Flatovercrest.com – North American Rally News

Loeb’s Best Memories

Dean — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:42:31 +0000

Sebastien Loeb (Photo: Citroen Racing Media)

A few days before taking part in his 168th WRC round, the statistics from Sébastien Loeb’s racing career are genuinely staggering: 78 overall wins, 116 podium-finishes, 896 stage wins, 1,619 points scored, only 20 retirements… and of course, 9 World Championship titles, shared with Daniel Elena. Although it is difficult to single out only a few memories, Seb very willingly agreed to do just that. What follows are his words and recollections, courtesy of a Citroen press release. 2001 RALLYE SANREMO “Having met my targets in the French Championship and in the J-WRC, Guy Fréquelin handed me a drive in a Xsara WRC for the first time. To be honest, I was hoping for a good result, as I had more or less matched Bug’s times in testing. After the first stage, I was four seconds off the lead pace, despite not having really pushed. So despite my confidence, that came as quite a surprise! We had a phenomenal end to the rally, finishing just behind Panizzi. Before the rally, I had been sending faxes to the manufacturers just to remind them that I was around. After Sanremo, everybody called me up to try and get me to sign for a full season. Although it was only to compete for a half-season in 2002, I wanted to stay with Citroën. I think I made the right decision!” 2003 RALLYE MONTE-CARLO “This is probably the whole team’s fondest memory. For the start of our first full season in WRC, we dominated the podium at the most famous rally in the world! At the time, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae were the benchmarks. Having two World Champions as team-mates was a little bit intimidating. There was always a good atmosphere between us, even when I started to get the better of them in terms of results. They made a big difference to me, and to Citroën.” 2004 TOUR DE CORSE “I have always competed in this sport to be the best and become World Champion. But before I made it, I sometimes wondered if I was capable of doing it. That day, we achieved our goal in only our second full season! The first title was very special, because we secured it in France. Everyone was there: my family, my friends… I was pleased that I was able to win it for my father. He didn’t say much when we were together, but some journalists told me that he had spoken to them about what it meant to him. I was very proud of what I had just achieved.” 2007 RALLY NEW ZEALAND “I don’t like talking about losing, but finishing as runner-up here was really special. This rally was one of my finest battles with Marcus Gronhölm. We had such a fantastic time driving on these magnificent gravel roads. But there was also a lot of tension. I was leading going into the final leg, but was never more than three seconds ahead. On Whaanga Coast, the penultimate stage of the rally, Marcus grabbed the lead, by 7/10ths. It all came down to the super special stage. Although I won the stage, I lost out overall by just 3/10ths…” 2008 RALLY ARGENTINA “Argentina is a rally where we have always done well, but we love it most of all for the incredible atmosphere, the stunning scenery and the famous barbecues that Daniel enjoys so much! The local Citroën subsidiary is very active and every year, they organise various promotional activities. That year, I had Diego Maradona in the co-driver’s seat. When we set off on the road section, he was very excited because he thought that the huge crowds were there for him. And yet, with the lowered position of the co-driver’s seat and the reflective, tinted windows, nobody could see him! As I don’t speak Spanish and his English is pretty limited, I couldn’t explain to him… When we got back and he got out of the C4, it was total hysteria. And this time, it was for him!” 2009 RALLY FINLAND “Finland had long been the preserve of Marcus Gronhölm. In 2008, he had just retired, but that didn’t make things that much easier. I found myself up against Mikko Hirvonen, who was just as determined to win his home rally. We both went at it flat out. Neither of us made any mistakes and I ended up winning by less than ten seconds. After that win, I said that I wouldn‘t try to win it again, because the level of risk involved in driving at 180kph right next to the trees seemed too high for me. However, I felt sufficiently confident to win it on two further occasions… These are among the most prestigious wins I have enjoyed in my racing career.” 2008 RALLY JAPAN “As we had already secured two world titles in Japan, we knew that Sapporo wasn’t the best place to go out to celebrate after the rally. So we flew to Tokyo on the Sunday evening. During the transfer between the two airports, we diverted the shuttle, making a stop-off in the city centre. The poor driver had to stay double-parked for three hours in Roppongi, Tokyo’s top district for nightlife. A lot of drinking was done that night and a few people ended up ill, although that was undoubtedly because the mint used in the mojitos wasn’t fresh! Some of the journalists there could have confirmed this if only they hadn’t been among the most ‘tired and emotional’… Suffice to say that the flight back to Paris was very quiet!” 2009 RALLY NORWAY “Although I had already won Rally Sweden in 2004, it’s this winter rally which I feel is the greater achievement. The conditions were perfect. We had a good layer of ice covered in compacted snow and snow banks that were firm enough for you to be able to run wide onto them on the corners. Once again, I had a superb scrap with Mikko, from start to finish. Neither of us made any mistakes and at the end, there was less than ten seconds between us.” 2009 ACROPOLIS RALLY “Unquestionably, that was our biggest crash! As is often the case, it came about because of a momentary lapse of concentration. The car was thrown into an impressive series of rolls. After the accident, I went looking for my telephone. In actual fact, it had remained in the small case attached to the door, which I where usually I put it. The tricky part was finding the door in question, which was lying somewhere in the field! The incident had significant ramifications, as afterwards we suffered a fairly poor run of results. We ended up winning the title by a single point in Wales!” 2010 RALLYE DE FRANCE ALSACE “After the 2004 Tour de Corse, this was definitely the most intense experience. There was a lot of tension for this first running of the Rallye de France in Alsace, because we had the chance to win both titles. There was pressure on me, but I tried my best not to show it, by withdrawing and blocking it all out. I felt very relieved when we made it to the finish. Being crowned Champion at home, in Haguenau, was something that I would never have imagined possible. When I met up with Séverine and my friends on the road section that led back to Strasbourg, I couldn’t help but shed a few tears. And that’s not something that happens every day, I can tell you!” 2012 RALLYE DEUTSCHLAND “My ninth win in Germany was particularly special, because it meant I had beaten my own record for the number of wins at a single rally. Of course, I have also won eight times in Argentina and Spain, seven in Monte-Carlo, so there are quite a few impressive runs! I’ve always liked this rally because I feel the crowd is very supportive of me. And it was also the best way of paying tribute to Bug, who had just died. Of course, he won this rally in 2001.” 2012 RALLYE DE FRANCE ALSACE “And what else could I pick for my final choice other this very special moment?! This was my last World Championship title – in rallying, at least! I was very emotional, but above all proud to have completed this great journey with Daniel and Citroën Racing. Our fans, our families, our team, all the important people for us were there and we had to win it for them. In any case, I never felt sad or had any regrets, because I knew that the end of this journey would mark the start of a new adventure…”

