With the North American rally season now underway, the 47th edition of the Rallye Perce-Neige opens the six-round 2012 Canadian championship. 40 crews are set to start the classic winter event based in Maniwaki, Quebec, the capital of the Upper Gatineau region.

The rally features 16 special stages spanning over 244.37 compeitive kilometers (151.84 miles) all run over the course of a single day. This format makes it one of the longest events in all of North America and will undoubtedly challenge the endurance of all contestants.

The Perce-Neige stages are covered in a light layer of snow and patches of ice are found intermittently. Dirt is showing through the roads in a few areas and will appear more as the day goes on. Some of the stages were plowed yesterday and are lined with snowbanks 2-4 feet high. A proper winter rally.

It's a mostly clear and sunny but crisp day in Maniwaki with a high of 6°C (22°F).

CrazyLeo Urlichich is the first car is out on stage at 9:11am Eastern. He'll be followed by Subaru's Pat Richard and Rockstar Energy's Antoine L'Estage.

The rally begins with the shortest test of the event, the 2.02 km (1.2 mi) Marie-Anne stage, and will run the longest stage of the event, the 32.95 km (20.47 mi) Kitigan Zibi stage, a total of three times throughout the day.

The rally concludes in Maniwaki Saturday night at approximately 10:35pm.

More Rallye Perce-Neige news and updates: http://bit.ly/vZX6N2

The biggest names in Canadian rallying are set to start the Rallye Perce-Neige in Maniwaki, Quebec.

First on the road is CrazyLeo Urlichich and his new co-driver Carl Williamson, then 2009 Canadian champion Pat Richard and Alan Ockwell will be second followed by main rivals 2011 Canadian champions Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard.

Maybe the biggest name currently is 2010 and 2011 champions L'Estage and Richard. In addition to their recent domination in Canada they've been the North American champions both years and the American champions in 2010.

There's even an X Games medal for good measure in 2010.

"245 kilometers of special stage. It's a long, one day event," said L'Estage just before the start of Perce-Neige. "It's more of a real winter event. Some of the roads were plowed just yesterday. It should be fun! The first few stages in town are short. The real rally happens later."

Listen to more of what L'Estage said here: http://bit.ly/wdmWuc

Saturday's Rallye Perce-Neige is the first event in the 2012 Canadian national championship. The event is based in Maniwaki, Quebec, a resort area about an hour north of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capitol city.

Perce-Neige is obviously a winter snow rally being in early February. But apparently that hyphen is pretty important for the event's identity.

According to Wikipedia Perce-Neige is a flower: "Snowdrop is a common name ambiguous in French designating various plants of the family Amaryllidaceae that grow and bloom usually in winter. They have to do this, the ability to pierce a thin layer of snow."

Piercing the snow is an important identity. This is a snow rally, after all!

Several of the teams in this event also ran at Sno*Drift, America's season opening rally, last weekend. Early returns, however, say Perce-Neige and its snow will be a little easier on the teams. Snow, evidently, is easier to navigate than the glare ice that greeted them at Sno*Drift outside Atlanta and Lewiston, Michigan.

But back to Perce-Neige.

If you forget the hyphen - becoming Perceneige - you'll be identifying a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France. There'll be common hazards at Saturday's Rallye Perce-Neige but I don't think the teams will share solutions. And isn't that a common issue in a commune?

More to the point, though, is the spelling within the Canadian Rally Championship. The website that governs the Rallye doesn't include the hyphen. The event site itself uses the hyphen in some spots and doesn't in others. Curious.

Perce-Neige is a good identity for the rally because 40 teams will be fighting their way through snow in one of the longest events in North America (244 kilometers or nearly 152 miles). It'll last more than 12 hours on Saturday.

Makes you wonder, though. Any flower strong enough to fight its way through snow you've got to respect.

More Rallye Perce-Neige news and updates: http://bit.ly/vZX6N2

There's a lot of anticipation in the camp of CrazyLeo Urlichich, the Canadian privateer driver who won the Tall Pines Rally last November to finish second overall in that National championship's standings.

Urlichich ran last weekend in the treacherous ice and snow at the Sno*Drift Rally in the U.S. and wound up third before protests still under consideration may push him back to sixth.

This weekend at Rallye Perce-Neige, the Canadian season opener near Maniwaki, Quebec, he'll start stage one first on the road, a position he's never had before.

"It has snowed slightly since recce," Urlichich said. "I'll just clean the snow off and cars two, three and four will just get more ice."

He said he's looking forward to the event.

