It’s August, which means it’s time for county fairs, town-square picnics, the start of high-school football practice, and, of course, back-to-school sales. School also will start shortly, as if we need any reminder. In short: You’re busy. Still, you need to find time to register for the Oct. 9-11, 2026, SCCA® United States RoadRally Challenge® (USRRC). Do it now, and it’ll remove one item from your ever-growing fall to-do list. And you’ll love the event.
Hosted this year by SCCA’s St. Louis Region, with a helping hand from the Southern Illinois Region, this year’s USRRC – the 31st running of the event – includes three National rallies: the South by Southeast (SXSE) National Course Rally on Friday, Oct. 9; the Great River Road National Touring Rally on Saturday, Oct. 10; and the Route 66 Ramble National Touring Rally on Sunday, Oct. 11.
The “Ramble” will also help celebrate the Last 100 Miles in Illinois Route 66 Festival on Oct. 10–11. Organized by Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau of Southwestern Illinois and the communities along Historic Route 66 from Springfield to Granite City, including communities the rally will touch, the festival will celebrate the centenary of “the Mother Road.”
Together, the trio of National RoadRallies will cover some 600 miles of rural roads across eight southern Illinois counties, which together boast some 4,000 square miles of countryside across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and the Gateway Arch.
“It's been an important home for us for rallying for many years,” observes St. Louis Region’s Rose vonHatten, Registrar for the 2026 USRRC. “We will span the Metro East from the borders of ‘Little Egypt’ – that’s basically southern Illinois below the Kaskaskia River – to the between-the-rivers hills and peach and apple orchards of Calhoun County, a.k.a. the ‘Kingdom of Calhoun,’ as some locals call it. I think people will have a fun time and enjoy what we have planned.”
As in 2018, this year’s USRRC also includes the Gateway Challenge Cup, vonHatten adds, Saturday and Sunday Regional RoadRallies designed for new or occasional rally teams who want to explore rallies that are a bit longer than a typical Saturday or Sunday Regional event.
All three National rallies, as well as the Gateway Challenge Cup Regionals, will use the Richta GPS Checkpoint System for Timing & Scoring, providing quick and accurate results for rally teams, vonHatten says.
Headquarters for the 2026 USRRC is the Comfort Inn in Edwardsville, IL, the home of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and about 25 minutes from downtown St. Louis.
To register, or for more information about the 2026 USRRC, check out the event’s registration homepage:
