Photo: Neil McDaid
ACP blasts crest for the NARC on the first stage of Tall Pines.Oh Canada... The North American Rally Championship is a combination of points accumulated at finishes in the American and Canadian Championships. Last year it was Antoine L'Estage versus Ken Block. This year, Andrew Comrie-Picard squirreled away his first North American title at Rally of the Tall Pines left in Bancroft, Ontario.

Big kudos to ACP who has proven just how versatile of a driver, mechanic, and TV host he is this year. He raced an Mitsubishi EVO 9 RS all season in the US without Mitsu support, an EVO X all season in Canada with Mitsubishi support and had at least four co-drivers sit with him through out the year. He started the year with Marc Goldfarb, ran with Robbie Durant for a bit, then when Robbie was back in the UK, he had Chrissie Beavis sit in, and then a few races with Jeremy Wimpey toward the end of the season. Impressive that ACP kicks ass with them all.

We'll have a race report from ACP shortly, but for now, ACP is probably "flippin' out" up in Canada.

Race Report from ACP:

Andrew "ACP" Comrie-Picard and the NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution won the North American Rally Championship this past weekend with a podium finish in the season-ending Rally of the Tall Pines.

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 at the Rally of the Tall Pines, sealed the driver's title for Comrie-Picard. 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.

Photo: Neil McDaid
Landing gear down. Roger.

"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."

Photo: Neil McDaid
This is the clean side of the photo, flip for
dirt. Spectator point SS5 Tall Pines 2009.

The team is already preparing for 2010 and looks forward to defending the championship and competing at the X Games for a fifth time.

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.