"It's one day but it's 244 kilometers (151.614 miles)." It's one of the longest rallies in North America even though it's just one day.

"It's gonna be a war of attrition and people are going to get tired in the evening and lose concentration." He said there was one stage that's thrown him off the road the last two years. "I plan on not going off there again."

CrazyLeo has steadily climbed the speed charts in North American rallying. He finished on the podium in five of the six Canadian National events last year. He's hired very experienced co-driver Carl Williamson this year and is looking forward to climbing the podium this year.

Listen to the FULL conversation with CrazyLeo here: http://bit.ly/yBAyxV

More Rallye Perce-Neige news and updates: http://bit.ly/vZX6N2

Krzysztof Hołowczyc is coming to America.

Tuesday, WorldRallySport.com broke the news that the ex-European Rally Champion planned to contest the 100 Acre Wood Rally this February 24-25. Hołowczyc confirmed to us today that he is entering the event as we reported.

Hołowczyc will make his competitive U.S. debut driving Arkadiusz Gruszka's Open class-spec 2006 Mitsubishi EVO IX in the Missouri-based rally. He is not yet listed on the event's official entry, but has assured us that he'll be running.

The 10th place 2012 Dakar Rally finisher says he's relieved he won't have to navigate through sand dunes and welcomes the challenge that awaits him in Salem. "For sure it will be something new, something nice," he said. "For me it will be very interesting...it will be a fantastic event!"

Hołowczyc also expressed his happiness about reuniting with Maciej Wisławski, the co-driver who he won the European Rally Championship with in 1997. He said, "It will be very nice to be again with Maciej Wisławski, my big friend. For us, it will be like a little bit sentimental the way that we will be back after, I don't know, ten or fifteen years."

The Pole told us that he is looking forward to meeting fellow Monster Energy driver Ken Block and competing against him if he enters. With American champion David Higgins, Canadian champion Antoine L'Estage, and rising star CrazyLeo Urlichich expected at 100 Acre Wood, the battle for the rally win could be one of the most intense to date.

Listen to THSTalk's EXCLUSIVE conversation with the 3-time Polish Rally champion here: http://bit.ly/zjQOZd

Read the original breaking news story here: http://bit.ly/xp4rl8

UPDATE: We spoke with a representative of Krzysztof Hołowczyc Wednesday. The representative verified that Hołowczyc does intend to run this year's 100 Acre Wood Rally. He also told us that they are finalizing details before Hołowczyc can confirm his entry. We’re working with his office to talk with Holowczyc.

Original Story Below:

Krzysztof Hołowczyc could be coming to America.

A source in Poland close to Hołowczyc has revealed to WorldRallySport.com that the ex-European Rally champion has plans to contest the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri this February 24-25.

We've learned that the Polish rally ace intends to enter the 2006 Mitsubishi EVO IX owned by Arkadiusz Gruszka in the event and will be joined by accomplished co-driver Maciej Wisławski.

Hołowczyc and Wisławski have had success together on countless events and their accolades include winning the Polish Rally Championship in 1995 and 1996 before laying claim to the European Championship title in 1997.

Hołowczyc has never run a rally in the U.S., but Wisławski is familiar with the Missouri-based event and has American rallying experience having co-driven for Andi Mancin when he contested the Series in 2009.

Most recently, Hołowczyc drove a Monster Energy X-Raid MINI ALL4 Racing to a 10th place finish on the 2012 Dakar Rally in early January.

Hołowczyc is not yet listed on the 100 Acre Wood entry and no formal announcement has been made. WorldRallySport.com will keep you posted on developments as they surface.

Read more about North American rallying here: http://bit.ly/vZX6N2

Antoine L'Estage expects better conditions at this weekend's Rallye Perce-Neige than were seen on the Sno*Drift Rally's treacherously icy roads.

Coming off a second place finish in Michigan last weekend, L'Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard begin defense of their championship titles at the Canadian Series opener in Maniwaki, Québec.

"We’re looking forward to a nice winter rally, with nice winter conditions!" exclaimed L'Estage. "The roads in and around Maniwaki are hopefully covered in snow and the route that we follow for the Rallye Perce-Neige is fantastic."

Tire strategy will play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the rally. L'Estage, a four-time winner of this event, will be using Yokohama's A034s for the snow and IG20s for icy conditions as he attempts to bump his record up to five victories.

Rallye Perce-Neige is a one-day event scheduled to start at 9am this Saturday February 4th.

David Sterckx is delighted with his result on the 2012 Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan.

The ex-Belgian Group N champion overcame unfavorable conditions on unfamiliar roads to finish third on the Super Production (SP) podium and eighth overall. Sterckx had no prior competitive experience on snow and ice and was adjusting to a newly built Subaru, which he had driven for the very first time only two days before the start of the event.

Sterckx and co-driver Karen Jankowski proved their potential as contenders in the SP category after climbing up to second in class from fourth by the end of Day One. With SP leader Travis Hanson too far ahead to catch, Sterckx focused on maintaining his pace on Day Two and finished the rally 45.8 seconds behind Lauchlin O'Sullivan and co-driver Scott Putnam.

“I am so happy with our results this weekend," said Sterckx. "Having never rallied on the ice or snow I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. Turns out you can’t expect anything because the heavy ice and snow this weekend made the conditions very difficult to plan for. I know we will be even quicker next year though because we learned a lot of valuable information that will really help.”

Sno*Drift was the first National rally that Sterckx and Jankowski have run together as a team. Their next outing will be the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, Missouri this February 24-25.

Our Facebook moment for former SCCA Pro Rally champion Steve Nowicki had mixed results at the Sno*Drift Rally weekend. Steve finished both regional events on Friday and Saturday. He didn't damage the vintage Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste/Plymouth Fire Arrow.

But "I forgot how hard rallying was," Nowicki said on the drive home Sunday afternoon. "Maybe when I get home and chill a bit I'll feel different."

Chill might be the wrong choice of words after running in sub-freezing tempertures on glare, polished ice all weekend at Sno*Drift.

"Co-driver Jimmy Brandt did a great job keeping me calm. RWD was not the car to have on an event like this." The understatement of the weekend!

For results, the three-time SCCA Pro Rally Champion (1982, '83 & '85) finished 20th in the Sno*Regional Rally on Friday including a sixth in the G2 category. The Drift Regional on Saturday was another story, though. That came in at 30th and 12th in G2.

"We had to get pushed off of several snow banks. At one point I just spun the tires through the ice to the ground and that's how we got out. But when we found some mud and gravel we had fun."

"You have to mention my 'sponsors,' though. Kevin was my crew chief. There was Mark, Jared, Bill, Adrian and Dan the Graphics Man. That makes me feel like a NASCAR driver to have some sponsors!" He said he did see people cheering for him inside the stages. But there were many who came up and couldn't guess the make of his car.

"Most were too young to know what a Fire Arrow was."

It's unclear if Nowicki will be at the 100 Acre Wood Rally in February 24-25. Maybe that decision will be part of the "chill" process.

Read the pre-Sno*Drift article on Nowicki here: http://bit.ly/wlZxLa

A story from the Sno*Drift Rally you didn't hear this weekend involves the Lauchlin O'Sullivan/Scott Putnam 2003 Mitsubishi Evo that finished second in the Super Production category Saturday night.

O'Sullivan, from San Francisco, and Putnam, from Minneapolis, both have considerable rally experience.

Lauchlin has been a rally driver for 10 years. In 2002 and 2003 he was a professional driver for Team Mitsubishi Motor Sports America, and the top American driver in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship.

Putnam's rally career started in 2001. He's even traveled to Finland for co-driver training. Putnam sold his first Subaru in May of 1988 and ever since, as he puts it, "I live, eat and breathe Subaru." He even manages the website Subaru.net where he sells Subarus and promotes the brand. So you get the irony here? How'd this team end up getting on the SP Podium in an Evo?

"It's a long story," Lauchlin said with a chuckle Saturday night.

The team finished fourth in Super Production last year. So they aren't novices at finding the category podium. But at the end of last year they wanted another Subaru for 2012.

They found the car, a late model Subaru body style, and were about to purchase it when the seller backed out of the deal at the last minute. On another path was California rally veteran George Plsek who found success purchasing the Mitsubishi Evo that Joseph Burke used for competition two years ago. Eventually Plsek and O'Sullivan cooked up a deal to rent Plsek's Evo for Sno*Drift and the "Subie" team was in awkward business.

The worst part of the deal came on Friday when the Evo's setup was so bad on Sno*Drift's icy roads that Lauchlin was ready to park it in a transit and return to the hotel to "go back to bed." Everything from the anti lag to the suspension fought O'Sullivan sometimes violently.

The crew, however, worked most of the night to rework the setup, change the anti lag and Saturday dawned a new day. The car kept getting faster until the O'Sullivan/Putnam crew climbed into second in SP on the last loop of stages.

"I feel like I'm cheating on my wife," Putnam said with a chuckle.

The crew is now second in SP points headed to the 100 Acre Wood Rally, the second round in the national championship, February 24-25.