Greenhouse fights hard at Perce-Neige, takes 2nd 2WD
photo courtesy of Tavernier Clément
Chris Greenhouse took 2nd place in the 2WD National class at Rallye Perce-Neige 2023. This was the opening event of the 2023 Canadian Rally Championship series. With long-time codriver Ryan Scott calling the pace notes, the duo was engaged in a dogfight with the Honda Civic-powered team of Mathieu Leblanc and Éric Dubé. The two teams were in a pitched battle for the entire event, and traded the lead position multiple times. Leblanc and Dubé were able to re-take the lead on the final loop of night stages and barely held on to the lead by 4.7 seconds at the end of the rallye.
The cold weather was nothing short of extreme even by Canadian standards. Competing teams woke up on race day to temperatures of -33° F (-36 °C). The cold temperatures made even simple procedures difficult as cars and service vehicles wouldn't start, tools were frozen, hydraulic jacks and generators didn't work properly, and even short exposures to the cold caused frostbite.
Even in the loss to Leblanc, Greenhouse came away from the event quite pleased with his own performance.
"This was by the best performance that we've ever had on snow, by far, and that was largely due to car setup. The Platto Motorpsorts Dodge Neon SRT4 had some setup issues during shakedown, but the crew put in a lot of effort in extremely cold conditions to get the car handling much better. After a number of changes, we started the event with a much-improved car. We have always struggled badly on the morning loop of stages, and this year was vastly better. We even had the lead after SS3, which we've never had before. This has to be the best that I've ever felt after not getting a win."
Chris would like to thank the following:
Platto Motorsports
A1CVTech
AngrySheep Motorsports
PMR Motorsports
Rallysport.ca
Maddog Short Throw Shifters
Racers Edge 411
MotoDecals.com
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