After the first six stages of the 2008 Rallye Perce Neige, local hero Sylvain Erickson has the smallest of margins, at three seconds up on his next closest competitor, Antoine L'Estage. Pat Richard is in third place another thirty seconds back.
This morning, crews started on the two in town stages, Marie-Anne and Des Eaux. While it's widely known you cannot win a rally on the short stages, there are many who have had issues on these stages in the past, including some of the top crews.
At the end of the first pass of Des Eaux, drivers were split on what tire choice was best, some choosing snows, and others opting for ice tires. Over the initial stages margins were slim, with the top four drivers hardly separated at all. Sylvain, while traditionally fast, voiced some concerns over the lack of power his car has. Prior to the event, Erickson had built his car but was unable to make all the modifications like the top cars. This lack of power could play to his advantage if traction is poor, and to his disadvantage if roads offer good grip.
Pat Richard was confident in his run to that point, stating that it was simply a matter of getting used to the car, as well as to the conditions and to his new co-driver Alan Ockwell. Despite all of these challenges the two have posted impressive times.
Bill Bacon also has a new car to get used to. He and co-driver Peter Watt have been using a modified set of notes from when the pair ran for Suzuki Canada in a Swift+. The notes, while good, were simply not a good match for his far more powerful Mitsubishi EVO IX. On SS5, the Kitigan Zibi stage, the pair had the slowest time on the stage, though it was not for any difficulty. Bacon had been going fairly well, fast enough to catch Ted Mendham, and then John Vanos, who was pulling out a stuck Craig Henderson. By the time the four cars reached the finish of the 33km stage, a fifth car, Crazy Leo Urlichich had caught the bunch.
Andrew Comrie-Picard has also been running strong, sitting only six seconds behind Pat Richard, but one minute ahead of fifth place Peter Thomson. Both are running Mitsubishi EVOs and are in good spirits thus far. Second place currently belongs to Antoine L'Estage, who has been running snow tires hoping that early in the order there would be enough snow to offer the grip he's after.
Mathieu L'Estage has been busy learning his new car. At the end of SS5, Mathieu said his car was running hot, and so was he. At present, he and co-driver Yanick Napert are in seventh place, only a few seconds behind Jon Nichols. Both Mathieu and Jon have switched over to Mitsubishi EVOs recently and each are learning their new cars. Jon Nichols has said that while he misses his Volkswagen Golf, this new EVO is a great car and already Nichols and co-driver Carl Shenk are putting in some excellent times.
A few other battles of note are shaping up now as well. John Vanos and Craig Henderson are very close in times, Vanos driving an borrowed car, and Henderson with a sore shoulder from a mishap prior to the rally. Vanos' choice to help out the stuffed Henderson clearly cost him time, and now the two are very close, with only five seconds separating the pair.
The two Losier cars are shaping up for a bit of a family feud, with only eleven seconds separating the green and orange cars. Down in 17th, 18th and 19th are Crerar, Donnelly and Bacon respectively. With only 14 seconds spread between them, some interesting battles may unfold later in the day.
We're about to head back out to the stages and the remote service where we will meet up with Andrew Harvey and Warwick Patterson. The two have been shooting photos and video all day, so expect more excellent coverage from the Rallye Perce Neige Maniwaki!
Wish I was out there guys; sounds like an awesome battle taking place on those cold Quebec roads.
Posted by: Doug T. | February 09, 2008 at 06:05 PM