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Contact: Terry Epp Canadian Association of RallySport Tel: 905-640-6444 Email: rally.cars@sympatico.ca |
Date: May 28, 2006 | |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Calgary, AB — This past weekend, Quebec driver and American co-driver Mark Williams, in a Hyundai Tiburon 4WD, won the Rocky Mountain Rally, second round of the 2006 Canadian Rally Championship. L’Estage and Williams battled it out from start to finish with Sylvain and Chloe Erickson, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4, to win the rally, making it two in two, this year.
Both teams offered quite a show to the rally fans spectating the event. At the end of the first leg, on Friday night, L’Estage was leading Erickson by only 2 seconds. On Saturday, the battle continued with L’Estage and Williams working their way to a 1 min 12 second margin over the father and daughter team.
Third place goes to Americans Matthew Iorio and Ole Holter, in a Subaru Impreza WRX, prepared in Vancouver by former North-American champion Pat Richard. Local teams picked up the rest of the top ten positions. Norm LeBlanc and Keith Morison, in a Subaru Impreza WRX, finished 4th in front of Gord Olsen and Todd Patola, in a VW Golf, the first Group 2 car.
Awful weather conditions made of snow, rain, fog and even hail turned the roads of the Calgary and Porcupine Hills areas extremely slippery, causing a few cars to go off road, including multiple Canadian champions Frank and Dan Sprongl, in a Suzuki Swift +. CRC 2005 champions Peter Thomson and Rod Hendricksen, in a Mitsubishi Evo 8, suffered engine problems that forced them to retire. For Thomson, this second no-point event makes this year’s championship this much harder with L’Estage and Erickson enjoying a very big lead in the standings.
The next round will be held in the province of Québec, on June 30 and July 1. It will be the traditional Baie-des-Chaleurs Rally, in New Richmond.
The Rocky Mountain Rally was the second of six rounds in the Canadian Rally Championship, which is celebrating its 50th season of activity, a Canadian record in motorsports. For more information on rallying and rally events, please visit the Canadian Association of Rallysport website, at www.carsrally.ca. And for full results on the Rocky Mountain Rally, please visit www.rockymountainrally.com.
Final results – Rocky Mountain Rally: