The United States Road Rally Challenge® (USRRC) returned to St. Louis on Oct. 9-11, 2026, for the fifth time in its 31-year history, crowning “Challenge” champions in RoadRally’s four categories: Equipped, Limited, GPS, and Stock.
Headquartered across the Mississippi River in nearby Edwardsville, IL, St. Louis Region offered SCCA® RoadRally teams three National rallies: South by Southeast (SXSE) on Oct. 9, the Great River Road Tour on Oct. 10, and the Route 66 Ramble on Oct. 11, with SXSE comprising the traditional Course (trap) portion of the weekend and Great River and Route 66 providing the annual Tour competition.
In all, the three RoadRallies covered more than 550 miles of rural southwestern Illinois roads in eight different counties.
While turnout was modest, competition – especially in Equipped and GPS – proved intense, particularly in the Touring rallies, where tenths of a second could make the difference between a podium spot and a fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-place finish.
Rally Winners
Below are the individual event winners in each class, broken down by event:
South by Southeast Course Rally (Oct. 9)
- Equipped, Steve Gaddy/Chris Bean
- Limited: Wendy Harrison/Craig Beidelman
- GPS: Peggy Schnippel/Kurt Schnippel
- Stock: John Clack/Linda Clack
Great River Road Tour (Oct. 10)
- Equipped: Satish Gopalkrishnan/Peter Schneider
- Limited: Ed Sain/Douglas Sain
- GPS: Clarence Westberg/Kate Westberg
- Stock: Greg Wilkins/Terri Wilkins.
Route 66 Ramble Tour (Oct. 11)
- Equipped: Satish Gopalkrishnan/Peter Schneider
- Limited: Ed Sain/Douglas Sain
- GPS: Ann Olewnik/Jim Crittenden
- Stock: Greg Wilkins/Terri Wilkins.
Full results per rally can be found below:
SXE Results Great River Results Route 66 Results
2026 USRRC Champions
While the above are the winners by event, below are the overall USRRC champions, which is earned by overall performance during the entire three-day event. With the exception of the GPS class, this year’s champions won two of the three events on their way to becoming overall USRRC champs.
- Equipped: Satish Gopalkrishnan/Peter Schneider
- Limited: Ed Sain/Douglas Sain
- GPS: Clarence Westberg/Kate Westberg
- Stock: Greg Wilkins/Terri Wilkins
Gopalkrishnan, Schneider, Ed and Douglas Sain, and Greg and Terri Wilkins are all previous USRRC champions. For Clarence and Kate Westberg, this was their first Challenge title.
“It was a great weekend,” said Friday’s GPS winner Kurt Schnippel. “Great roads, great competition, a fun opportunity to connect with friends we haven’t seen all year. We enjoyed it thoroughly, especially Tom [vonHatten’s] South by Southeast rally. Traps were challenging but not impossible, with a good mix of Free Zones and areas where we needed to keep on time.
“We’re already looking forward to next year,” Schnippel added.
Next Year’s USRRC Announced
During this year’s event, the 2027 United States RoadRally Challenge was announced. Hosted by the Blue Ridge Region, with Norton, VA, serving as rally headquarters, the event will take place in early August.
More information on that event to come. For now, keep an eye on scca.com/roadrally as well as SCCA’s RoadRally Facebook page and SCCA’s RoadRally Facebook group.
Photo by James Heine
