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Five weeks after claiming their 2023 championship title at the Rallye de Charlevoix, Montrealers Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal won the Tall Pines Rally, contested in the Bancroft region of Ontario. The event, presented this past weekend, was the final round of the 2023 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC).

The Rallye de Charlevoix was presented this weekend as the sixth round of the 2023 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC). This celebrated event, based out of La Malbaie, was once again filled with excitement in trickier weather conditions than previous editions as the rain fell quite fiercely during some parts of the event. In the end, Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal drove their Ford Fiesta R5 to victory. With this third win of the season, they guaranteed themselves the 2023 championship title with one round still remaining in the season.

The Black Bear Rally was presented yesterday in the Catchacoma region of Ontario, as the fourth round of the 2023 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC). This event was won by Sébastien Clark for the second time in 5 years. Co-driven by Antoine Laliberté, for his first win at this rally, Clark drove his Subaru WRX STI to victory by a margin of just over a minute ahead of his closest competitor.

Presented this past Saturday as part of the Rallye International Baie-des-Chaleurs, in the Gaspé region of Quebec, the third round of the 2023 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) saw victory go to Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal, at the wheel of a brand-new Ford Fiesta R5. The vehicle was prepared by M-Sport in Great Britain and provided the duo from Montreal a new opportunity to surpass their competition. This was the second victory of the season for Besner/Joyal, who also won the Rallye Perce-Neige last February.

After five years of absence, the Rallye de Sanair once again found itself on the Quebec motorsport competition calendar. Using multiple roads, neighbouring paths, and tracks at the Sanair complex in St-Pie-de-Bagot (east of Montréal, in Montérégie), the event held its 34th edition this past Saturday. For the very first time in its history, in addition to the being part of the Quebec Championship, it also counted towards the Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC), replacing the Rallye de Québec which was initially scheduled for this coming June but eventually cancelled altogether.

Returning to its traditional date in the heart of winter, the Rallye Perce-Neige Maniwaki, held in the Haute Gatineau region of Québec, kicked off the Canadian national rally season this past weekend. Competing in the Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) portion of the rally, this season-launching event was won by two-time series champion (2016, 2028) Jean-Sébastien Besner, in a Mitsubishi Evo Lancer. Co-driven by Yvan Joyal, the Montreal driver was consistent on the icy and snowy roads that made up this challenging rally. 

The conclusion of the 2022 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) took place this weekend with a double-header program as part of Bancroft, Ontario’s Rally of the Tall Pines. On frozen gravel roads covered in ice patches and mud, competitors needed to fine tune their concentration levels for this event. Olivier Martel and Vincent Hubert were up to the challenge and won both regional rounds in their Test Racing Subaru WRX STI. In doing so, the duo also claimed the 2022 ECRC driver’s and co-driver’s championship titles.

This weekend, Olivier Martel and his co-driver Marie-France Desmarais won the Rallye de Charlevoix, the penultimate event of the 2022 Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC). The rally, which was celebrating the 35th year since its creation, was spectacular to follow, with numerous changes in the leaderboard, in perfect weather conditions consisting of blue skies and warm temperatures for the duration of the event.

The Rallye Défi Petite Nation, the traditional event to mark the end of summer, took place this past weekend in the Montpellier (Outaouais) region of Québec. After a one month pause, it was time for the Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (ECRC) to present its fifth of eight rounds that make up the season. An event contested in perfect weather conditions with seasonal temperatures saw victory go to Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.