Grand Master driver Sylvain Vincent wins Rally of the Tall Pines

After a long career in the sport and numerous podium finishes, veteran Sylvain Vincent had earned the rank of Grand Master though a national victory had eluded his driver for his entire career.

Championship leaders Antoine L’Estage and Alan Ockwell led the event until the engine on their Subaru Impreza WRX STI broke during Stage 3. Despite that, they managed to clinch the national championship.

Sylvain Vincent maintained a consistent pace, and took over the lead early in the rally after running in second place through the morning stages.

“It happened so many times that we were close, finishing second, but I never had a victory,” said Vincent, who retired from rallying after Tall Pines. “I've always said that this rally is the toughest rally. For me, it is very demanding physically, but I really like the roads, so it balances out. But after a rally like this, you're exhausted.

“On the 31km stage, I really wanted to push so that I could hold off the other drivers. We had great battles through the day and it was really great to experience that for my first win.”

Brandon Semenuk excelled on the technical forest roads in his first ever Rally of the Tall Pines. Teamed with co-driver John Hall, Semenuk had never rallied in eastern Canada, and had yet to finish on a national podium.

“This has been a crazy rally,” said Semenuk, who is a world-renowned freeride mountain bike rider. “Thirteen hours long, the most stages I have done in a day, and the last two sets of stages were some of the craziest I have ever driven. They had so many jumps and hidden corners behind crests.”

“John obviously did a great job because we made it to the end of the rally and finished second. He's done this rally five times, so his experience helped us out a ton.”

Another newcomer to the national podium was the pairing of Jeremy Norris and Jeff Hagan. Norris made his rally debut at Tall Pines five years ago, and overcame problems this year to finish third overall. A lack of turbo boost at midday forced the team to take time penalties while making repairs. Once back on the road, they pushed incredibly hard to make up time and positions in the standings.

Simon Dubé closed out his season with a victory in the two-wheel drive class, with the help of co-driver Eric Lachance. Dubé has had mixed fortunes in the past at this rally, but suffered only minor problems this year. A flat tire on one stage forced the team to slow down, losing just a few seconds from an otherwise flawless performance.

The Rally of the Tall Pines marked the end of the 2015 Canadian Rally Championship calendar. Snaking along forestry roads in the heart of the Canadian Shield, the 2015 edition demanded the utmost from every team on the start list. Rain on the day before the event soaked the roads which in turn became a mix of gravel and ice when overnight temperatures dropped well below freezing before the start of the rally. While grip was mostly good on the sandpaper-like roads, some locations were slick with mud. In these unpredictable conditions, some teams were caught out. The rally route totalled nearly 200 kilometres of competitive stages.