L’Estage Wins Baie, Richard Leads Points

Dean — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:46:57 +0000

Richard and Fagg Lead at Rally BDC

Dean — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:55:46 +0000

Subaru Rally Team Canada

L’Estage and Richard Ready to Move Forward

Dean — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:44:03 +0000

Photo: Aaron Kathman

The Oregon Trail Rally was supposed to usher in new hopes for Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard. After working out a deal to rent a WRC Mitsubishi Lancer from MML motorsport, the team had a legitimate shot at battling with the Subaru of David Higgins, and Ken Block's Ford. The goal from the outset wasn't to try to win Oregon. The plan instead was to learn the new car and to score points. L'Estage had only minimal testing prior to the event, which had gone well. However, victory would be unintended icing on top. Instead, the pair crashed out after an exceedingly rare mistake by L'Estage, with devastating results. In an interview with Flatovercrest.com, both L'Estage and Richard spoke candidly about the off. “I misheard the note,” said L'Estage, reiterating his first comment on social media following the crash. The note in question was this: Care keep R into L3- “My brain took it in differently,” said L'Estage. “I didn't hear the 'keep right.'” Compounding the mistake, the L3- was a deceptive corner, and the team were well into fourth gear. “I knew the instant I made the mistake that we were going off,” said L'Estage. Richard had faith that L'Estage would make the corner until the very last fraction of a second. Then the realization hit. “I knew where we were supposed to be going and I knew where we were going,” said Richard, acknowledging they weren't the same place. “It was going to be big.” The mountain road disappeared from beneath the car, and the pair flew through the air at 120km/h over a slope that had recently been clear-cut by loggers. Precious few trees remained, and the one furthest from the road, the last one before hundreds of feet of open hillside, stopped the car. Each confirmed the other was ok, and Richard opened her door to get out with the triangle and OK sign. Except she couldn't get out. The car had come to rest on a slant, and she couldn't reach the ground. Filmmaker Warwick Patterson was first to arrive, having been shooting footage of cars along that section of road. Richard handed him the triangle, and Patterson ran up the hill to place them for the coming teams. Another cameraman took the OK sign up the hill. “It was good to see people we knew – friends,” said Richard. “That it wasn't in the middle of nowhere.” At the service prior to their crash, L'Estage had come in with no brakes. The driving style that has taken him to many titles wasn't compatible with the WRC car. The team worked feverishly to replace calipers, rotors, pads. Following a review of the on-board data, L'Estage was advised he had to be more gentle with the brakes, and adapt his driving style to the car. Even with the brake problems, the team won stages, beating eventual rally winners Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew.

