Rallying in the United States is a little different than in Europe. You find very different cars here and sometimes different approaches to them. The atmosphere also seems to be something that really stands out. In a good way, of course. And you could sense that just by reading Keenan Phillips’ answers – the rally culture in the USA is something very special. Speaking of Keenan, he drives a BMW rally car, equipped with a sequential Samsonas gearbox, which is worth more than the whole car. But sometimes not everything can be valued with money. And this BMW is a perfect example of that – this whole car with the unique “DONT-DNF” licence plate has so much history that you could spend countless hours telling stories. So we present a little story – a very heartfelt interview with Keenan Phillips.
How and when did you get into rallying?
My very first exposure to rally was from Gran Turismo 3 as a teenager. I sucked at it so bad, but my friends were good and it looked cool. I messed with cars a lot in high school mostly lowering Honda Civics and Preludes and building subwoofer boxes and installing head units and sound systems for friends. Many years later in my early thirties I was starting to make some decent money and thought I’d buy a sports car. A friend in high school had a BMW E36 that I really liked. It handled so well. So I bought one. Then another. I started watching the Ken Block Gymkhana videos which reminded me of rally and I decided to build my E36 into a rally car. I was actually racing in the 2022 Ojibwe Forest Rally and while waiting to start at the final stages of Soo Pass Ranch Ken actually came up to me by my horribly beat-up car to chat and tell me how much he liked seeing the older BMWs rally racing. That was amazing.
Your BMW body basically doesn’t have a clean spot – everything is covered in stickers and writings. Does every entry have a story?
Yep they all have a story. Some are as simple as a sticker covering a ding. In 2024 we raced 7 of the 8 American Rally Association national events as well as a great regional Appalachian event called The Boone. We had a different color paint marker for each race. We decided to do it after seeing another competitor let people sign their front bumper and how happy it made people. We’re very lucky and grateful for the racing we get to do and want to share that as much as possible.
How did the Samsonas Motorsport gearbox find its way into your BMW?
I decided to go for the Samsonas sequential after I started having synchronizer issues with the BMW ZF transmission. At first, I thought I would just rebuild it as I’ve done a couple of other manual transmission rebuilds for my cars. There was almost no parts availability so my options were swapping in a used unit or getting parts out of used units. With all the time, money, energy myself and the whole crew puts into making the races happen I didn’t want yet another thing that was likely to go wrong. So I decided to splurge on the sequential that is worth more than the rest of the car. It’s also just SOOOO MUCH FUN banging through the gears. Smiles every time. Nothing but excellence!
The license plate – DONT-DNF is really striking. What’s the story behind it?
DONT*DNF license plate LOL. It was very funny until it became our nemesis. Keegan Helwig actually won it with 69 one dollar bills in the 2024 LSPR 2wd Sisu challenge. It’s all about that rally energy of pressing on regardless and going till you can’t no more. We found many ways to dnf, but nonetheless kept smiling and trying and then for the rest of the race we’d go help other teams if we were out of options.
What do you and your BMW have to contend with in the O2WD class? Is the competition big enough?
In the national category last year we were mostly just contending with ourselves. Many of the other drivers have so much more experience and skill. Folks like Seamus Burke, Michael Hooper, and the rising Daniel Hayes in his Mustang. We got to have some fun tight battles with Dan Hayes/Boyd Smith as well as Sean Burke at the 2023 STPR rally. There are some amazingly fast regional O2WD competitors as well. Like Matt Nykkanen/Lars Anderson. I’m excited to see them going national this year.
What’s the American rally scene all about? Why is it so special?
For the most part, I would say American Rally is about camaraderie and community. I’ve been amazed how I’ve seen people come together and help each other either at races or in between. When my home of Western North Carolina was hit by historic catastrophic flooding from hurricane Helene Christian Lapraf (crew chief) and Daniel Yarborough (good bud from rally) were some of the first outsiders bringing supplies to me and friends volunteering their own time and vehicles and funding collected from many rally friends. There’s competition too. And it’s great. But we’ll help our closest competitors to keep going and challenge ourselves onward.
If you had to recommend a rally in the ARA, which one would it be and why?
The Boone Forest Rally in Kentucky put on by Backroads of Appalachia. I live in the mountains of Appalachia and love them. There are tons of amazing roads, beautiful scenery, and wonderful communities. Also very little rally has happened in the area so it’s really fun to be part of making that history. There is plenty of familiarity with dirt track racing and deep appreciation for modifying cars to perform well in the woods and outrun law enforcement from the bootlegging era. People there get rally and they get REAL EXCITED about it in their backyard.
What are your plans for 2025?
For the first time in 2025 I’ll be trying out codriving. I’ll be riding with 2024 crew member Brandon Busk in his E46 after we finish building it over the next few months at the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. Then I plan to race The Boone Forest Rally and Overmountain Rally TN. Just a year for a little more relaxing and a little more fun.
