WRC champ Tanak makes American rallying debut with Toyota

WRC ace Ott Tanak makes his American rallying debut on this weekend’s Overmountain Rally Tennessee.

The 2019 FIA World Rally Champion drives a second factory-backed Toyota GR Corolla Rally RC2 on the ARA National Championship’s penultimate round, joining full-season driver Seth Quintero on the tight, twisty gravel stages in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Tanak took a WRC sabbatical after the 2025 season, but has been working with Toyota to develop its car for next year’s all-new WRC27 rules set. Overmountain Rally Tennessee will be his first competitive event since leaving Hyundai at the end of ’25, and although the GR Corolla he’ll drive is based on Toyota’s Rally2-spec GR Yaris, its performance could be close to anticipated WRC27 levels. Tanak tested the car earlier this week (main and below) ahead of the rally’s 13 special stages totaling 99.87 competitive miles across Friday and Saturday, Sept. 18-19.

With the WRC looking to return to the USA with a Tennessee-based event next year, the Estonian’s one-off appearance should provide useful feedback for Toyota – and as speculation mounts that he may make a WRC return in 2027, Tanak himself – over similar surface conditions and stage formats.

“I’m excited to compete in America for the first time,” said Tanak, who’ll be joined by his regular WRC co-driver Martin Jarveoja. “It’s a completely new event for us, with unfamiliar roads and conditions, so the priority will be to learn and gather as much useful data as possible for the team. At the same time, we want to enjoy the experience, discover the local rally culture and hopefully give the American fans a good show over the weekend.”

For Quintero, this is the second time he’s shared the TGR-WRT awning with a WRC legend. The Californian is in his first full season of stage rallying, adding a full ARA campaign to his ongoing FIA World Rally-Raid commitments with Toyota, but accelerated his learning curve when he was joined by 18-time WRC event winner and Toyota rally team principal Jari-Matti Latvala on April’s Olympus Rally in Washington. Then, Latvala headed his rookie teammate in a GR Corolla 1-2, but Quintero has gone on to win two national events since then and is looking forward to learning from another high-caliber teammate.

As well as winning the 2019 WRC title with Toyota (below), Tanak has amassed 22 event wins at rallying’s highest level. His most recent win came at the wheel of a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 on the 2025 Acropolis Rally Greece.

“[This rally] is another new one for me and the team, and some of these other guys have experience on the Tennessee roads, so we’ll be leaning on our recce and trusting our notes,” said Quintero, who’ll be joined by James Morgan as regular co-driver Topi Luhtinen recovers from injuries sustained at last weekend’s WRC Rally Chile while calling notes for Yuki Yamamoto.

“It’s also awesome to have Ott and Martin joining us. Having a world champion as a teammate is a huge chance for me to learn, and hopefully we can fight for a strong team result.”

After taking an historic victory on last month’s Ojibwe Forest Rally and becoming the first woman ever to win a U.S. national rally overall, Hyundai’s Lia Block leads Quintero by 21 points heading into Overmountain. As well as Tanak, they’re joined by a quality entry including four-time ARA champion Brandon Semenuk in a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 and multi-time Mexican champ Ricardo Cordero’s Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF.

Missing from Tennessee is fan favorite Travis Pastrana. As he recovers from injuries sustained on an electric bike in a Nitro Circus practice crash, Connor Martell gets behind the wheel of Subaru Motorsports USA’s Open 4WD class WRX ARA 25.