SCCA® RoadRallies can truly be held anywhere there are public roads, but within America’s 50 states, there are a few spots that are all but designed to offer an incredible RoadRally experience. Case in point, the eastern side of Ohio has the I-77 corridor that runs from the Lake Erie shoreline in Cleveland all the way down to the banks of the Ohio River in Marietta. Branching out from that interstate are a plethora of roads that traverse the Buckeye State’s amazing geography. It is on these roads that the 2025 United States RoadRally Challenge® (USRRC) is set to take place.
Hosted by Neohio Region over the Oct. 10-12 weekend, the 2025 USRRC will feature three days of adventure through a pair of Tour rallies and a Course rally.
Friday’s Johnny Appleseed rally is slated to start in Canton, OH, and finish in Marietta. “The Johnny Appleseed name is a legacy from a National rally hosted by Neohio Region, starting in the 1950s,” explains Neohio’s Greg Lester, who will be the rallymaster for this day’s adventure. “The rally has taken many forms over the decades, but the name has endured. The initial concept for 2025 is an absolutely straightforward, moderately brisk afternoon/evening Tour running southeast through Ohio’s Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), and on into the Appalachian foothills of far southeast Ohio, to an overnight halt in/near Marietta, OH.”
Fall foliage, he adds, should be approaching peak coloration at this time.
Ohio Milk Run will take place on Saturday, Oct. 11, and will serve as the northbound return leg, paralleling Friday’s route, but slightly farther west, and likely finishing in the Wadsworth, OH, area. The Milk Run name is an homage to a motorcycle enduro that previously ran in the same area. Rallymaster Ron Johnstonbaugh promises another “absolutely straightforward” Tour rally.
The USRRC weekend will wrap up on Sunday, Oct. 12, with the Cleveland Alley Rallye, a truly unique event which, as you would suspect, takes place in and around Cleveland.
“The Alley Rallye will be the resurrection of an annual classic organized by the now-defunct Cleveland Sport Car Club, says rallymaster Jeff Arendas. “The course will introduce competitors to the full spectrum of Cleveland’s urban landscape: the post-industrial ‘Flats,’ several distinct ethnic neighborhoods, grids of narrow brick streets separating century-old warehouses, mazes of alleys and loading docks beneath theaters and office towers, the Lake Erie waterfront, and numerous views of the mighty Cuyahoga River – yes, that Cuyahoga, the one that burned.”
More details will be forthcoming – and some of the existing details may change. What won’t change is the fact that you should make plans to be in Ohio for the Oct. 10-12, 2025, USRRC.
For more information, keep an eye on SCCA’s RoadRally page, as well as the RoadRally section of Neohio Region’s webpage.
Photo by Greg Lester
