Rally - "Richard Burns Tribute" - Mon 31st January & Tues 1st February 2011

after seeing the ss8 result I'm 31sec off the 1st and 2nd placer and the nearest is 20sec(3rd place) I got to say amazing run guys!

*sound of running feet from offstage.......

Aaah, nearly missed it!

Damien Jones (DJones) OC

*dashes off to eat some dinner

OMG, brace yourselves: SS3 - 4 drivers within 0,87s in OC session!

Went into this one with almost no practice, with perhaps wasn't the best idea as I found the car quite hard to keep control of. Lost count of the number of times I made small mistakes and lost time in the first 6 stages, but I finished all of them with only 2 calls for help and only 2 ambulances needed for the spectators.

Stage 7 was easily my best, being my only clean run of the night and despite being off the pace, I was still in the top half of the EU session. Stage 8 ruined all that though. On the narrow twisty bit I span sideways in a place only wide enough for an 11-point turn (looked pretty much like that scene in Austin Powers where he gets the buggy wedged lol) and soon after I got going again, my game minimized itself for some reason and I had to retire.

Gaaaaah. I don't if I want to hug or kill Rick. We had an awesome fight (hence the hug) and he won (hence the will to kill ).

I jumped right into the rally, only done around 40kms of practice (bless the chrono-thingy in RSRBR ), i.e. half the rally distance. Started nicely, with a OC win, then lost by just the same margin on SS2 . On SS3 I had a failure moment - messed the braking to a "medium left" and went totally of the road. I landed behind the guardrail and right beside some spectators, so I decided to go on the outsided, praying for lack of big stones there . Managed to somehow make it and found myself only a fraction of a second behind the winner .

I had some issues on E-W II (had a "dolt" moment after touching a tree, even engaged reverse for a split second in the heat of the moment), Harwood (when I got too wide and lost a second on two going over a log ) and on Prospect II (I understeered right into the forest; I had such a fluke, missed 4 or 5 trees going right in between them and back on the road).

Overall I lost by just over 8s to Rick. I can pretend it was the team orders now, since you are the RDRC director .

Congrats to the winners!!

and thanks again to the organizers!! really good rally!

Pretty much a total disaster for me, but somewhat expected.
I've been sick all week, so zero practice and came in cold. Also, I decided to try out my new CSP Pedals for the first time, and they are going to take a lot of getting used to, especially the brake.

Got off to a horrible start, SS01, I hit the gas on the start line and stayed stationary, going nowhere but lots of revs. I thought I must have had an issue with the pedals, so stopped and tried to calibrate them. Tried to go again, and after about 5 mins I had travelled about 10 mtrs. Then I checked my tyre selection, the game had given me dry slick tyres. DOH!!!. Quit after managing to go only about 50 metres down the road after an eternity.

The next few stages were full of errors and crashes, no concentration or feel with the pedals.
Finally put in one descent run in SS06, but that was about it. More crashes and mistakes after that.

Oh well, at least I got to drive.

Thanks to Damien and Rick for the TS chatting, and grats to Rick for winning the Oceania session. Nice and close with Lukasz though. :wink:

Warren, that reminds of SS5 - you were so close with Rick on this one that I was sure you were either riding shotgun with him or being towed by his Subaru .

Nice rally, thanks for making it possible to everyone. Congrats to Rick; also Simone was on fire as always (would be around -40s) but his one DNF put it all in vain unfortunately.

Whoa! 5th!

I am honestly shocked with that result. This was a horrendous event for me (or so I thought), full of spins, offs, getting stuck on logs etc etc.

Big congrats to the podium; Łukasz, you were really on a charge tonight!

Another 8th.... well, that's okay. Really want to break into the top 5...

Need to find some speed somewhere..

Congrats to the winners, & nice organising by the team too!! Enjoyed it thoroughly!

Grats to Rick for the overall win, you are making a habit of this winning stuff these days. Good to see an Aussie up top though, the Euro's have been caning us lately.

Well done to Lukasz (soooo close :wink: ) and Roy for the podium.

Nice to see the Stage wins getting spread around too, Simone must have taken some pity on everyone.

I'm really pleased with the support and starting numbers this year, hope it continues because it makes the Rally Club much more fun.

Special thanks to Senad for his organisation / results efforts. :thanks:

Off to dream up something evil for next week, :cough: Group B :cough:. :eek: :ups:

I am surprised with 6th ,started the first stage slowly building up pace ,all going good but near the end clipped(read i think they ran out into the car) some photographers.
Next couple of stages ,no dramas.
Shepherds Shield 2 a stage i like in either direction,decided to up the pace and ended up with a good time,4th fastest overall i think.
Harwoods pushed a little but mainly just tried to keep it on track...found it very slippy.(hows that for a rally term...slippy)
Joux Plane 2,gravel mod.how i love this stage.Very fast and smooth,and am getting quite good at hairpin turns thanks to this stage.Very dangerous stage as well because of the pace,just waiting to bite you if you don't listen to those notes carefully,especially when the downhill section starts.Love this stage.
Bisanne ,not a big fan of tarmac ,but got through with a couple of errors ,car intact


Enjoyable Rally overall,made a few errors ,but so did alot of others it seems,a big thanks to the evil stage plotter Mr Dawes,just remember you have to drive whatever evil plan you have in store for us next week as well.


Thanks to Senad for the results and planning ,both of you guys are doing a great job which reflects in the numbers that are now turning up for events,long may it continue.

Group B !? INSANE!! :tongue:

More or less for me: Out of control ! - literally !

group B on tight stages..... not!