The 6th round of the DMCC series came back to where it all started – the Autodrome St-Eustache. It’s the track where DMCC was born and is a venue that is always exciting and jammed packed with fans. To make it an even more special this event was done with the partnership of the XDC series to have a Canada VS USA battle where a few of the XDC stars made their way up to Canada for some drift action. This made it for a really exciting event, with a Top 32 battle instead of a Top 16 and a bigger than usual cash prize, all the drivers wanted to come out on top.
For this event we had Chris Forsberg come out to be a judge. He actually used to be a DMCC judge a few years ago.
Right before the drivers meeting the drivers hung out and got themselves ready for the crazy weekend that was about to start.
After some joking around it was time to head up for the drivers meeting to start.
With the Pro and Pro Am drivers along with some of the XDC drifters, the drivers meeting was packed.
With the drivers meeting over it was time to get the cars ready for the first round of practice.
Miro was sporting a nice new livery for this event, it actually looks like a race car now.
XDC Driver Nate Hamilton made the treck all the way from Texas for this event.
Even before practice started Babu’s team was seen wrenching or hammering on his car to get it ready.
With Pro and Pro Am Practice running at the same time it was cool to see so many cars on grid.
The Canadian God Father of drift Marco Santos is now a DMCC judge, but I think he misses driving.
Dave Briggs was getting in the zone for his first practice laps.
Eric Paradis seemed a bit more relaxed.
A lot of people were looking foward to see Nate run!
For this event the usual track layout was changed for one with a much faster entry speed, and I also think it was to avoid the walls since the ASE track becomes like ice when it’s wet. At last years event at least 6 cars went into the wall thanks to the slick conditions. The new lay out was super exciting for the fans as the cars would initiate before the main grand stands, so as soon as the cars came into sight they were already sideways.
Right off the bat despite the wet conditions Jeff Laflamme was driving as hard as he usually does.
It was cool to see Maxime Truchon come back out with his Soarer for an event. It was his first event all season.
After a few runs the track started to dry and the smoke started to flow!
The first shocker of the event was with Pat Cyr. He is always a contender for a podium but after only 3 runs his brand new engine blew and left him a spectator for the rest of the event.
Nate shows us how to do a backwards entry.
The Pro Am drivers were also practicing and qualifying the same day as the Pro’s.
This Pro Am driver was fun to watch in his LT1 powered Volvo.
It did not go smoothly for all the Pro Am drivers.
Especially for this nice S13…
When something broke in the front end of the car resulting in this.
He basically drove straight into the tire wall at full speed – the impact was brutal. Thankfully the driver was ok, but the car was no longer shiny.
Even during practice there was some good tandem action.
Dave Briggs was putting down some great runs.
Marc Landreville was also having a great practice session. His car now running a anti lag set up was crazy to hear and see run.
Practice ended and it gave the chance for the drivers to get ready for qualifications and gave the fans a chance to get autographs signed by Chris Forsberg.
It was qualifications for both Pro and Pro Am and the top 2 Pro Am drivers were also eligible to qualify to compete with the Pro’s. Qualification went great for some and real bad for others…
BFG driver Carl Nadeau was doing great but had issues on both his runs and would end up taking him out of the main event.
With almost every driver finished both there passes heavy clouds started to roll in causing the crowd to empty the grand stands.
Thanks to the notso good advice of Dan of Cyrious Productions we both stayed and continued to shoot the rest of the qualifications. Right as Jeff Laflamme was doing his 2nd run the skies opened up and a huge rain storm started. This is the only photo I have since I was scrambling to take shelter along with Dan.
Here you can see in this vid by JHD what hit us.
The rain was so violent that the rest of the drivers would have to do their final qualifying run the next day.
Monday was the main comp day for Pro and Pro am but first up was the last qualifying runs that got rained out. The problem with that was the drivers had zero practice time, and to make matters worse the track was wet.
Miro’s 1st run was not great and on his 2nd run in the wet he spun right before the last clip landing him in the bottom of the order.
Dave Brigg’s second pass was even worse as he came in super fast and aggressive but because of the wet track he couldn’t hold it and he spun his car into a light pole. Luckily there was a tire wall around it and the damage was minor.
