The 2024 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) season concluded during Ontario’s traditional Tall Pines Rally. Contested on completely dry gravel roads, which have often been covered in tricky snow and ice in past years, the event was dominated by Ontarian Jonathan Drake and his co-driver Ian Lantz, in a Subaru WRX STI.
In two-wheel drive, Quebecker Nicolas Laverdière and his co-driver, Frenchman Nicolas Fouteret, earned Laverdière’s third consecutive victory, clinching the 2WD championship title in a Ford Fiesta.
Vincent Lalande, the young 16-year-old prodigy, who was absent from competition at this final round, was crowned champion in the season’s overall standings.
Taking place in a single day of racing, the ECRC rally saw Drake and Lantz dominate towards an indisputable victory margin of three minutes and 18.9 second over Laverdière and Fouteret, the two-wheel drive winners (entered in Production 2WD).
As Drake and Lantz’s performance was without fault, so was that of Laverdière/Fouteret. This third win in a row enabled Laverdière to overtake Mathieu Royer in the hunt for the 2WD championship, following the latter’s accident during Saturday’s competition.
Olivier David and co-driver Leah Brisset, in a Subaru WRX STI, finished third overall in ECRC and second in four-wheel drive. In order to secure the 2024 title, David needed to win the event; his third-place finish, earned after a tight battle with Jeremy Drake/Deric Jackson (who finished fourth in their Subaru WRX STI), did not earn sufficient points to pass eventual champion Lalande.
Lalande made his rally debut at the beginning of the year and turned heads all season long. With victories at the Rallye Vallée de Beauce and the Rallye de Charlevoix, Lalande’s first championship title was well-earned and the potential and maturity he displayed this year are a sign of more great things to come for him.
The Quebecker contested the season with two different co-drivers, which opened the door for Jonathan Drake’s regular co-driver Lantz to claim the 2024 ECRC Co-Driver’s title, ahead of Brisset (second) and Pat Lévesque (third), who finished 11th this weekend at the Tall Pines Rally, competing alongside Sébastien Clark. In the co-driver’s two-wheel drive championship, Alyzssa Voyzelle-Montminy (co-driver of Royer) was crowned 2024 ECRC champion.
Always abundant with leaderboard changes, the Tall Pines Rally saw the consistent Andrew Miller and Zach Goldstein (Subaru WRX STI) round off the top-five overall, ahead of Karianne Hubert and Éric Dubé as Test Racing’s only finishing duo of their four Subarus entered in the event.
Michal Gielas/Jacek Gielas finished seventh and won the Production 4WD class in their Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS, in front of Mark Toufanov/David Bell (Toyota GT-86, first in Open 2RM), Eric Vanderwal/Alton Gonsalves (Mazda RX8), and Jeremie Thibeault/Justin Thibeault (Subaru WRX STI). In total, 14 of the 19 teams registered in the ECRC completed the rally.
The 2024 Tall Pines Rally also counted towards the Canadian Rally Championship and the North American Rally Cup. The overall victory went to Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal (2023 Canadian champions and 2023 ECRC champions) in a Ford Fiesta R5.
The Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) concluded its 2024 season, which was comprised of nine events, spread out between Ontario and Quebec. The 2025 season will begin in February 2025 with the Rallye Perce-Neige in Maniwaki, Québec.
For more information, please visit the website www.ecrc-crec.ca.
- By ECRC/Service Presse
