SOFR 2026 Sees Lia Block Take ARA Championship Lead

Every June, the normally quiet forests of southern Ohio are filled with the pops and bangs of rally cars. This is the Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR) run by the American Rally Association (ARA).

The rally dates back to 1968 and ran until 1996. It was revived in 2017, making this year’s running the tenth iteration of the revival of this iconic event. Run over the course of three days around the cities of Chillicothe, Portsmouth and the small town of McArthur, it covers 123 competition miles. It’s run mostly on gravel, but features some small tarmac sections as well.

69 cars in multiple classes started the rally, but there was quite a bit of attrition, as is often the case with rally. The new #103 Toyota GR Corolla of Seth Quintero and Topi Luhtinen traded the lead early multiple times with the #157 Hyundai i20N of 19-year-old Lia Block and co-driver Alex Gelsomino.

Block was not happy with the setup of her Hyundai on the second day of the rally, and that allowed the #103 Toyota to open up a bit of a lead heading into the last day of the rally. The final day saw the Block / Gelsomino Hyundai duo on the attack and they managed to claw back a lot of their lost time to finish second overall, around 10 seconds behind the winning factory Toyota entry.

With Block’s second-place finish she achieved the highest ever final position for a woman in the ARA's top class and, as of the end of SOFR, she is leading in the overall points championship, also a first for a woman driver.

Rounding out the overall podium in third was the Mexican duo of Ricardo Cordero and Marco Hernandez in their #398 Citroen C3 Rally 2. Other notable finishers included the all-female lineup of Aoife Raftery and Hannah McKillop, who won the Limited Four Wheel Drive class and finished a very impressive fifth overall in their Women in Motorsport #417 Ford Fiesta Rally 3. 

The popular duo of Seamus Burke and Martin Brady took top honors in the Open Two Wheel Drive class (with a very strong 9^th overall) in their fan-favorite #25 1977 Ford Escort MKII while the #41 2026 Honda Civic Type R of Chris Sladek and John Sharps took the class win in Limited Two Wheel Drive and finished 16th overall.

One of the most unique parts of rally is the variety of cars in the field. Everything from current, purpose-built, WRC-style rally cars to privateer garage-built specials. Rally in the US is about the only place you can witness brands such as Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Skoda and other non-US market cars driving and racing on American roads. I’ve been to some rallies in Europe and seeing these cars is commonplace over there but it is really special to see these cars compete in my home state, thousands of miles away from their home markets.

The next event in the ARA National Championship goes down July 18-19 at Rally Colorado where Block will look to extend her history-making six-point lead at the top of the table. You can follow along with the series standings and the other events on the ARA calendar here.