No cellphones. No GPS. And certainly, no WiFi. When driver Rebecca Donaghe and navigator Sedona Blinson began the Rebelle Rally through the Nevada and California desert, they only had themselves and their vehicle to rely on—their “third teammate” as they called their specially outfitted BMW X2.
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For These 2 Women, the Rules of the Road Are Focus and Endurance While Driving the BMW X2
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Published Jan 26, 2024
Ernesto Araiza
For those who aren’t familiar, the Rebelle Rally is an annual race across the desert, and the longest all-female rally in the United States. Competitors use only paper maps and a compass to endure seven days of off-roading across over 1,500 miles of desert in a race against 60 other teams. “This event is not a fluffed-up, tied-in pink event for women,” Blinson states. As a marketer and mom of two based in Arizona, Blinson has competed in all of the last eight Rebelle Rallies. “It is a challenging event that pushes you to the extreme while you are surrounded by incredible women lifting you up and cheering you on across the finish line.”
Rebecca Donaghe & Sedona Blinson during Rebelle Rally 2023. Photo Credit: Ernesto Araiza
But getting to the finish line is a feat, and one that their team, Team Wild Grace and the BMW X2 was well-equipped for. “Every day we pulled up to the start line with the big question of how the X2 might handle the different environments we would face,” Donaghe, an award-winning film producer and veteran endurance competitor (she’s competed in rallies around the world), told us. “The toughness of the X2 continually surprised us, and it handled everything the rally threw our way.”
The event threw more than enough their way, considering the recent heavy rains in the west. The trails and terrain were extremely washed out and rutted, making the Rebelle Rally 2023 one of the most punishing years for competing vehicles. But the X2 held its own and Team Wild Grace took home second place.
“It’s such a rad little SUV, it was incredible to push it outside its comfort zone as much as we were pushing ourselves out of our own comfort zones,” Donaghe continued. “It handled everything we put it through and looked tough and beautiful doing it. To be on trails in the middle of vast nowhere in the luxury of a BMW felt like spoiling ourselves in the dirt.”
