Richard & Ockwell continue winning streak at 2008 Defi

Posted on 07. Sep, 2008 by Warwick in Rallye Defi 2008

Pat Richard and co-driver, Alan Ockwell, continued their winning ways this weekend at the 2008 Rallye Defi.  With the win, the Subaru Rally Team Canada duo take a seemingly insurmountable lead in the championship with two events remaining this season. True to form, Defi was a test of car preparation and endurance, with the long stages towards the end of the rally claiming numerous victims.

“It’s great to have won of course, but I was really looking forward to battling with Antoine (L’Estage) on the longer stages — so in that sense it’s a bit of a disappointment.” said Richard, adding that the car took a real beating but ran well.

L’Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard were the favourites coming into the event, but midway through the Day 2 action, they suffered an engine failure in their Hyundai Tiburon that put them out of the contest.

“This is a really disappointing result for us, after having such a reliable car for the last two years.” he said.

Second place went to Bill Bacon and Peter Watt in their Mitsubishi EVO IX. Bacon and Watt both have a wealth of rally experience and stayed calm in the face of the difficult final stages of the rally.

“We just tried to take it easy and not push too hard,” said Bacon. “People started dropping out, so we let them do that and made it to the end.”

Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of St-Constant, Quebec employed the same strategy, keeping cool heads to round out the podium in third place. 

The local team of David Legault and Pat Levigne impressed many with their speed and determination finishing fourth in an event that caught out many with much more rally experience. At the final service, the crew, led by David himself, were in the mud under the car frantically trying to replace the rear subframe.  With seconds to spare, the final bolt was tightened and they jumped in the car, ready to tackle the final stages.

Another local team, Sylvain Bazinet and Patrick Piche, finished as the top two-wheel drive entry in their VW Golf GTI in tenth place overall, while Ted and Lise Mendham drove a steady event to finish as the top production car in their 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX.

Simon Losier and Maxime Losier finished sixth overall to claim the lead in the Mitsubishi Cup.  The Mitsubishi contingency program has been a huge success this season, with a large swell in numbers of Mitsubishi competitors.

The challenging event saw fewer than half the teams who entered cross the finish line. Among its victims were Mitsubishi veterans Andrew Comrie-Picard and Marc Goldfarb.

The duo had come to Rallye Defi 2008 hoping to gain some valuable points in the championship after suffering mechanical problems at previous rounds. However, the team was forced to retire on Saturday after taking an impact to the front of the vehicle that caused the engine to overheat. 

Also retiring before the finish were Erik Grochowski and Leanne Junnila, who had travelled all the way from Alberta in hopes of securing the Group 2 Canadian Rally Championship in their VW Golf. Initially the event was going well, but the car began to suffer from a slew of mechanical problems on Day 2, and the pair was forced to retire late in the day.

Next up is the Pacific Forest Rally in Merritt, BC in October, and Flatovercrest will also have daily updates from Targa Newfoundland from September 12-21.