New Atlas: “The Rebelle Rally isn’t about speed or tech, but there’s a lot of both”
Published November 01, 2025 by Arron Turpen
Some Ford factory teams, like Team Velocity (#131), were previously independents. Trista Smith (left) and Karisa Haydon started out in Karisa’s personal vehicle for their first Rebelle.
I stood in the windy desert of Nevada watching one vehicle after the next launch out of the inflatable arch and into the sand ahead. Cheers and engine blips marked each exit from the Rebelle Rally base camp. These women were heading out into the unknown with nothing more than a map and a pencil to guide them. It was pretty badass.
The Rebelle Rally takes place every fall. Unlike most rallies, it’s not about catching epic air in the sand or screaming past crowds of fans at breakneck speeds. The Rebelle is all about navigation and time management. Getting from one point to the next as accurately as possible without missing any points in between. Based purely on a compass and map. No GPS, no apps. All while traversing some of the most unforgiving terrain in the western United States.
I went to see the 2025 Rebelle Rally launch to find out what goes on behind the scenes to make this competition happen. The logistics are unfathomable. Unless your name is Emily Miller. She has a firm grip on it and she’s the one who started the Rebelle 10 years ago. She’s the one who has assembled a team to figure it all out. Emily juggles a thousand different things to make this competition one of the greatest rallies in the world.
“We’ve found the right people,” Miller told me. “They came just at the right time and exactly when they were needed. Most of us have been here since this started 10 years ago.”
This year’s Rebelle started on Mammoth Mountain in California and then went into the Nevada desert, turning south. It's over 2,500 km (1,553 miles) of don’t-turn-there-or-you’ll-get-stuck driving as teams compete for points. The points come from hitting checkpoints: some with flags, some with small markers, and some with nothing at all. There are even some fakes just to play mind games with competitors.
Over the eight-day competition, Rebelle teams climb and descend dunes, mountains, scrubland, rocks, and dry lakes, all while plotting their route with just map and compass, using navigation techniques that haven’t changed much since horse and wagon were the fastest modes of transport. The rally, which is a women’s-only competition, draws manufacturers and independents in large numbers. This year, 67 teams of two took the field, most in unmodified vehicles.
One of the Ford teams was in their fourth year together as a Rebelle duo and their second year as a Ford-sponsored team. Karisa Haydon and Trista Smith, together known as Team Velocity, entered their first year of the Rebelle in Karisa’s Ford Bronco Sport. After being named Rookies of the Year, the team returned for another go. Then Ford approached about a sponsorship and moving them into the 4x4 category. The team agreed. In this 2025 Rebelle Rally, they were in a Ford Ranger Raptor.
“The course is much ... it's gnarlier if you're in the 4x4 category,” said Haydon. “So I remember seeing these ridge lines and things that we didn't have to go to.”
Much of the Rebelle competition boils down to the team, not the vehicle. I asked several teams about the relationship in the cab and that eight grueling days of maybe getting on each other’s nerves.
“So as far as, like, getting on each other's nerves,” Smith said, “there's not really.. there's never been an issue, which is good. I think that's why we're still so strong four years in a row.”
Hayden agreed. “You know, when we get the chance to talk to rookie teams or people who are thinking about this, and we're like, oh, your team selection is so important. Your vehicle's likely going to be fine and make it. It's likely not your vehicle that's going to be problematic. It's most likely the relationship in the car that's going to be problematic.”
