

Back on June 8 at the Autodrome in St-Eustache, was held Canada's first event of the Formula Drift Championship. The event’s purpose was to give drivers who do not have an FD license to compete in the United States, a chance to qualify to be part of the ten drivers who would then compete against the U.S. pros drivers.

The sun (and heat) was at the rendezvous, the spectators came in large numbers to support our local drivers. Considering that Sunday was a preview of the main event to be held on August 31st and September 1st, the large number of spectators (who contributed to make this qualification a huge success) is extremely encouraging for the future of things!

32 drivers, pros and pro-ams, attempted to qualify for the top 16 tandems. Half of the competitors where therefore eliminated after qualifying. We had a wicked show! During qualifying, Marc Landreville has an almost perfect run, qualifying first with an incredible score of 92.

The first big surprise of the day came from the first tandem of top 16. Marc Landreville faced Martin Langlois (1 vs 16). Landreville showed his talents with a pretty solid lead run, Langlois wasn’t up to the challenge. But then, in his chase run, Marc lost the car (there is currently a debate as to whether Marc wanted to do too much, if Martin was too slow compared to the speed of qualification, etc..) This put him completely out of position, he struck one of the clipping point, the benchmarks on track to delineate the racing line, and lost all angle in his drift before reinitiating. A beautiful save by Mark but the damage was done and it was too little too late, Martin Langlois had just taken out an FD pro driver and the top qualifier!

Some very good tandems spiced up the afternoon! Simon Schaffner and Alex Michaud fought a fierce battle, requiring two one-more-time! Schaffner eventually emerged victorious, but unfortunately for him engine troubles prevented him to continue competing.

Another fierce battle, this time in the Final Four, opposed Jonathan Guitard to Ontario's Brad Carlton. After the initial runs that where too close to pick a winner, Carlton unfortunately made contact with the wall on the back straight during a one more time. The five minutes allocated to drivers for repairs were not enough, and Carlton was forced to withdraw, settling for third place.

The finals where therefor set! Tomy Boisvert-Bellemart and Jonathan Guitard would face off for the win! Two drivers with Toyota 2JZ engine, completely different from the trend of American V8 engines in recent years!

Guitard, with a much more powerful car, showed us a good chase run at first, staying very close to Boivert on the majority of the circuit. Tomy made an incredible chase run, staying absolutely glued to the door of Jonathan almost the entire length of the circuit! The judges had spoken, and Tomy was announced as the winner of this inaugural event of the Formula Drift Canada!

The team of David DeSomma had a very big challenge in front of them, and they raised the bar and put on an amazing event! The drivers and the action was at the rendezvous and the fans got their money’s worth! All in all a very positive weekend and a very promising setup for August’s date with the Formula Drift US drivers!