With qualification officially over it was Marc Landreville getting the top spot.
Pro Am drivers Eric Warnet in his Mustang and Marc-Andree Claude in his S14 making the cut to run in the big show with the Pros.
Another practice session was about to begin when it started to rain again.
It did not faze the spectators though – they just found unique ways of staying dry.
Fellow DMCC Photographer Karel of AULIAR.com also had a special way of staying dry…
It was pretty much raining off and on for the whole practice session which resulted in some wet off course adventures.
Tanner Munson shows how to properly hit the clipping point.
Thanks to his new Kenda Tire sponsorship Peter C was looking real good.
With practice almost done the drivers started to get their game faces on.
Practice was coming to an end and to most people’s surprise the track was actually drying out.
Miro and his team get comfy to watch the Pro Am Comp.
The fans also started to fill the grand stands for the event.
Tomy Boisvert-bellemare is one of the top ranking Pro Am drivers but was having transmission issues that led him to loose out on his first tandem battle.
Joel Coutu was awarded 3rd place
With the win going to Marc Andree Claude and Alexendre Michaud taking 2nd.
Now was time for the Pro comp. The grandstands were jam packed, and considering it was not a nice sunny day it was impressive to see so many people in attendance.
Pro Am driver Eric Warnet lost his Pro Am battle due to having car issues so during the driver intro his team worked on getting the car fixed, so here he is posing with his ghost car.
After his Pro Am win Marc Andree Claude was on fire and took out Bob Patinka.
It was not an easy win but Miro won his first battle.
Dom Desrosier did not have it easy and was beat out by Marc Landreville.
Dave Briggs went up against Eric Paradis. I was very impressed with how Eric drove making it go to a OMT, but in the end Dave got the win.
Babu did not have an easy match up either going against Nate Hamilton. Im not sure if Babu just gave up after seeing Nate’s first entry but he did not come back out for his lead run giving the win to Nate.
Francis Tasse had an easy win against Claude Poirier.
Marc Andree Claude had to face Jeff Laflamme – not an easy task.
But Jeff pushed a bit too hard and slide his car up and into the wall on the last clip taking himself out.
Brad Carlton went up against Eric Warnet. Despite the efforts made by his team Eric’s car was still having engine issues which caused him to straighten out.
Miro defeated his American teammate Tanner.
Jo Thiffault tried hard but he was defeated by Nick D’Alessio.
Next up was an epic battle. Long time rivals Marc and Dave always seem to face off against each other and it’s always impressive to watch. Dave pushed hard and came in contact with Marc a few times on his chase run. Dave’s lead run was good but not enough to over come the contact made on his chase run.
Francis Tasse was now up versus Nate Hamilton. It was fun watching both these V8 machines run. In the end Nate got the win.
Brad Carlton went up against Marc Andree Claude, but with a few errors the win was given to Marc Andree, putting him in the Final 4 battle. He was having a great weekend!
It was another all American battle as Miro faced off against Nick, with Miro taking the win going on to the Final 4.
Nate Hamilton was now paired with Marc Landreville for the final 4. He spun going for a crazy entry on his lead lap giving the win to Marc.
Miro was now faced with Marc Andree Claude to see who would go on to fight for 1st. The win went to Miro and would face Marc.
Battle for 3rd was Canadian Marc Andree Claude VS American Nate Hamilton. Marc drove great but Nate pushed hard and got the win. It was good for both drivers since Marc did not expect to make it so for in the first place.
It was now time for the main battle, and what a battle it was. Marc VS Miro. I’ve never seen Miro drive so aggressively but I guess when you have to chase Marc Landreville he had no choice.
Marc’s chase run was good too and it was so close that it could of went OMT.
In the end the win went to… MIRO!
Final standings: Miro 1st, Marc Landreville 2nd, and Nate Hamilton in 3rd.
Pro Am Standings were. Marc Andree Claude 1st ( and 4th in Pro), Alexendre Michaud in 2nd and Joel Coutu in 3rd.
It was a great event and hopefully next year we will have even more XDC drivers come out to the event. The next event is at Icar and is the last round of the season. It’s going to be a make it or break it round for the championship! For more info check out: www.dmccdrift.com
