Sam blames it all on Joseph! She met him in 2014 at the Land's End Hill Climb, a Colorado Hill Climb Association event where she was spectating. After volunteering to sit in the silly seat for Joseph, Sam quickly fell in love with all things rally. Sam has five events under her belt as a driver and four events as a co-driver. She also competes in the CHCA with eight events as a driver and 12 events as a co-driver. Fast forward to today, Sam and Joseph  are now married and race together every chance they get.

In typical Sam fashion, she took on the chair position for Rally Colorado having never organized a race before and has found yet another facet of Rally that she loves!

Joseph is a mechanic and co-owns an Audi and Volkswagen repair shop in Denver called Salta Service & Performance. During the day he and his business partner, Steve Bis, fix customer cars and in the evenings and on weekends they build and develop their rally cars. Joseph started rallying in 2013 and has found it consuming most of his extra time and resources ever since. He has alternated between driver and co-driver all along and has found that he isn’t that good at either one of them, but still enjoys rally to no end! He met his now wife, Samantha Chiarelli, racing cars and they have been co-driving for each other since the day they met. Rally Colorado 2020 is his first foray into the organizing side of rally and he is excited to learn and help the rally grow.

Working rallies since 1981, and racing in rallies since 1988, Rob learned the hard way how to crash as well as how to go fast – both as a driver and a co-driver.  For instance, Rob navigated with Mike Hurst for 10+ years – one year, we had a significant crash, ending up upside down, bending every single body-panel on the car.  Mike trailered it home, he fixed it, and we then immediately ran Lake Superior ending up third overall – in a RWD car, with a snowstorm the first day. Our favorite kind of rallying – literally press on regardless… Or ask Rob about the time we stopped for gas – in the middle of the stage. Or the time we backed up in a control – there’s a reason for that rule in the rulebooks.  Want to do well at Sno*Drift (6th overall in a Production GT car): don’t get stuck in a snowbank; ask how many years it took to learn that one.  Want a sign of a good co-driver? Look for how many pens they have in their pockets, or ask them about the merits of pencils versus watercolor ink, and why red is a bad color to use.  But, I’m still learning – every rally has something new to learn, every year!

Preston started rallying in 2011 with a couple of friends from school. He loves to drive but found his talent wasn't behind the steering wheel. His organization and dedication makes sure everyone is prepared for the race and ready for anything, which is much better suited for the co-driver seat. Preston was the top 2WD Rally America co-driver in 2015-2017 and 3rd overall co-driver for 2016. He also won the ARA L4WD championship and 3rd overall in 2019.  

Lee Sorenson is the driver of Car #0 (aka Fast Pace) for 2020 Rally Colorado.  Lee is a Senior Risk Control Manager for a global risk services company.  Lee lives in Fair Oaks, California. Norma Woods is the Navigator (or Co-Driver) in Car #0.  Norma operates her own Tax Accounting Business near Tacoma, Washington. Lee and Norma have been a team volunteering for stage and TSD rallies for 10 years, working 5-8 events per year in the Northwest and Western Canada. They will be leading a team of three course opening cars (000, 00, & 0) to ensure each stage of the event are safe and secure for the rally cars to compete at high speeds.

Ryan moved to Colorado from his native New York 16 years ago with the intention to ski, but fell into the quicksand of motorsports instead.  After winning two autocross championships in a Nissan 300ZX, the dirt called, and a horrific Honda Civic rally car was built with hardly any tools and even less knowledge.  Ryan began competing in Colorado Hill Climb Association and Rally America events, later going on to win four CHCA Rally 2WD championships, compete in the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, and various stage rallies with ARA and NASA.  While continuing with rally, Ryan has also been an active competitor in SCCA road racing events, recently winning three consecutive US Majors Tour conference championships in a Formula Mazda.  He has also competed in World Racing League and Champcar events with several teams, and was a 2020 nominee for Mazda's IMSA Global MX-5 Cup Shootout.  After serving as the Rally class representative on the CHCA Board of Directors for three years, Ryan is looking forward to helping the Rally Colorado organizing team grow the rally into one of the country's premier events.

Rupert Berrington is an internationally renowned professional photographer who has had over 40,000 photographs published on 5 continents. He is best known for his award winning motorsports photography where he is a staff photographer for Sportscar, Grassroots Motorsports and Classic Motorsports magazines. He has also worked on assignment for over 60 other magazines including Autosport in England, Autoweek, Cycle News, ESPN the Magazine, IndyCar, MotorSport, Motoring News, On Track, Racer, Road & Track and Sports Illustrated covering such events as the Monaco Grand Prix, the 24 Hours of LeMans, the Indy 500, the Fiesta Bowl and the Big 12 Football Championship.
He has been the first Director of Photography for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, Pikes Peak International Raceway and Rocky Mountain National Speedway. He is the official photographer for the SCCA Solo National Championships, SCCA RallyCross National Championship and the Sports Information Desk at Colorado University and was the official photographer for the Reno Indy Grand Prix.  For over twenty years he was the official photographer for Bandimere Speedway.  
He was an official photographer for John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign. Other clients have included the All American City Awards, American Indy Car Series, Ball de Ballet, Bell Helmets, BF Goodrich, Bondurant Racing Schools, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Denver Debutant Ball, Denver Post, Falken Tires, General Motors, G Force IndyCars, Hoosier Tires, Honeywell, Hyundai, Indy Regency Racing, LAT, Mazda, McLaren Formula One Team, Mitsubishi, Oldsmobile, Our Lady of Loretto, Porsche, Rally Colorado, Rocky’s Automotive, Rocky Mountain News, Sports Car Club of America, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyo Tires, Toyota Motorsports, United Launch Alliance and the USA Olympic Training Center to name a few.
He has been published in many books including Autoweek’s Official IndyCar Fan Guide, The Car Book, The Nebraska Football Championship Season, Race Car Aerodynamics, Race to the Clouds, Speed Secrets, Showroom Stock Race Car Prep, The University of Colorado Football Vault, The Pikes Peak Race and Pikes Peak is Unser Mountain.

Rupert Berrington

Media Coordinator

Jay started volunteering for Rally events in 1984 with his friend Dave, at the Reno rally as a road Marshalls. When he moved his family to Seattle in 1991, he started to volunteering as a ham operator for the Rally’s in the PNW. In 2004 Jay started volunteering on the Sweep team. In 2007 he became sweep captain for the Washington Rallies. In 2010 Jay become Safety Coordinator for the Washington Rallies.

In 2007 Jay was a founding member of the Northwest Rally E-crew team, developing safety protocols for Rallies in the PNW. From 2010-2014 Jay also volunteered for events in Western Canada.

In 2017 Jay and his wife and co-driver Hope moved to Colorado for Hope’s job. Hope promised Jay a wonderful life of skiing, however, could not forget his true love Rally.  Jay has been volunteering for Rally Colorado since 2019 as a Sweep driver.