To settle Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win CAN-AM 200 at Autodrome Montmagny, Jeff Côté and Raphaël Lessard took their battle right down to the finish line.
But to settle who won, officials took to the skies.
And upon photo review, Côté was scored the winner, picking up his first career Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour victory in one of the biggest series races on the Canadian side of the border.
The two Quebecers’ down-to-the-wire duel was the finishing flourish on a nine-lap sprint to the checkers in the second of two combination races between the U.S.-based Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour and the Série ACT Quebec, ACT’s crossborder sanctioning partner.
Côté, filling a void left by Lessard, arrived at Montmagny with the Série ACT points lead and three wins in five starts. Lessard, the two-time and reigning Série ACT champion, departed for the U.S.-based Tour this year, holding his own advantage in the standings with a single victory so far.
Despite starting tenth in the CAN-AM 200, Lessard was the story of the race’s first half. After passing polesitter Jonathan Bouvrette for the lead, Lessard set a blistering pace out front until the yellow flew for Dany Gariépy spin. Officials utilized the mid-race caution as the race’s planned competition caution for pit stops.
Lessard and Côté brought the field back to the green flag, with Côté giving Lessard all he could handle for several laps before inching out front.
A caution flag with nine laps remaining set up the duel to the finish, with Lessard back in the game. The two swapped the lead back and forth, with Gabe Brown stalking in third in case the leaders should slip. Gariépy, having rebounded from his midrace spin, kept pressure on Brown as well, hoping to make it an all-Quebec podium.
On the final lap, Lessard got back under Côté in turn three, moving him aside just enough to open a lane. The two charged down the frontstretch to take the checkered flags, with Lessard scored just ahead of Côté by .005 seconds.
The close finish necessitated a photo review, but no photos were conclusive enough to sway the officials one way or another. At last, Montmagny’s social media crew produced a shot from their drone that showed Côté ahead by a foot as the duo drag-raced to the finish.
It was enough to hand Côté the victory, his first Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour victory in only six starts, all at events in Quebec.
Lessard, the 2022 and 2024 CAN-AM 200 winner, came up just shy in second. Brown held on for third, holding off Gariépy down the frontstretch on the last lap. Jesse Switser was fifth, placing two Americans and three full-time ACT competitors in the top five.
Maxime Gauvreau was sixth at the stripe, with Alexendre Tardif seventh in his Roy Motorsports entry. Dany Trepanier and Patrick Cliché were eighth and ninth, with D.J. Shaw salvaging a tenth-place result from a long day in Canada.
Quebec natives have swept both Canadian races thus far, with the do-over of July’s aborted Yvon Bedard 149 at Circuit Riverside Speedway Ste-Croix still to come in another month. Quebec drivers swept last year’s two Canadian dates while they were shut out entirely a year before.
Côté, meanwhile, is securing his place as one of the province’s top talents, while Lessard and Tardif have placed their focus on racing in the United States this year. The former Chaudière racer has won the last three Serie ACT events, giving him four wins for the season and a sweep of the events at Montmagny.
Côté is not a complete stranger to racing in the States, having finished sixth in last year’s Fall Brawl at Riverside Speedway in New Hampshire. He also attempted to qualify for an SRL National Late Model Series feature at Cleetus McFarland’s Freedom Factory in 2023. But his body of work south of the border is minimal at best.
Building on that body of work may be something to consider if he continues on this path.
Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | CAN-AM 200
Autodrome Montmagny, Montmagny, QC
1. (51QC) Jeff Côté
2. (48QC) Raphaël Lessard
3. (47NH) Gabe Brown
4. (37QC) Dany Gariépy
5. (25NH) Jesse Switser
6. (17QC) Maxime Gauvreau
7. (31CT) Alexendre Tardif
8. (19QC) Dany Trépanier
9. (44QC) Patrick Cliché
10. (60BH) D.J. Shaw
11. (83QC) Martin Goulet, Jr.
12. (7A) Karl Allard
13. (72QC) Louis-Philippe Lauzier
14. (45NH) Kasey Beattie
15. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
16. (56QC) Charles Bernier
17. (03QC) Sébastien Couture
18. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
19. (15QC) Christopher Bédard
20. (11QC) Claude Leclerc
21. (77QC) Marc Verner
22. (91QC) Patrick Laperle
23. (36NH) Erick Sands
24. (6QC) Félix Gratton
25. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
26. (47QC) David Gagnon
27. (21TN) Jean-François Déry
28. (21L) Alex Labbé
29. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
30. (38QC) Gaetan Gaudreault
31. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
32. (69QC) Vincent Rivard
33. (66QC) Simon Roussin
34. (9MX) Yvon Bedard
35. (45QC) William Larue
36. (8QC) Maxime Robin
37. (92QC) Jonathan Desbiens
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