Rally - Group N Team Challenge 4 - Monday 23rd & Tuesday 24th January 2012

Made a good start. Was consistent, then went downhill from there. Retired or 4 stages because I hit things that are still invisible to me because my computer is made of poo. Oh well, was a blast. Bring on the next one.

Damien Jones (DJones) - OC

Yikes. Embarrassing showing for me. Four retirements. Two on the first curve of the stage, one on the last turn.

I practiced the wrong stage for SS1 and SS8, both leading to terminal damage in part because I was totally lost. Pribram, one of my favorite stages, veered off track upon hitting the first pothole and hit something solid in the corn maze. Joux Verte, I severely damaged the suspension on the first turn and limped home after about a half dozen spins. And flipped on Sikakama in an apparent gravity malfunction about 15 meters from the starter's table. But I felt fast in the three stages I managed to complete without incident.

PLEASE bring on the next rally.

Yippee!! I am back with the second stage onwards

Ashok Revanna - tantragna - OC

Man, I really enjoy Realistic Damage, what a thrill, every corner can be dangerous!

SS1: Took it very steady, did not want to crash.
SS2: Managed to hit the chicane on both loops, the second time at very low speed even. The radiator was damaged the whole stage, thankfully it was only noise.
SS3: I missed the Monte-Carlo Mod! Maybe I got the wrong tyres, as the downhill began, couldn't stop the car at the 3rd hairpin: crash, battery flat, the car would not go any further.
SS4: Clicked the Go button too late, must have missed it by a second!
SS5: Was going well until I hit a tree on the downhill, killed the engine and the gearbox on the spot.
SS6: Finally a trouble free stage, good that it was short too!
SS7: Another stage that went well.
SS8: This last one was also a good one, nice and smooth, did not know France with gravel Mod was this great!

I am very pleased, it has been a long time since I raced in RD. Thank you very much for the organisers of this event!

Well, that was a barrel of mixed emotions wasn't it? I heard myself saying a few naughty things here and there
Is it just me or does the Audi like to have battery problems?
Went though Bisanne with no problems
Clipped something on pribram (makes me hate that stage even more)
Got a bit cocky in JVII and ended up spinning on a 5 right and spending a good 30 seconds trying to get back on the road, then after that, had a war with the engine to try and get the damn thing started, and as soon as it starts, lurches forward and kills the engine >_>
Sikakama was absolutely excellent, really enjoyed that one, even if I was slow.
Prospect ridge was going so well for me and then, slowing for the pothole section, makes the car veer off into a tree
Frazier wells was great, love that stage
the last two were my absolute favourite in the entire rally, me and Jeremy had a fairly close finish on Joux plane, that was so epic to drive
I find it funny all 3 A3s finished together on that stage
anyway, thank you so much for organizing the rally warren and Senad, brilliant!!

Problems at first half, after that i'm very pleased! 2 stage fastest times in OC session, Jeux Plane II and Prospect Ridge II. Was worried about monte carlo mod, didn't screw there Tarmacs went bad, so did Finland.. Thanks again all involved in making this possible!

I normally prefer the Subarus as well but took Armindo's Evo X, it has some very cool decals on it. However the cockpit camera was a bit too much towards the back in my opinion, but it went ok. When I'll start racing in a championship I'd go for a Subaru though.

Wow, that ended up a much more challenging rally than I expected, very nerve wracking and slippery on some stages. The big variations in surfaces and grip made it difficult to settle into any rhythm, but it was still heaps of fun.

I chose the Evo X (I always like to drive something new) and found it to be pretty nice, although a bit tailey for my liking. I lost the rear end and spun on SS01 early on damaging the steering a bit, but it kept going ok.
SS02, I bumped those bloody barrels again :eek: , this time giving me a loose wobbly wheel making steering difficult again, but it ploughed on ok.
After that, I took things a little easier to get a feel for the car, not much choice on Monte Carlo anyway.
No other major offs after that, so ended up ok.

It was fun to see so many different cars used in our session, but the Evo X's and Audi's were having interesting battles. Both cars seemed stronger in different stages.
Stage wins were well shared in the OC session too.

Nice roll up in OC tonight, I think about 8 of us, and many on TS too. Really good to have Oli join us on TS too.

I managed to fluke the OC Session win through consistency rather than speed, but Damien and Jeremy had a great battle, with Damien getting 2nd by 1.6 secs overall in the end, how close was that.

Thanks to all who joined us, and special thanks to all those on TS with us.

"If you want to finish first, first you have to finish."

This sums it up for me I had some decent pace on some stages but made crucial mistakes often in the last 500 metres.. Should've driven more carefully with the realistic damage. Maybe in the next rally

Dariusz Swiderski - swider - EUZ - Team Europe

Just installed, lets hope everything works..

final session is underway. how are the points going to be distributed? will it be 1p for last 2p for second to last and so on all the way to the top, or will the top 3 positions overall get some bonus?

Finished the session.
Enjoyed it a lot, even though Dariusz was dominating it over 1min

I choose the Evo X as I've heard good things about it. Although on tarmac I felt like it was a bit tail happy.
On SS1 I went of road twice, so ~1min lost.

Retired on SS2 . Arrrggghh.

On SS3 and SS4 I was going as slowly as needed to finish without "hurting" the Evo. This because I'm not confident on Monte and Snow at all

SS5... It was being an awesome stage. I was on a good pace going clean on every corners with a good speed. But I don't know if I missed a note or it was called to late, and I went off road -> hit a tree -> killed the engine. Disappointed

SS6 and SS7 went pretty good. No (big) mistakes, good speed and pace. Best stages today !

SS8 had to run it without sound because the brother wanted to watch a TV show -.-'. First I though that it would be: no pacenotes = retire. Surprisingly it went all cool too, even though I was braking on some corners where there was no need. Good good! I'm considering incorporating "no sound sessions" when practicing for rallies It may come in handy sometimes as it would be easy and natural to anticipate corners.

Great session. Thanks organizers to all the effort you put to set up this rallyes. :thumbs:
Looking forward the results.

Not a good comeback.....

SS1 - RSCenter wouldn't let me sincro my pc clock, manually it didn't work either, after 10min of head scratching i managed to get in but missed it....
SS2 - my 1st drive after long break finished soon after the barrels, coming into the village i cut mid right hander forgetting about the concrete pillar on the inside.......engine dead
SS3 - SS8 - slow and steady, a few spins here the there but nothing major, no CFH..

Thx for setting it up, good to be back on the loose stuff

Go Europe go....

Thanks, had a look and played around a bit, was very helpful. I had the numnotes (Robert Reid's voice with numbered corners instead) installed which also disappeared when RSRBR was installed. Thanks again for the CamHack help though!

You can re-install the Numnotes again, I use them and like them a lot.
However, don't use the installer that comes with the download, it will cause problems. Just copy the individual Pacenote files (.ogg) into your Audio/Speech/Pacenote folder and overwrite the old ones. Make a back up first of course.

I was just wondering Warren. Looking at the sign ups list, was this rally a new record for the number of participants in a club rally?