Ladies, start your engines. From October 12 to 21, it’s off to the races for an all-new class of Rebelle Rally teams.
This annual, eight-day race pits 50 all-female motorsports duos (each composed of a driver and a navigator, some professionals, some amateurs) against an off-road desert course full of dunes, rocks, and cacti. With no access to GPS, the teams have nothing but analog navigation tools to chart a route snaking through the deserts of Nevada and Southern California.
Women from all walks of life participate in the race, nurses, scientists, even Hollywood stunt drivers like Verena Mei, who has spent the last three years driving in the Rebelle Rally for Team Kia
“Competing with and against these women is amazing, because they all come from different backgrounds,” Mei told Jalopnik. “Anyone can compete in the rally!”
Mei has enjoyed a long career in motorsports, with Formula Drift and Rally America contests under her belt, and 2023 marks her third Rebelle driving for Kia. Last year, Mei and her teammate Tana White, an occupational therapist, placed fifth with their custom Sportage X-Pro, after narrowly missing first place the previous year following an incident with a sand dune in Glamis, California.
This year, Mei returns to Team Kia with a new co-pilot, Susie Saxten, a Stanford grad and native of Southern California. By day, Saxten is chair of the hospitality company TS Restaurants, but in her off time, she’s racked up years of experience navigating desert rallies, including in Morocco’s 2015 Gazelle Rally and four previous Rebelles.
In her tenure with this race, Saxten’s taken away one big lesson: consistency is key.
“It’s easy to have one good day, but it’s really different to have seven good days,” she says. “In order to win this competition, you have to be on your game for a long period of time.”
Although it’s Mei and Saxten’s first year working as a pair, they’re confident in the performance of their trusty steed, a custom 2024 Kia Telluride X-Pro furnished with desert-friendly upgrades by the off-road specialists at Baja Forged.
This model is one of Kia’s most popular and decorated, having received distinctions including Good Housekeeping’s “Best Mid-Size 3-Row SUV,” US News and World Report’s “2023 Best Cars for Families,” and an IIHS Top Safety Pick. In 2020, the custom Telluride nearly snatched first place in Rebelle’s X-Cross class.
“After a second-place win in the X-Cross class in its first year of competition, we are eager to see what more the Telluride X-Pro can do,” says Steven Center, COO and EVP, Kia America. “With Baja Forged modifications and a stellar team leading the way, we are confident the Telluride X-Pro will reach new heights of off-road capability and prove itself as a tough competitor once again.”
Some of the modifications to Team Kia’s Telluride X-Pro include a custom roof rack, tow points, front and rear bumpers to increase approach and departure angles, skidplates to shield the car’s undercarriage, and 18-inch KMC716 wheels wrapped in BFGoodrich® All-Terrain T/A K02 tires.
To help the vehicle sail over the succulent- and boulder-laden ground, the car has nearly 10 inches of ground clearance, upgraded with an extra 1.5-inch lift.
With eight years of collective experience in the race and a state-of-the-art overlanding machine, the team is feeling confident. “This is the best performing vehicle I’ve had for the rally,” Mei says. “I’m really excited to see what we can do together as a team for Team Kia.”
Follow all the Team Kia action at RebelleRally.com from October 12 to October 21.
This article is a sponsored collaboration between Kia and G/O Media Studios.