DAY 1 News

The two Team Mitsubishi Motor Sports America Evo’s left early this morning under sunny blue skies and sub zero temps, to run two snow and ice covered stages north of Quebec City. The first stage, Lac Nelson is very long at nearly 37km while the second stage, Rang Sanguenay is much shorter at only 11.4 km. After the two stages the teams head to Quebec City for a 20-minute service. The cars then head down to the nearby Hippodrome Super Special stage where cars will run head to head on parallel tracks. After the Hippodrome stage the cars come back to service park for another quick 20-minute service and then they head north again to run the same two stages.

Service 1 & 2 news and notes

David Higgins took it easy on the first two stages this morning and sits in 2rd overall, 52 seconds back from current leader and 2002 Canadian Champion, Pat Richard. Higgins will set out to catch Richard on this afternoon’s two stages. The Mitsubishi service crew has changed some suspension settings on Higgin’s Evo and Higgins has changed his tire choice for the 2nd set of stages this afternoon.

Lauchlin O’Sullivan had a rough start on this morning’s stages. He lost 4th gear only 10km into the first long stage and lost nearly two minutes over the first two stages and now sits in 7th overall heading into the day’s last two stages. The Mitsubishi service crew has fixed the gear selection problem at the first 20-minute service. Lauchlin will also be changing his tire choice for the next set of stages.

Day 1 Summary

Higgins battles back to take the lead after Day 1 at the International Rallye de Quebec.

Team Mitsubishi Motor Sports America driver David Higgins and has snatched the lead away from Canadian Champion and Subaru driver Pat Richard at end of Day 1 of the International Rallye de Quebec. After ending the first three stages over 50 seconds down on Richard, Higgins attacked on the remaining three stages and ends Day 1 in the lead, ten seconds ahead Richard. Higgins’ Michelin shod and HKS tuned Open Class 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ran flawlessly today. The International Rallye de Quebec is only the second event for the new Mitsubishi team, which is being run by a partnership between U.S. based Vermont SportsCar and UK based CoordSport.

Mitsubishi’s all-American team of Lauchlin O’Sullivan and Mark Williams endured several setbacks on Day 1 including losing 4th gear for two stages and damaging their front suspension on the day's final set of stages, but they end the day in 6th place just 14 seconds behind 5th place Tom McGeer. O’Sullivan has very little snow driving experience and despite his car’s small problems this morning he has kept up with some of the most experienced snow drivers from Canada. “I didn’t get a clean run on any stages today, first I got stuck in 4th gear and then I damaged my front right suspension, which slowed us on the second set of stages,” explains O’Sullivan. “But tomorrow is a new day and I have McGeer in my sights!”

The first day ended with a showdown between Richard and Higgins on the Super Special as they ran side by side on two parallel courses at the 3km Hippodrome horse track in Quebec City. Higgins began the Super Special 8 seconds behind Richard and the two went head to head in front of a crowd of thousands. It was Higgins that came out on top as he enteratined the huge crowd of fans by convincingly beating Richard by 18 seconds, catapulting him into the lead by 10 seconds at the end of Day 1. “It takes a little pressure off me and puts it all on Richard’s shoulders for tomorrow,” Higgins comments. “We started the day off slow to see what kind of grip was out there and then we steadily went faster. The car has performed flawlessly and tomorrow should be really good.”

Day 2 will see crews getting an early start at 6 am. A different set of two stages north of Quebec City will be run twice and a third stage, a short sprint through an industrial park in Quebec City, will also be run twice as well.