Dusty Defi Rewards Commitment

Posted on 05. Sep, 2008 by Dean in Rallye Defi 2008

Although stage mileage is short on the first day of the Rallye Defi 2008 – less than 15kms – there is always some action. The old adage that this is where teams can lose the rally holds true. One mistake on these early stages can knock a competitor down the order or out of the event completely. Extremely dusty conditions forced crews to drive very much to their notes for tonight’s stages.

Martin Losier had the shortest run at this rally, breaking the propshaft on his Mitsubishi EVO 6 on the start line of the first stage.

John Cassidy also had trouble early on after the car was filled with bad fuel. Thanks to the efforts of his crew as well as many others, the fuel tank was drained, and fresh fuel was put in the car. Despite this, Cassidy and stand-in co-driver Jen Daly may be declared max late. The pair continued to run all the stages and John hopes to plead his case with event organiser B Gilles Lacroix.

“I am hoping I can chat with B Gilles and convince him to let us keep running,” smiled Cassidy.

Things were all smiles one spot over in service, with Eric Grochowski. He and co-driver Leanne Junnila are in position to secure the Group 2 Canadian Rally Championship at Defi. After a DNF at this event last year, the pair are excited at what has been a trouble free run so far.

At the top of the order, Antoine L’Estage and Pat Richard have each named the other as their biggest competition this weekend, and at the end of the night, only one second separates the pair, with L’Esage in the lead.

“I drove really badly on this stage,” said Pat, referring to the first pass on the Palomino stage. “I missed a couple of shifts and botched some corners.”

Andrew Comrie-Picard suffered a boost leak and lost 17 seconds to his competition. Both Mathieu L’Estage and Bill Bacon capitalized, and at the end of the night L’Estage is sitting in second with Bacon a close third.

Gord Olsen and Norm Leblanc have both dropped down out of the lead pack of drivers. Olsen is driving his Open class Subaru in dry conditions for the first time.

Craig Henderson had intended to drop out of the event earlier this week after damaging his rallycar at a regional event three weeks ago.

“I did a lot of damage to the front end and blew the motor. On Wednesday, I was going to withdraw but my sponsor at Kosmic Speed Shop helped get everything together. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here today.” explained Henderson.

Martin Gauvin and co-driver Daniel Duchesneau have upgraded their Subaru WRX to Open class, and Gauvin is busy learning how to drive with the additional power now on tap in the car. Without any testing time before the rally, today’s stages served as a test before the rally really gets going tomorrow.

Tomorrow, teams start out at the familiar Montpellier tarmac stage before heading to a few more short stages and the final long stages at the end of the afternoon. Dust has been a big problem today, with drivers being forced to commit to notes, unable to visually confirm the road ahead. While there have been requests to run two minute intervals tomorrow, no indication has been given as to whether that will happen. Even rain may not keep the dust away.

“Some of the stages have trees growing almost overtop of them. There is no wind, and the rain doesn’t get through, so they might stay very dusty.” commented Antoine L’Estage.

A unique reseed will be done for the start order tomorrow, with each team dropping their worst stage time of today. This should result in Antoine being first on the road tomorrow. If conditions stay dusty this will be critical. L’Estage feels whoever is first on the road, if it is dry tomorrow, will have the advantage and likely win the event.