RDRC S2 - Round 7 - Hokkaido Rally (30/31st May)

Rick Bamford · May 29, 2011

Wow, that didn't go as planned.

I had been hoping to put in a good showing in Japan, but with little time to practice leading up to the event I decided to try and stay calm and go for a finish rather than a win. First stage went well (which suprised me as i don't like the stage, but from then on it just went down hill.
SS2 had a spin
SS3 hit a tree
SS4 Good run again
SS5 Hit a tree, damaged the clutch. 6km to go and its slipping like crazy. Do i retire and drop 4 minutes or more, or try to get it through and try to drop less time. We drive

SS6&7 Both stages with a slipping and steaming radiator. just hoping for the finish of the day to get it fixed. I think I dropped about 2 minutes only over the 3 stages so i think it worked. I'll have to make day 2 better.
SS8 - Ok, good start
SS9 - Crashed but finished
SS10 - Crashed but finished
SS11 - Getting tired after only a little sleep over the past few days. Crashed, retired
SS12 - Crashed, Retired. I am now thinking of giving up.
SS13 - crashed, retired.
SS14 - I am not sure what happened but i think i did a good time here.

Over all, i am sorry to my team mate as I let him down again. Round 8 is my favorite rally of the year though so I hope to finish off with a big effort:wink:

Troy Ament · May 29, 2011

Hey guys, I'm lacking the time, energy, and effort to run this one so I'm withdrawing, best of luck to those yet to run.

Roman Kruszewski · May 30, 2011

I have to switch from EU3 Monday to EU4 Tuesday. So I will be there on tuesday.

Gerben Kelly · May 30, 2011

Sorry guys, i have to skip this one. To many things on my mind at the moment

Robb Kulcsar · May 30, 2011

Can I move to EU4? Is the same hour as today, but tomorrow?
Cose I can't make it today and tomorrow only by night I'll have a little time free, thanks.

Senad Subasic · May 30, 2011

Robb Kulcsar said:
Can I move to EU4? Is the same hour as today, but tomorrow?
Cose I can't make it today and tomorrow only by night I'll have a little time free, thanks.

Yes, same time tomorrow, 19:00 GMT.

Ondrej Kapal · May 30, 2011

I will be a part of tomorrow EU guys

Senad Subasic · May 30, 2011

RD Name - RSRBR name, please

Ondrej Kapal · May 30, 2011

lol I didnt that before? I always put my TBA sign up

i am sorry I missed it this time

Ondrej Kapal - OKapal - EU4

thanks

Eckhart von Glan · May 30, 2011

EU3 is getting a little empty: something has come up and for the first time I have to switch to EU4 as well. lol.

John Cunningham · May 30, 2011

well, I am trying to get to EU3 .... (if not EU4 :0)

Samuli Leinonen · May 30, 2011

Samuli Leinonen - harakimi - EU4

Ashok Revanna · May 30, 2011

I am joining in this EU3 session.... All the best guys!!

Nigel Atkins · May 30, 2011

good luck guys

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 30, 2011

SS1: Fair enough! OK.
SS2: Fair enough! OK. Stalled once under braking. Lost some when trying to start it again.
SS3: Fair enough! OK. Stalled once under braking. Lost some when trying to start it again. Only managed this stage good once! And that was with tarmac mod and Escort MK2! And I had my 5 mandatory trips outside the track in Sector 1, and I bathplug hate Sector 3!

Reflection on service 1: So far I'm third in this session. A top 5 would be brilliant. Any better than 3rd is only possible if the two fastest makes a mistake!

SS4: Faster on wets than on dry. But i'm back to my driving style. That is not good at all.
SS5: In some way this should suit me, wet gravel is more sideways driving. But an already sideways drivestyle, together with rain doesn't work to well in Japan.
SS6: My mandatory 5 times off the track in S1, and I still hate S3!
SS7: Some crashes. Lost much.

Reflection Service 2:
Now I have to settle for fourth in the session. I'm just not able to go any quicker in Japan. So it's going to be a booooring last half.

SS8: This stage was just waaaay to tight for me... With this driving, even 4th is going to be damn hard!
SS9: Radiator-failure, 2 CFH... -.- If I retire because of the radiator on the next stage. I'll just retire from the whole rally...
SS10: And that was the case. Happy to be finished with this. But not happy because of the retirement!

Ludovic Cogotti · May 30, 2011

In one word : fail !

In other word : Rick's style !

Really bad rally for me, too many mistakes with unlucky broken car and cumulative damaged totally ruin all my chance to do something.

Simone Demi · May 30, 2011

I had ruined my good race in the last stages...2 RFH and I have hitted some people 2 times...

Sebastien Levret · May 30, 2011

Round finished for me, very nice fight with you Simone. Really enjoy that.

See you for the results !

Hubert Smolders · May 30, 2011

Bad start.

First stage 1 call for help.
Second, Noiker, killed the car because i was running tarmac setup and it slammed to the ground constantly.
Oil started cooking, over...
Third finally going well again.
Although i finnished and hit the 100 percent marker, it says retired next to it,
wich means the leaderboard might be wrong yet again, so time to post screenshot in pm after the rally.
Rest of first part allright.

In second part i retired again because of brakes gone, parked it in a tree...
Next stage also says retired but i actually got a 5:24.88 on it.

And i must say, the portugal stage was nutters with those tires on, it felled like a Ken block mod with bad physics...
Constant wheel spin. :s

SS13 another retirement... God i love and hate Japan, i actually retired on the stage i love the most, tx to water temps...
So 3 in total, not 6

Norman Biscuits · May 30, 2011

Love these Japan stages!

I have a bogey bridge in the middle of Tanner, but all through practice I didn't even get near it.
Second run through Tanner tonight, BANG. Broken radiator.
Took a tactical retirement there, rather than burning out on Noiker. :frown:

Without that it would have been a tight fight with Nigel and Chris for Championship honours.
Alas, I came in third - but am still hoping for a couple of decent points.

One small whine - being forced to run tarmac stages with gravel tires isn't challenging nor fun, it's just stupid. I hope there'll be an extra service or a gravel super special thrown in instead next season.

On to sunny England.