Photo: Aaron Kathman

“I was breaking earlier, and taking it easy,” said L'Estage. But giving up what came naturally took added concentration. “He never mishears notes,” said Richard. “Maybe he was concentrating on changes to his driving, and he just couldn't process everything.” “I was thinking a lot about my driving,” said L'Estage. “Maybe I should have told the team to make the car better for how I drive, but maybe I need to adapt if I want to drive that kind of car.” The reasoning and analysis the pair have put into the crash has been draining, and the two have a long road ahead, so it's understandable that they should want to focus on what comes next. “I won't analyze it too much, but instead I want to put it behind me and move on,” said L'Estage. “I'm very disappointed, this is not how I wanted to start my relationship with MML. People tell me not to worry about that... John Easton at MML said he wants to get me back in the car. They want to come back to the US.”

Photo: Aaron Kathman

The unfortunate truth is that no matter the outward appearances of large sponsor stickers and a WRC car, L'Estage is a privateer. If Block or Higgins had written off a car, there would likely be another built in time for STPR. For L'Estage and Richard, that isn't an option. Once the car returns to MML, a complete tear down and inspection will take place to determine the extent of the damage. An initial inspection after the car was pulled out seems promising. “The shell is probably a write-off,” said L'Estage, who will have to pay for repairs before he can rent the car for another event. “But some of the mechanicals might be ok. No fluids were leaking, the wheels were all straight... I don't want to say we were lucky really, but the way we hit was actually pretty good.” From there, the team can more clearly determine the best next steps for competing in the US. Their pace at Oregon showed the team and the car have great potential, but it will take a few months before that can be tested again. Admittedly, their US championship hopes are dashed, but there's still every reason to expect that another Canadian title could be won, and that the North American title could again be theirs. The team is now concentrating efforts on the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs, in New Richmond, Quebec. “Me and Nathalie, we've done maybe 80 rallies together, and we've never rolled or really crashed,” said L'Estage. The pair will be competing in the EVO X, a car they've used to win many rallies, and in which they are supremely comfortable.

Photo: Mike Proulx

In the meantime, the two are shuffling off the aches and pains and looking ahead with the same focus that has seen them crowned champions on both in Canada and the US. "Never Give Up"

