Mitsubishi Brigade going for a hat trick

Toronto, Ontario, September 29, 2010 – The 5th round of the Canadian Rally Championship will take place this coming weekend out of Merritt, British Columbia, a small vicinity north-east of Vancouver nested in the Rockies. Barely three weeks after the last event in Québec, the Mitsubishi teams entered have been working extra hours to prepare the cars for the event before setting out to cross the country for the second Western round on the calendar. Leader of the Mitsubishi Brigade, Antoine L’Estage and codriver Nathalie Richard from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC have two events left on a very busy schedule that saw them win the Rally America and North American championships, while taking bronze in the X-Games in Los Angeles. Winner of the last event in early September, they are trailing by only three points in the 2010 standings and will try to lock a fourth victory in BC.

The Winnipeg brother pair of Jan and Jody Zedril only have to take to the road with their production Lancer to clinch yet another title in the Group 2 class, their third in as many years. They hope to widen their lead in the 2WD category with only two events left. Finally, the Polish crew from Calgary, Zebe Szewczyk and Tomasz Karzynski will feature their well-known yellow Lancer Ralliart in class 5 with hopes of taking the championship in the last two rounds.

“We understand the last month has been a lot of work for our Mitsubishi crews and we hope they earn their share of honours in Western Canada”, said Koji Soga, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada. (MMSC). “The 2010 season should bring many titles and championships for theses very deserving drivers, codrivers and the teams that carry the Mitsubishi flag across the country.”

Pacific Forest Rally : Event profile
Rally teams will gather in Merritt for the usual technical scrutiny and registration Friday morning. The crews will be allowed to travel at low speed through the speed stages for road recce. The event will start late afternoon for a few night stages around the city. After an overnight Parc Fermé, they will rejoin the competition Saturday morning for a long day’s work that will end late at night. Total distance of the event is 496 kilometres with 154 of them in special stages. L’Estage and Richard trail by only three points the Subaru team of defending champions Patrick Richard and Alan Ockwell. A victory is worth 22 points. For more information, please visit the event web site at www.pacificforestrally.com or visit our password free media website at www.mitsubishi-motors-pr.ca