Driving Sports

Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom may have won the glory in the Rally America national championship, Keith Jackson and Mara Estepp claimed NASA's 2009 US Rally Championship, and Pat Richard and Alan Ockwell took the 2009 Canadian Rally Championship, but there's one more prize left to claim, and it's arguably the toughest rally title to win in North America.

The North American Rally Cup is a combination of the Rally America and the Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) national championship schedules. To win this one, you have to compete throughout the year across the United States and Canada.

Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey claimed the title this past weekend with a podium finish in the season-ending Rally of the Tall Pines in Bancroft, Ontario. The win represents the first championship for the Mitsubishi Evolution X, and the first rally championship for NOS Energy Drink.

"This is a terrific result, especially given that we were working on developing the new rally car throughout this first competition season for the Evolution X," said Comrie-Picard. "But our sponsors and our team came through and we won a very tight championship race."

A late-season push, including a win at Rally Colorado and a second-place finish (behind Richard/Ockwell) at the Rally of the Tall Pines, sealed the driver's title for Comrie-Picard. ACP's veteran co-driver Jeremy Wimpey joined the team to secure both of these top finishes.

The season-ender was unusually dry and warm and made for very fast speeds and intense competition. Fans and media at the contest noted Comrie-Picard's aggressive driving throughout the event -- which saw him tearing off bumpers, bending bodywork, and even taking out a finish board -- in contrast to his normally tidy style.

"We told ACP to win the championship or leave it in the woods," said crew chief Eric Vlasic. "He actually did leave some of the car in the woods, but he brought in the championship!"

"We had this car wide-open the whole time," added Comrie-Picard. "I just wasn't lifting in most corners or over crests and fortunately, the Ohlins TTX shocks were amazing, the Yokohama tires took the super-high sideloads at 200 km/h (120 mph), and our K&N filter kept the engine safe even through some deep water splashes."

The NOS Energy Drink motorsports team has had an exceptionally successful year, winning four major racing titles: the North American Rally Championship, the Formula Drift Championship, the Redline Time Attack Series, and the NASCAR Nationwide series.

The team is already preparing for 2010 and looks forward to defending the championship and competing at the X Games for a fifth time. Comrie-Picard is one of very few drivers to make a serious challenge to the dominance of Subaru Rally Team USA in the Rally America series.

For more information about ACP, NOS, and the Mitsubishi Evolution X rally car, see www.acprally.com.

Photos courtesy of the Canadian Association of RallySport and Neil McDaid.