The Southeast RallyCross Divisional Challenge, otherwise known as the Southern Sweet Tea Challenge, finally took place Sept. 19-20, 2026, in Hollytree, AL. The event was postponed in May due to heavy rain and flooding, with the hope for drier weather later in the year – which sort of happened.
A dry September with low rainfall led to dry initial conditions, but rain showers in the area allowed for varying conditions throughout Saturdays competition. A short Saturday morning shower (arriving just as Group 2 headed out) knocked down the dust and cooled things off for the morning's four runs. A longer pop-up rain cell during lunch delayed the afternoon runs about 40 minutes; there was concern it would leave things slick for the first afternoon heat, but the dry dirt soaked it up quickly, leading to tacky and fast runs through the 70 second courses for the afternoon. Three runs were completed in the afternoon, helped along by welcome lingering cloud cover and reduced dust due to the scattered rain.
A BBQ dinner and social completed that day.
The Sunday course was shorter, averaging about 50 seconds per run. The lingering rain held off, leaving the day hot and dry with dust kicking up. A total of six Sunday runs were completed, for a total of 13 competition runs for the weekend.
On Course
A total of 52 drivers took part in the event, with the Rally Truck class the largest of the weekend with nine drivers. Steve Cerqueira brought home third place in the first outing for his new-to-him Ranger, with his three cones being the difference in a 4.66sec gap to second. Eli Drennan took second in his S10, while the win went to Jason Stewart, also in an S10, by 9.04sec.
Stock Front had five drivers. Dillon Broyles got third place finishing in Shawna Bowman’s Civic Si after fighting throttle issues in a Mazda 3. Bowman managed second place in the rebuilt Fire Ant Civic after a collision last year. Bowman was also the recipient of an SCCA Women on Track scholarship, using that funding to attend this event. Meanwhile, taking the win was Austin Hulings, also in a Civic. That might be a pattern to watch.
Stock Rear had a great shootout between Josh Armantrout in his Lotus Elise and Logan Altmyer in his Nissan 350Z. The lead swapped a couple of times, but in the end it was a single cone that cost Armantrout the win by 0.6sec on Sunday. Part of what made the battle so entertaining was the size and power disparity between the two cars – the compact, featherweight Elise going toe-to-toe with the much larger 350Z made for great entertainment.
Stock All had six entries. William Morris in his silent-but-fast Polestar EV took home third place. The battle for first was between father-and-son duo Charles and Shelton Wright in their Focus RS, with Shelton grabbing the win by 5.6sec over Charles.
Ther were eight drivers in Prepared Front, and plenty of cones were had. Ryan Hard in his Acura pulled out third place while Christian Retterer kept the hammer down for second. The win went to Matthew Thompson in his Fiesta ST. Gaps were 6 to 7 seconds in the end.
Prepared Rear saw the battle of the European manufactured sports cars, with Jeremiah Hemphill in his BMW Z3 winning, leaving Casey Tolbert in second in his Porsche 944.
Mod Front had another father-son duo of Logan and Bill Dehne in their indestructible Nissan Sentra that has more miles on it than a Kenworth truck. Taking third was Logan, with second going to Bill. Top class honors went to Colin Kilby with a runaway win in a uniquely liveried Cavalier that was hard to miss.
Mod Rear had eight drivers. Bob White managed to keep his BMW E30 rocking all day for third place. In second place, Davis Faver had to manage some RX-7 issues, but through determination and stubborn effort held on for second. The win went to Leon Drake, who was back in Porscharu for the event after he borrowed the car back from Bob Seelig due to continuing teething issues on Frankaru, Leon’s MA car.
In Mod All, the battle for second was close – 1.1sec was the deciding factor. Benji Knox lost the fight with some cones and took third while Nicholas Stoll grabbed second. Jason Fuller stayed clean and ran off with the win in his heavily modified Subaru Impreza RS.
The UTV class pitted Rogerio Balbino against Johnathan Coatney. Rogerio collected cones while Johnathan only picked up one but, in the end, Rogerio barely hung on to win by the closest margin of the event – only 0.107sec separated the two drivers over the entire weekend.
Onto the Championship
A lot of dedicated people came together to put this event on, and it showed the best of #funwithcars within the SCCA. A huge thanks goes to everyone involved.
With another Southern Sweet Tea Challenge and the final RallyCross Divisional Challenge event of the season in the history books, drivers now look to the Oct. 16-18, 2026, SCCA RallyCross National Championship Presented by Bingham Equipment Company at the Camp Verde Equestrian Center just north of Phoenix, AZ.
Don’t know about the National Championship event? This link will help you out.
Photo by Amanda Davidson with Redline Pictures and Motion
