The third stage of the 2023 season of the Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (CREC), presented this Saturday as part of the Rallye International Baie-des-Chaleurs in the Gaspésie region of Quebec, brought victory to Jean-Sébastien Besner and Yvan Joyal. behind the wheel of an all-new Ford Fiesta R5, a car from M-Sport’s UK workshops that saw the Montreal duo outperform the competition. For Besner/Joyal it is the second win of the season after the Perce-Neige Rally in February.

No fewer than 48 teams started this rally, 34 of which were registered in the CREC. Besner/Joyal occupied the top positions from the second timed stage and never got the lead again and finally won with a considerable and rather rare lead for this level of competition, namely 11 minutes and 16.7 seconds.

Given the road conditions, with rain and muddy and often difficult roads, the superiority of the car (by WRC2 class standards of the World Rally Championship) and the experience of the winning duo obviously played a role in this result, but the performance of the teams ranked behind should not be overlooked. Starting with Yves Boudreau and Daniel Caissy who put in an exceptional performance with their 4WD Production Class Subaru WRX STI. At the end of the first timed stage they were leading, then logically conceded time to Besner/Joyal, but finished second.

Completing the podium is Gaspé driver William Pardiac alongside Manuel Arsenault in a 4WD Subaru open class, just 15 seconds behind Boudreau/Caissy.

Again very consistently, Réjean Perron and Alexandre Marcoux bring the only Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution on the grid to fourth place overall, ahead of the 2WD class winners, Mathieu Leblanc and Éric Dubé. Just like the overall winners, Leblanc/Dubé clinched their second win of the season with their Honda Civic in front of their fans. In a highly competitive category, they won by 22 seconds over the winner of the last CREC event (the Sanair Rally in late April), Kurt Duddy. This time Duddy was joined by Ontario’s Brandon Pace in his usual Nissan Sentra and also finished sixth overall.

There were many position changes and turns during this spectacular rally. In these conditions it’s a great achievement to finish in the top 10. This is thanks to Gabriel Monette and Hugues Bergeron (Subaru) who finished seventh, ahead of Olivier Guité and Martin Noël (eighth and third in the two-wheeler with their Ford Fiesta R2), Jonathan Conrad and Timothy Dine (Subaru). Ninth, tied with Margaret Sharron and Jennie Holden (Subaru). As the only 100% female crew at the start, this American duo in their Subaru completed the top 10 just 3.3 seconds from ninth place.

A total of 22 of the 34 teams entered in the CREC completed the event. For the full ranking Click here. The Rallye International Baie-des-Chaleurs continues this Sunday with the final stages of the North American FIA NACAM series and the Canadian Rally Championship.

The Eastern Canadian Rally Championship (CREC) comprises a total of seven events this season, divided between Ontario and Quebec. The next event will be held in mid-August in Ontario as part of the traditional Black Bear Rally in the Catchacoma region north of Peterborough.

We’ll come back to poleposition.ca tomorrow with the full review of the 2023 Baie-des-Chaleurs Rally in terms of all category rankings and the Canadian Championship. Until then, be sure to check out our photo galleries of the event by clicking here.