Antoine L’Estage, simply unbeatable in Canadian rallying

Rallying in the L’Estage family started with Antoine’s father Jacques, whose performances behind the wheel also inspired Mathieu and Laurence-Fanny, Antoine’s siblings. Now, many years later, Antoine has over 15 years of top rally experience and is the leader of the L’Estage rally family.

Antoine started rallying in 1995, contesting some regional events in his native Quebec. Gifted and fast, he graduated to the Canadian rally scene in 2001. Driving an Eagle Talon, he was named Rookie of the year that season.

L’Estage captured his first national title in 2006 aboard a Hyundai Tiburon. That year he also contested two rounds of the famed Rally America series, claiming a promising fifth place overall at the Susquehannock Trail. L’Estage collected a second Canadian title the year after.

In 2009, he switched to a Mitsubishi Evo X. With the support of his mentor, the great John Buffum, L’Estage won a third national title in 2010. More importantly, he ended Travis Pastrana’s four-year reign in the Rally America championship.

Antoine later claimed the North American and the Canadian Rally Championships and secured the Triple Crown for 2010 by winning all three titles in the same year. The Triple Crown has only been won once before in the entire history of rallying in North America (in 2004). In addition, while the coveted Triple Crown has been won before, Antoine’s X Games bronze medal that same year makes his 2010 season even more significant.

Another stellar season followed in 2011 as Antoine completed the Rally America series as runner-up to the former British champion David Higgins. Shortly afterwards, he clinched the North American Rally Cup and the Canadian Rally Championship.

The 2012 and 2013 rally seasons saw an exact repeat performance of the 2011 success, adding four more overall titles to his résumé. L’Estage also tasted rallycross at the the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres.

For 2015, L’Estage joigned Subaru Rally Team Canada (SRTC) and was hired to be behind the wheel of the SRTC 2015 Subaru WRX STI, a car prepared by Rocket Rally Racing (RRR) and Patrick Richard, based out of Squamish, BC.

Behind the wheel of the works Subaru, L’Estage and his codriver Alan Ockwell captured the 2015 Canadian Rally Championship, L’Estage’s 8th national title. And it seems he has no intention of stopping.