, you're
26:59
Speaker 2: going to have things that are going to come up.
27:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the level that it's done is unlike anything
27:06
Speaker 1: I've seen. I mean, like Harry Wagner who does the
27:08
Speaker 1: press releases and the automotive journalist. You know, he's been
27:11
Speaker 1: on you know, he's done pretty much everything. He's done Dakhar,
27:13
Speaker 1: He's done, you know, the score all. Its like, this
27:17
Speaker 1: is the best run rally that I've ever I've ever
27:20
Speaker 1: been to, and I think a lot of it does
27:21
Speaker 1: really come down to the staff. They're just fantastic people
27:23
Speaker 1: and there's just drive everybody that's there. You know, I
27:26
Speaker 1: went on the first Rebel and this is the sixth Rebel.
27:29
Speaker 1: And what's cool is that the same people are still
27:32
Speaker 1: on it. It says a lot. And when you have
27:35
Speaker 1: a high stress event like this that's once a year
27:38
Speaker 1: that you know, people may have you know, stuff might
27:41
Speaker 1: come up or whatever. The fact like almost all of
27:44
Speaker 1: that crew is still there, I think just speaks volumes
27:47
Speaker 1: about the leadership of the event and the event itself.
27:49
Speaker 1: People believe in it, and it's cool now to see, Yeah,
27:52
Speaker 1: we totally do. I mean, we've been so fortunate. We're
27:54
Speaker 1: the first sponsor, Yeah we were. We were fortunate to be
27:57
Speaker 1: the first sponsor. Yeah, the first media fight you for it.
28:01
Speaker 1: You know, we were the first media sponsor, so we
28:03
Speaker 1: were literally the both the first sponsor. So you know,
28:06
Speaker 1: it's just it's been cool to see that this segment,
28:09
Speaker 1: this type of motorsport and competition event because it's so
28:13
Speaker 1: great because now you walk in and you're like like,
28:15
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, that team's good, that teams good,
28:18
Speaker 1: that team's great, Like you know, you can kind of
28:20
Speaker 1: start to get in it. And we're at that point
28:22
Speaker 1: now where the competitors themselves have evolved and the competition
28:26
Speaker 1: has evolved.
28:27
Speaker 3: Sure, the event has evolved.
28:29
Speaker 1: Even like and it can go so many ways. You know,
28:32
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, it's been really cool. I think it's great.
28:35
Speaker 1: Sounds like that starting with a great vehicle, you don't
28:38
Speaker 1: really need to do a lot of modifications to the car,
28:41
Speaker 1: doesn't give you some huge advantage if you have a
28:43
Speaker 1: good driver and a good navigator, or you've invested the
28:46
Speaker 1: time in becoming good drivers and good navigators and collaborating
28:51
Speaker 1: well as a team, that will serve you far better
28:53
Speaker 1: than Sonny on set of shocks, navigation training and driver
28:57
Speaker 1: training totally eight stage of that. Some good shocks too,
29:01
Speaker 1: but yeah, well that'll just help prevent you from breaking
29:06
Speaker 1: down and that thing thirty max of a thirty five
29:09
Speaker 1: inch tire.
29:10
Speaker 3: Don't know they are thirty five So.
29:11
Speaker 1: That makes sense, sounds like it really wouldn't benefit you
29:14
Speaker 1: have much larger than that anyways, I would not know,
29:17
Speaker 1: and you're just going to have more stuff and broken.
29:19
Speaker 1: But it's you know, it's cool. The the event as
29:22
Speaker 1: of last week was fifty percent at you know, at capacity,
29:26
Speaker 1: fifty percent sold already Wow for the next year for
29:29
Speaker 1: two wow. So so cool? Yeah, so cool. Now, Ashley,
29:34
Speaker 1: how do people find out more about the Rebel Rally?
29:38
Speaker 1: If someone is interested in participating, how do they go
29:42
Speaker 1: about doing that? And what is typically expected from them?
29:45
Speaker 1: Like I remember hearing about some training that they do,
29:47
Speaker 1: and so how do people find out more information? And
29:50
Speaker 1: if they're interested in racing, what are some things that
29:53
Speaker 1: they need to think about before they make that decision?
29:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would highly recommend visiting their website Rebel Rally
29:59
Speaker 2: dot com. All the information is there. They even have
30:01
Speaker 2: packing lists and suggestions for training. I know they run
30:05
Speaker 2: it's called Rebel You and so that. Yeah, they have
30:08
Speaker 2: various courses and then if you don't necessarily do Rebel You,
30:11
Speaker 2: then there are other courses that are listed there that
30:14
Speaker 2: you can take instead, so they have a list of
30:16
Speaker 2: recommended ones. Can also visit them on Instagram, Facebook, and
30:20
Speaker 2: Twitter and YouTube.
30:22
Speaker 3: So the usual suspects.
30:24
Speaker 1: So cool, Matt. What were some of the takeaways from
30:27
Speaker 1: you for you for the event? I mean, what did
30:29
Speaker 1: you leave there with the takeaway on tough women? Yeah, amazing. Yeah,
30:33
Speaker 1: it was a lot of adverse conditions this year, all
30:36
Speaker 1: of these nights in a tent with little sleep, long days.
30:38
Speaker 1: You know, you're up at most of the teams are
30:40
Speaker 1: up at four or five am, you know, and they're
30:43
Speaker 1: not going to bed until ten because you know, they
30:45
Speaker 1: get their maps the night before and they're their strategies
30:48
Speaker 1: and things. Just really tough competitors. Yeah. And I love
30:50
Speaker 1: the fact that it ends with this big celebration and oysters. Yeah, Glamos.
30:57
Speaker 2: It's nice to put a dress on at the end
30:59
Speaker 2: of that. You know, I think you walk in and
31:01
Speaker 2: everybody's like, oh wow, like you clean up.
31:04
Speaker 3: Well they see you.
31:08
Speaker 1: Cleaned. Yeah, So it it ends in glamours, so lots
31:16
Speaker 1: of driving in the dunes and then it kind of
31:18
Speaker 1: wraps up with this gala at the end of it
31:21
Speaker 1: and harpet so awesome.
31:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's great.
31:25
Speaker 1: That's that's really fun. Well, you know, thank you both
31:28
Speaker 1: for being there and helping to support such a great event.
31:30
Speaker 1: Emily and her team. We we just really support you.
31:34
Speaker 1: We're grateful that you have the event available for those
31:37
Speaker 1: that want to find out more information. We'll also put
31:39
Speaker 1: links in the show notes and in the description so
31:42
Speaker 1: that way you can check that out. Will also include
31:44
Speaker 1: some footage in the YouTube video that we're recording for
31:47
Speaker 1: the podcast as well. Check it out for sure Rebel
31:50
Speaker 1: Rally dot com. All right, thank you all for listening,
31:52
Speaker 1: and we will talk to you next time.