Antoine L’Estage captures victory at Pacific Forest Rally

Aboard their Impreza WRX STI, L’Estage and Ockwell finished the shortened day one in first place with an lead of 32 seconds over their closest rivals. The competitors faced difficult mixed conditions as the temperature dropped a few days before the event, and snowfall started to accumulate at the higher altitudes.

Snow had compacted into ice on the top section of the Swakum stage, while the bottom sections remained on gravel. Brandon Semenuk and John Hall finished the shortened day in second place overall in their Crosstrek ahead of ‘Crazy Leo’ Urlichich and his new co-driver, Sam Roxon, who also led the Production class standings in their Subaru.

A rare mistake

The second day of competition saw snow in the morning, but dry conditions in the afternoon. The leading L’Estage made an unusual mistake in selecting gravel tires for the morning series of stages despite the presence of some snow. Strangely, several other top competitors also opted for gravel tires.

The choice cost L’Estage two stage wins, but he pushed hard on the final gravel stages to claim overall victory with a time of 1h14:49.

“The rally was really difficult. Tire choice was a big challenge and because conditions changed there really was no right answer. The car was strong and performed well for us,” said L’Estage after the rally.

Brandon Semenuk and John Hall finished second in their Crosstrek, some two minutes and twenty seconds behind the winners. Leo Urlichich and co-driver Sam Roxon drove their Production class Impreza to third place overall, as slippery roads reduced the power differential between the Production and Open class vehicles.

Travis Nease and Krista Skucas put in a patient drive to claim fourth place overall in their Subaru, severely handicapped by the fact that they had only gravel tires and no service crew.

Driving their Ford Fiesta R2T, Dave Wallingford and Leanne Junnila finished seventh overall and first in the 2WD division.

The overall results were enough to hand Subaru the manufacturer’s title with two events still remaining in this season of the Canadian Rally Championship. The next event will be the Rally of the Tall Pines, near Bancroft, Ontario, November 24 and 25.