Photo: Aaron Kathman

Rallying at the Ends of the Earth

Dean — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:12:26 +0000

American rally driver, and 2011 Rally America 2WD champion Wyatt Knox set out looking for an adventure when he travelled to Tierra del Fuego to rally a Suzuki at the ends of the earth. What he found was so much more than a weekend of special stages. Words and Photos: Wyatt Knox, Special to Flatovercrest.com Patagonia. The place really is one of the last frontiers of adventure, a place where man can still pit himself against nature in ways not possible in many of the more “civilized” parts of the world. When rumours started making their way north about Patagonia’s thriving motorsport scene, about rally races through her pristine hills and valleys, they took hold among American racers like gold fever. Could it be true? In this most unlikely of places, could a motorsport community really exist with the contacts, influence, and organization necessary to hold quality racing events? With a co-driver nicknamed "Chicken Breast" and a Suzuki not found at home, I entered a race most Americans have never heard of, the Porvenir Rally off the southern tip of South America. I travelled down an entire continent and across some of the most beautiful land in the world. I had set up a deal to drive a FIA N2 class Suzuki Swift.The N2 class is for production-based, two-wheel-drive cars with engines up to and including 1.6 litres of displacement. The only other class in the Patagonian Rally Championship (PRC) is N3, with similar rules but allowing up to 2.0 litres of displacement. There are no all-wheel-drive classes in the Championship. The Porvenir, the penultimate round of the PRC, is the southernmost race in the series. The rally itself is actually held on Tierra del Fuego, the largest island at the southern tip of South America, and well below the 50th parallel. I’d have to cross the Strait of Magellan to get there. Even getting to Punta Arenas - the southernmost airport on the mainland – giving it a sense of being at the end of the world - was an adventure in itself. I was just glad to have made it. On the way south his plane suffered mechanical problems that I still do not understand, since the flight crew’s frantic announcements were all in Spanish. We had to make a few unplanned stops on the way down. The temperature in the plane seemed to be just above freezing and all sorts of lights and buzzers were going off. The crew was obviously pretty nervous. Nevertheless, the plane landed safely at our final destinations, and we disembarked. When I was happily on the ground, I met up with his team and headed to the suburban Punta Arenas home that would serve as our HQ for the event. The team belongs to Eugenio Vilicic, a second generation Croatian ex-pat who operates a local transportation and construction business. Eugenio’s grandfather had moved to South America to escape WWII and the threat of a Nazi-controlled Europe. Eugenio inherited the construction business from his father, and will likely pass it on to his son when the time comes. He’s also the current points leader in the Patagonian Rally Championship, piloting an N2 class Mitsubishi Lancer. He was the only member of the team who spoke any English at all. After a night of revelry and delicious local specialties, including grass-fed asado and a grape brandy called pisco, and a good night's sleep, we set out to practice in the Suzuki and Mitsubishi. In a place with so few inhabitants and such vast tracts of land, finding space to practice in rally cars proved to be no challenge at all. Dirt roads were everywhere, delineated only occasionally by sheep fences and grates. We spent a few days happily sliding and grinding through the countryside. It was the one of the craziest few days of my life. There was never any thought of police action or angry neighbours like you’d have in the States. Once I relaxed and realized that we could drive as fast as we wanted pretty much anywhere, it became really fun. It was much more like snowboarding with friends than racing, and I really fell in love with the sport again. We stayed on gravel for two or three days straight, just ripping around and exploring the countryside. Before the ferry ride to Tierra del Fuego for the race, we spent a day in the garage re-prepping the cars. The engine in the Suzuki was changed to a more rule-legal unit so there wouldn’t be any trouble at tech inspection, we checked and re-checked both cars, and assembled spares and tools for the trip across the Strait of Magellan. The ferry docked in the small port town of Porvenir, on the west coast of Tierra del Fuego. after unloading, the team then set about doing “recce,” or pre-running the course that the race would follow in order to make the notes that they would use to navigate the turns and hills. Recce was the most civilized thing I’ve seen. In the States, the organizers give us notes that have been made beforehand, and we have one pass down the road to try to make them useable. In Chile, they do it the way the rest of the world does: you get two passes down the road and make your own notes from scratch. I knew that this was going to be my weakness, so I really took my time and tried to get it right. My co-driver, a local nicknamed Pachuga or “Chicken Breast,” spoke no English at all. One of the top co-drivers in the region and a true professional, Pachuga learned the basic English terms for most obstacles. A shorter guy with a ready laugh, Pachuga is local to the Porvenir area, and has aspirations of running the the Chilean championship. We made do with my crap Spanish and hand signals mostly. The translator app on my iPhone was used when things got complicated, when there was time to use it. The first competitive stage of the day was at the local rally track, and was about 2.5 miles long. Most towns in southern Chile and Argentina especially have their own rally and motocross tracks, built and maintained by the government in the same way that an American town might have a fairgrounds. This short stage would also be used as a qualifying run to determine the start order for the rest of the rally, which started the next morning. We finished the stage in fifth out of eighteen cars in our class and retired for the night to review video from recce and perfect their notes for the morning. Race day saw the crews rising in the dark and assembling at the start as the sun was coming up. The rally was composed of six high speed Special Stages around the island, connected with normal speed transit sections on the open road. We started the morning strong, with a third place finish on the first stage. The hardest part of rallying there is keeping your eyes on the road and staying focused on the task at hand. The coastline, the scenery… there’s wild flamingoes and loads of other birds and wildlife running around. It’s like racing through a National Geographic show. Your eyes and brain want to check it all out and you really have to fight that instinct. Third place was unfortunately the best position we would reach at Rally Porvenir. I came over a crest a little too hot, and the car jumped into the air in a way that I wasn’t really expecting. We landed hard on the nose, and broke an engine mount. It was impossible to continue, as the radiator had also been damaged. It was disappointing after coming all this way, I’ve had the time of my life and really enjoyed every minute of the trip, so leaving without a trophy doesn’t bother me too much. I learned a lot about making pace notes, and won’t make the same mistake again. With seasons in Patagonia reversed, I hope to return mid-August for a snow rally on Tierra del Fuego. Everybody here was amazing. The hospitality, the food, the scenery… I’ll be coming back for sure. I can’t recommend it highly enough to other teams. I'm in the process of building a film crew and support for his next adventure. I really don’t like doing the same race twice. That’s why I started competing in Canada and Mexico, and ultimately what brought me down here… The adventure of international racing, especially in special and remote places like this, is really what I’m in this sport for and I hope to share these adventures with the world. We have set their sights on at least one other major international adventure this year. I can’t tell you where we’re headed next, but I can tell you that we’re going with a proper film crew and you’ll be able to tune in and come along for the adventure. Wyatt Knox competed in Patagonia thanks to the efforts of Triple Aught Designs, Team O’Neil Rally School, ITS Tactical, Drink Water, Eugenio Vilicic and family, Pachuga, and extends his thanks to everyone who made this trip possible.