Tall Pines Rewind

Rewind

ANDRÉ AND RENÉ LEBLANC WIN THE 2021 TALL PINES RALLY

With Files From Carsrally.ca

Adramatic final-stage shakeup at Rocky Mountain Rally saw the leaders drop off the top step, promoting André and René Leblanc to the event win and vaulting them into the overall points lead. This year’s version moved back to the Kananaskis region of Alberta, using iconic roads not seen in the championship for nearly a decade.

Championship leaders Jerome Mailloux and Philippe Poirier came into the event with a two-point advantage over the Leblanc brothers. Leblanc came to the event with a new-to-them Subaru with a lot of history under its belt. The ex-Patrick Richard car has several Canadian titles and a Production World Rally Championship campaign under its belt but hadn’t seen competition in more than a decade.

The rally consisted of two short stages followed by three in-and-out runs of the legendary 34 km Powderface Trail stage. After taking a brief lead on the opening stages, Leblanc suffered severe brake overheating on the longer stages. Mailloux and Poirier took control of the rally, extending their lead to almost two minutes after six stages, but drama struck on the seventh and final stage when a flat tire forced them to stop, dropping them to fifth overall.

Patience paid off for André and René Leblanc, as they nursed their brakes to the finish and added another win to their new car’s logbook and moved into first place in the season standings.

With consistent and quick times, Marc-André Brisebois and co-driver Marie-france Desmarais Trépanier claimed their first National podium in second place. The result moved them up to third overall in the championship. The local team of Krystian Ostrowski and Chris Galecki Made it an all-Subaru podium.

Wim van der Poel and Bryan Lord won the Two-Wheel-Drive (2WD) class, followed by Kornelius Rempel and Khol Haggerty in second, and Jason Bailey and Shayne Peterson in third.

RALLYE DE CHARLEVOIX

After Rocky Mountain, the Rallye de Charlevoix was up next. Between the sea and the mountains in the heart of the beautifully scenic region of Charlevoix, the event was spectacular from start to finish, with a new team earning its very first win in the Canadian Rally Championship.

At the wheel of a Subaru WRX STI from Test Racing, Marc-André Brisebois and co-driver Marie-France Desmarais-Trépanier were not originally the event favourites, but at the end of the rally’s 14 stages of action, the duo held off teammates Jérôme Mailloux and Philippe Poirier for the win.

From the start on Saturday morning, Brisebois showed his speed, but dropped two tenths of a second to Mailloux on the first stage before winning the second stage by a little more than two seconds, but once the town stages were complete, the forest roads permitted Mailloux to retake the top of the standings. After having built a twominute lead over his rivals, a broken bearing slowed Mailloux down towards the end of the day, as he watched Brisebois and Laverdière overtake him in the rankings.

The rally took another spectacular turn with three teams battling for the victory during a second sunny day of competition on the four remaining stages. Despite the maximum attack of Mailloux/Poirier, who were able to take second place from Laverdière/Lévesque, Brisebois and Desmarais-Trépanier claimed top spot by a margin of 37.8 seconds.

Mailloux/Poirier and Laverdière/Lévesque completed the podium. Vincent and Christopher Trudel finished fifth overall, won the Production Four-Wheel-Driver class and were the fastest Novice finishers.

The 2WD battle for victory was also filled with plenty of movement. In the beginning, it was the British Columbian duo of Nick Wood and Jennifer Daly who were fastest, before seeing Mathieu Leblanc and Éric Dubé of Gaspésie complete the day in top honours.

The top three teams were all within 40 seconds of one another. However, mechanical problems with their Honda Civic prevented Leblanc/Dubé from restarting on Day 2. This benefited Yvan Joyal and Marc-André Lamontagne (BMW 318), who finished the last stages in the lead.

The final stages were dominated by Nick Wood, but the time lost on Day 1 prevented him from vying for the win. On the contrary, Jason Bailey and Jamie Willetts (Ford Fiesta R2) fought right to the end with Joyal/Lamontagne. At the finish, the Quebec driver was 15 seconds faster than his rival from western Canada while Wood and Daly completed the podium.

RALLY OF THE TALL PINES

The penultimate round of the 2021 Canadian Rally Championship, the Lincoln Electric Rally of the Tall Pines on November 19-20, was highlighted by numerous turnovers and surprises. Brothers André and René Leblanc drove their Four Star Motorsports-prepared Subaru WRX STI to victory in the event. The victory gives the Gaspesie, QC natives the lead in the championship standings with just one round remaining. The result was to the detriment of Jérôme Mailloux and Philippe Poirier, who were the leaders coming into the event.

Mailloux and Poirier dominated the early part of the rally held on muddy gravel roads surrounding the region of Bancroft, ON after recent snow had melted earlier in the week. During the eighth stage of 12, they were enjoying a 55-second lead over their closest pursuers when they were forced to retire with a broken suspension.

The remainder of the rally turned into a duel for victory between the Leblanc brothers and Marc-André Brisebois and Marie-France Desmarais-Trépanier. Winners of the previous event – the Rallye de Charlevoix – Brisebois and Desmarais-Trépanier pushed their Subaru WRX STI hard to try to catch the leading Leblanc Bros. At the start of the last stage, they were only 20 seconds behind them, but an off-road excursion cost them more than five minutes. With the help of Alexandre Moreau and Ian Guité to rejoin the route, they managed to finish in second place and keep their title hopes alive.

Ontario’s Jeremy Drake and his co-driver Savanna Kovacs climbed on the third step of the podium in their Subaru Impreza RS, crossing the line just nine seconds behind the second-place finishers. For Drake and Kovacs, it was an outstanding achievement as they were consistent throughout the event. Quebecers Olivier Martel and Vincent Hubert finished fourth after losing time with a puncture in the first part of the rally.

Rookies Andrew Miller and David Bell also achieved a stunning performance by bringing their Subaru WRX STI to fifth place in the overall standings. They finished ahead of Philippe Dubé and Hubert Gaudreau and the winners of the Production 4WD class, Trevor Pougnet and Ryan Rouleau. The first seven crews to finish the 2021

André and René Leblanc (top, opposite page) earned the overall win at the 2021 edition of the Lincoln Electric Rally of the Tall Pines, moving into the Canadian Rally Championship points lead after title rivals Jérôme Mailloux and Philippe

Poirier (above) retired while in the lead. Photos by Rob Sztuka

Lincoln Electric Rally of the Tall Pines were all driving Subaru cars.

In an event full of surprises, Gary Sutherland and David Koiter (Ford Focus) took first place in the 2WD class. Driving their historic Volvo 242 Turbo, veteran Charles Hammer and co-driver Guillaume Dozois came close to beating the new generation cars. After a spectacular run, they finished second ahead of Sean McConnachie and John Gerryts (Ford Fiesta ST). Jim Stevens and Brandon Pace (Suzuki Swift) took another victory in the Production 2WD class.

The season finale will take place in December in British Columbia with the Big White Winter Rally. Everything is up for grabs in the overall standings between three Québec drivers. André Leblanc is first with 77 points, followed by Marc-André Brisebois (69 points) and Jérôme Mailloux (64). TP