Shift Up Now Athlete Madelyn Tabor earned her third consecutive second-place finish in class with co-driver Naila Deen (filling in for regular co-driver Sophia McKee) in Ojibwe Forests Rally, the sixth event of the 2026 American Rally Association National Championship, in Bemidji & Detroit Lakes, MN on August 28–29, 2026.
Driving the No. 209 Madelyn Tabor Racing / Matrix Motorsports Ford Fiesta Rally 3 nicknamed “Jellybean” in the National L4WD class, Tabor is supported by Shift Up Now, WIMNA, Steven Redd Racing, and Tabor Accounting Group.
This year's Ojibwe Forests Rally event featured the largest field since 2021 with 48 teams, and the stages spread across the sandy-based forest roads of the Northwoods. The event is known for fast, flowing gravel, blind crests, and big jumps — the organizers build the route to echo Rally Finland, and the roads deliver on it.
On Thursday, the team completed pre-event recce ahead of the weekend. Recce gave Tabor and Deen their first look at the stages together — 16 stages of fast, flowing, sandy-based Northwoods gravel that ruts with the weather and every passing car. Ojibwe's forest roads are genuinely fast: high-speed crests, rhythm sections through the pines, and a surface that rewards commitment. The pair used recce to build their pace notes and establish communication rhythm ahead of competition, but the first shot at race pace happened Friday morning.
Friday opened with two passes each of Crossroads (10.09 miles) (SS1/3) and Steamboat (SS2/4) (17.79 miles) — the long, fast Northwoods stages that set the tone for the weekend. Tabor’s approach going into the event was clear: play the long game. The forest stages here reward rhythm and consistency, and with 16 stages across two days and a new co-driver alongside her, building that rhythm was the priority from stage one.
The day closed with two back-to-back passes at Soo Pass Ranch. At just 0.42 miles each, the Soo Pass Ranch stages are sprint-format: flat-out, crowd there to see the cars up close. Tabor, running second, earned her first class stage win and was fourth overall in the stage time.
On Saturday, the event returned to the forest, however one stage was canceled. Tabor noted the cancellation interrupted her rhythm at a moment when she was building flow, however her mid-day check-in was a deliberately-strategic approach to the championship: play the long game, enjoy the shorter stages, and stay in a rhythm while avoiding any issues with the car.
The strategy worked, and the rally closed with two street stages at the Sanford Center in downtown Bemidji — 0.59 miles each. Both runs were top five overall times.
Tabor left the weekend second in the National L4WD championship with 62 points, just 10 behind the leader. Two rounds remain with a maximum of 108 points still available.
"I’ve competed at Ojibwe three times previously, so I felt very familiar with these roads and its characteristics, but with a first time co-driver,” said Tabor. “It felt like a completely new event that I needed to approach differently. Thankfully we played the long game and benefited from attrition.
“The car and crew performed perfectly all weekend. We came into this weekend fourth in the championship and we're leaving second. We’re just points from the lead with two rounds left. Dad always says 'to finish first, first you must finish’, and that's exactly what we did. I want to send a huge thank you to Naila, the entire Tabor Racing Team volunteer crew, Matrix Motorsports, Shift Up Now, WIMNA, and Steven Redd Racing. Being the first rally athlete recognized and funded by Shift Up Now means everything, and this result is for all of them.”
Next up, Tabor heads to Newport, Tennessee for the seventh event of the 2026 American Rally Association National Championship, the 2026 Overmountain Rally Tennessee on September 18-19, 2026.
