Just finished the SS12... Pressure was on through the entire rally. Started nicely, leading the Premier (albeit by 1s only) despite some moments, then lost it on SS2 (Perrogney). It's easy to overdo a corner here, since there are many fast sections and no collision model. But I nearly gave up after SS3, where I went too fast into a fast-four (or easy, dunno) and kissed a tree. Guess what? My specialty, locked gearbox! Luckily it was the most fitting one, 4th, and I even managed to regain some time lost due to CFH. End of first loop, frustration builds up.
SS4 just killed me. Was going really nice and smooth, yet without risking, fighting the urge to push, and I "did a Hirvonen" (landed in not the best way possible, which send me on the seemingly flat grass, got sideways, rolled. Murphys law - stopped on roof.), and lost time waiting to get rolled back on the wheels again. I almost cried at this point
. On the second run of Perrognay I pushed harder, was faster than earlier (my 4th run total there, mind you
), but still got beaten by almost 15s by Gaten, and by Ludovic. SS6 was the first one breaking the failure cycle, was able to bite back for over 3s despite going wide on the exact same corner as earlier, just barely missing the gear-locking tree; real dark in the dusk, light should be on IMO. End of day one.
Noiker in the myst. Was scared to death. I barely know a few parts of this stage (mostly first couple hundred meters) and when visibility is this bad your pants are full here with such imperfect pacenotes. Avoided any risks and was fastest in Premier EU here, but... by 2 seconds! On the Noiker! In fog! Crazy stuff
. SS8 was a blast, was able to be 3rd overall, beaten only by Sebastien and Simone; this curvy, technical stages seems to suit me - when I'm not falling off a cliff just before the finish line, that is... SS9 was also good, even WRCs just could be much faster than the N4s, since there wasn't much room to stretch the gears here either. Gaetan run into problems here, so there was only Ludovic to catch. End of day 2, loop 1.
Noiker on the dry - I was pushing quite strongly, got over 30s to make up to my Nemesis, "Solcius" :]. And it worked - after Noiker I was leading the Premier EU, all those almost-too-fast corners paid off
. Another run of Tanner was a blast, 3s faster than earlier, but SS12 surprised me; maybe it was the weather, but the road seemed so unfamiliar, that I spun the Subie in the first sector, causing my blood pressure to raise seriously, as my advantage was really small and I badly wanted not to screw it up, just adding to the pressure. Luckily I managed not to crash and lost only 5 seconds to Ludovic here
.
Great rally, reminded me why I love N4 so much, especially the N14 Impreza. You can really feel the car's mass through FFB, which makes the handling way more intuitive, you can rely on the feedback and drive more naturally; great stuff.
Thanks for the event, Rick, Senad, Warren and anyone behind the scenes; thanks for the top-notch tough competitions to all participants. It was simply great!
