Lynnwood champion off-roader returns to compete for another potential title

Lynnwood resident Carey Lando is a champion: Last year, she and her teammate won the X-Cross class of the Rebelle Rally, an eight-day off-road competition in California and Nevada. Known as Team MtnSubi, Carey was driving her personal 2014 Subaru Outback while teammate Andrea Shaffer navigated across 1,500 miles of desert. 

On Friday morning, they’ll be at the Rebelle Rally 2025 starting line in a factory-sponsored 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid. And, like all participants, they’ll be doing it the old-school way, relying on a map, compass and their own navigation skills — without cell phones or GPS devices. (Satellite phones are on board in case of emergency.)

In its tenth year, the Rebelle Rally was founded by Emily Miller and is designed by women, for women. “Emily has been in motorsports her whole life. She’s an amazing trailblazer for women in motorsports, and she trained with and competed with some of the best of the best,” Lando said. “She was frustrated at the level of difficulty it was for women to break into motorsports, so she created Rebelle Rally based on all of her knowledge and her history and her desire to create something that was accessible for women.”

The Rebelle is not a race for speed; it’s a test of endurance, navigational acumen and collaboration between driver and navigator. “It’s an endurance marathon. It’s eight full days of competition, and it’s tough. Physically, mentally, emotionally. It’s the longest rally in the U.S,” said Lando, who drives the vehicle. And after a 8- to 10-hour day of terrain navigation, participants camp in the desert and wake up to do it all over again. “It’s not like we’re going out there and getting facials and having mimosas during lunchtime,” she said.

“It’s really hard. A lot of men have told me that there’s no way in hell they could last that long doing this,” Lando said. In fact, when she met Brenden Sick, a top rally driver, he said, “You’re absolutely crazy. There is absolutely no way I could do that. I can’t believe you guys camp. You do that all day long. And then you get up and do it again for like seven more days.”

Lando is not the only Rebelle from the Puget Sound. Several Seattle-area women are competing, including Kelli Diann Gordon (navigator) of West Seattle who’s paired up with her cousin Joy Culley (driver) of Solvang, California, to be Hoot N Holler. It’s their rookie year and they’ll be in Culley’s 2022 Toyota Tundra, competing in the 4×4 Class. The cousins’ grandmothers were sisters. 

“They were both totally unique and very strong women and that’s always been kind of a thread for us. And so there’s this sense of our ancestors coming with us on this – it just feels like such a core piece of family history is about to happen,” Gordon said.

To see footage of the event, check out the Rebelle Rally’s YouTube page. Keep an eye on Team 185 (Gordon and Culley) and Team 200 (Lando and Shaffer).