Thanks to Andrew Harvey & flatovercrest.com for the image
Bad luck for us at 2010 Rallye Defi. It all went wrong at the start of the first stage when the axle snapped. Valuable time was lost, center differential burnt. Tranny change helped.
After that Chrissie and I had fun trying to catch Craig Henderson and Bruno Carre for third place. One of the stages (Elmitt 2) had a lot of jumps in the turns, which made me feel like we were doing rally Finland
Felt amazing: to commit before the jump and hope that there just enough road on the landing, TONS OF FUN! We were just 2 seconds slower than Pat and 5 seconds faster than Antoine on that one. To be fair, I’m pretty sure they were not going at their maximum.
Half way through the first tarmac stage hydraulics in the clutch failed, so we had to PUSH the car to the end of the stage!! Lungs and throat were hurting for a while after! Made it. Long enough service to fix everything. But the hope of 3rd place was gone no matter what. Launched too hard on the start of the second tarmac stage and broke the axle and the rear diff. Made it through the stage with an intentional spin for the fans. Didn’t lose too much time. Can-Jam guys were amazing and fixed everything again! At this point we have gone through every drive train part there is.
photo made by James Drake
Made it on a long transit to the next stage, started the stage… only to experience the same hydraulic clutch failure about 2 kms into the stage. Had beers with local fans (thanks!)… I always get beers right at the DNF spot, lucky!
Went spectating Jarnac special stage.
Went to see the podium and had some of Antoine’s champagne. Tasted better than fan’s beers
Had a great dinner at the hotel with the team.
Spent 3 hours in a hot tub in beautiful St. Agathe with the strongest team members.
Woke up at 7 am… god knows why. Probably, because didn’t get enough action yesterday.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:03 PM
merci pour great show!
Reply | Link
September 15th, 2010 at 8:42 AM
aw man, hard times! At least you still enjoyed yourself, hehe! Love the pic of you at the top of this post, hahaha!!
Reply | Link
CrazyLeo Reply:
September 15th, 2010 at 9:36 AM
Remember, one of the drivexes with did with Fred actually went right through Montpellier? And the owner of the gas station let us fill us like at midnight?
And I remember there were at least two Quebec guys who I couldn’t catch on snow and ice in the Bastard! That’s when Quebec conquered my respect ones and for all
Reply | Link
September 15th, 2010 at 3:15 PM
Who is Fred? Don’t you mean Johnson?
Ya I remember that, best road trip ever!
Reply | Link
CrazyLeo Reply:
September 15th, 2010 at 3:22 PM
Wasn’t the best one on Hwy 7 near Montreal??
Reply | Link
September 15th, 2010 at 5:26 PM
which one is highway 7? was that the cruise control driveX? hehe
Reply | Link
CrazyLeo Reply:
September 15th, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Nope, the trail where we had to drain water and build ramps to get thru!
Reply | Link
September 16th, 2010 at 10:51 AM
OH ya! the snowmobile “highway” hahaahaha!!! Ya that was a good way to break in my sti
I wish we had a camera with us cause there was some pretty good wash outs and rocks we had to cross. Good times!
Reply | Link