CALGARY, ALBERTA, May 27, 2012 - Antoine L'Estage
(St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que.) won the 2012 Rocky Mountain Rally, the second
round of the Canadian Rally Championship, leading from start to finish to claim
his fifth win at the Calgary based rally. With co-driver Nathalie Richard,
L'Estage took the lead early on day one, and never relinquished the advantage
on the way to victory.
“It feels
great, it was a perfect rally for us. We led right from the first stage,” said
L'Estage, at the end of the final day of the rally. “We pushed right from the
start and got a big lead, so today was just a matter of trying to pace
ourselves.”
Challenging
road conditions on day one saw the team excel in wet, muddy, even snowy
conditions before moving to dry gravel stages for day two.
“The car
was perfect, the crew was great, Nathalie was perfect. We had the right tires
for each of the different conditions on this rally, and we have maximum points
possible in the championship,” said L'Estage.
Winning at
the Rocky Mountain Rally also allows the team to extend their lead in the
Canadian Rally Championship, having also won the season opener, Rallye Perce
Neige, in February.
Behind L'Estage
and Richard, there were a number of battles, including that for second place.
Pat Richard (Squamish, B.C.) and Alan Ockwell (Toronto) of Subaru Rally Team
Canada suffered multiple setbacks on day one, but were not deterred and pushed
hard to make up time on rivals Leo Urlichich (Toronto) and Carl Williamson
(Wales).
“We had a
good day,” said Richard at the end of the rally. “We won all the stages and
we're pushing pretty hard. First stage we took ten seconds off Leo, second
stage we took 12, then 15 and then 25.”
Richard was
forced to push harder on each subsequent stage on the final day in order to
make up for time lost on day one, when at the start of the final stage of the
day, the rear differential exploded when Richard launched the car.
Though the
car was able to be repaired overnight, the team awoke to find they had been
assessed 45 seconds in chicane penalties.
“It was
quite frustrating, because we started off the day thinking we were ahead of
[Leo], but it turned out we were going to get assessed a penalty,” said
Richard. “We had to big a bit deeper. It was quite an up and down day for us,
but I'm happy we were able to claw back the time and win it despite of the
penalties”
The second
place finish means Richard and Ockwell, who failed to score points at the
season opener, are now on the board in the championship standings.
“I'm still
not satisfied. I come to these events to win, and we had some problems
yesterday. We've got some homework to do before the next event,” said Richard.
Though
Urlichich and Williamson finished third, the pair had arrived at the event
hoping to find the extra speed to challenge Richard and Ockwell. Over the first
day's muddy stages, they indeed found that pace, but once on the drier stages
of day two, Richard was simply too fast.
“I have a
massive smile on my face now,” said Urlichich. “Yesterday...I said I wanted a
battle royale for this rally, and there it was. Ok, with a bit of luck on our
side, and different conditions, toughness of the event, changing weather, we
had a battle royale. I tried my best everywhere. There was not a stage road, or
a kilometre where I said 'nah, I'll just take it easy here.'”
A two-day
battle also raged for fourth place, between the Calgary based team of Eric
Grochowski and Leanne Junnila and Kris Schofield (Calgary) and Jennifer Daly
(Kelowna, B.C.) for the two wheel drive victory.
Grochowski
and Junnila had made some improvements to their VW Golf, most notably a new,
more powerful motor and carved out an early lead on the first day, until
overheating problems in the evening cost all of the lead. The pair entered the
second day of action four seconds behind Schofield and Daly.
However,
Schofield and Daly experienced their own mechanical problems, when they broke
both the brake and shock on the rear passenger corner of the car. Those were
issues that, along with a deficit in power, would hamper their performance on
the extremely fast Hunter Valley stages of day two.
“With the
brake failure, and pretty much the whole rear passenger corner of the car – no
suspension and no brakes – that probably slowed us down a little,” said
Schofield.
With a
fully functional car after overnight repairs, Grochowski and Junnila were able
to press their power advantage to retake the lead and open up a safe margin
over Schofield and Daly, winning two wheel drive.
“The car
ran flawlessly today, and we pushed really hard today,” said Grochowski at the
end of the rally. “I know how fast Kris is, he's fully committed all the time
so we weren't sure how it was going to play out. We put time on Kris every
stage. We didn't leave anything in reserve today.”
Schofield
and Daly took second in class, while Andrew Comrie-Picard (Los Angeles) and
Brian O'Kane (Calgary) finished third.
The victory
in Production GT – a class for nearly showroom stock all wheel drive cars – was
claimed by Eric Pehota and Richard Doucet of Pemberton, B.C.
The Rocky Mountain Rally is the first gravel round of
the six event Canadian Rally Championship, and is made up of 13 stages,
totalling 184km of competitive distance. The second round of the championship,
the Rocky Mountain Rally is the first western event of the year.
“The Conditions were challenging but we were able to
run every stage in the schedule,” said Keith Morison, of the organising
committee. “We're looking forward to more changes and growth for the event next
year.”
Source: CRC
Photos: Andrew Snucins.
