RDRC S4 Round 5 - Kouvola Auto Ralli (26st - 29th May)

[Senad Subasic]

Whoops, multitasking, slipped my mind.

Signup deadline for scoring points has now passed. Anyone can still join and drive for fun.

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

Manuel De Samaniego - MDSP - EU3

 

[David Jundt]

Manuel not scoring points...

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

I don't mind the points David, its to get prepared for future rallyes I haven't driven in a lot of time. Thanks!! and best of luck!

 

[David Jundt]

Same to you

 

[John Cunningham]

T minus 8 mins, no practise again, gonna b messy.
Goodluck all!

 

[Tyrone Frith]

force to retire due to computer crash. It was my best rally so far this season. No chance for a retry later before i go on hoilday for a week.

 

[John Cunningham]

I killed a marshal, the shame... the horror.
Other than that I really enjoyed, THANKS to all yet again for a great rally. Well played gents, well played!

 

[Norman Bruce]

SS1 - Even though I made a cautious start I still managed to make a slight error at the 1st hairpin, nothing major though.
SS2 - Was doing ok but after about 3 minutes into this stage RBR froze. Had to retire but thankfully the RSCentre was still running so I could continue.
SS3 - SS4 - SS5 - Went ok but I should be pushing a bit more.
SS6 - Went ok, had a scary moment near the end but recovered without any damage.
SS7 - OK but a bit too cautious again
SS8 - Went off at the start and went wide a little further on but ok.
SS9 - SS10 - Went ok
SS11 - Pushed a little too hard here, had a roll but landed upright also went off twice but managed to get back on track without any CFH.
SS12 - Still trying to push a bit more and went off twice here but managed to recover.
SS13 - Went ok but could have been faster.
SS14 - Definitely pushed too much here made too many errors.

Only 1 retirement due to computer so reasonably happy with this round looking forward to the results.
Thanks to RD for organising this

 

[Magnus Lindgren]

At first service;
The start of this rally was to dramatic. Just seconds into the first stage one of my team-members (6 year old daughter) screamed into my ears and she was bleeding from her nose. Immediately planted the the car into a tree and stalled the engine. When I saw she was OK I restarted the stage. This is probably not allowed, but it was a force majeur situation. I am aware of the risk that the organisers will penalize me...
The drama continued and I have killed stupid finnish spectators at 3 different occasions, at SS1, SS3 and SS4. My massacreus trip came to an crashing end right at the finishline on SS4. Had to retire, and was toed over the finish line and into this service park. Hope to continue after reparing my vehicle.
At second service;
Had some heavy thoughts after my finnish massacre but decided to continue. And obviously the remaing spectators had learned to keep out of the way when they heard the Lancia approaching. When I rolled at SS8 and called for help I didnt expect anyone to come. The safest should be to keep the car on the roof with me locked inside. But surprise, surprise! A group of drunk, but helpful, finnish guys who were driving snowmobiles (?) came to my rescue.
At third service;
Just when I was finding rhytm I rolled hard in the end of SS11. Luckily I landed on my wheels and could continue. Only lost about 15 sec.
At finish:
I was looking forward to this scandinavian rally but I ruined everytning on the first stages. The rest was OK, but I will probably not earn any points this time either. The championship title seems to be very far away.

 

[Ozan Bas]

Ozan BAS - oyunbozan - EU3 (non-scorer, late subscription)

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

So, haven't driven in around 2 months and couldn't prepare for the rally, let's see how it goes

SS1 great start, went a bit quick at the start but in the middle it got laggy, last split wasn't bad. Ok stage

SS2 big big mistakes everywere, terrible stage, haven't driven this one in a while. Just crawled to the finish

SS3 had 2 big mistakes, a little offroad and a moment after a jump, the rest was very good, I really got lucky with the mistakes, no damage. My Irish great great grandma was looking after me on that stage

SS4 best stage so far, kept a little conservative pace and didn't do any big mistakes, good stage


SS5 this was a pretty good stage, felt my confidence coming back but I did some mistakes that ruined my time

SS6 the stage felt good and I did less mistakes, but it seems that I was too careful and didn't go as fast as I could, the time wasn't good but atleast there was no damage to the car

SS7 good stage, 2 small moments I was good in the first splits but I lost concentration on the last one, not a good time but that's not important because I'm being consistent and the goal is to finish without CFH of retirements.

SS8 went safely trough, no risk no big moments, kept it easy and time was average but it was ok, it's strange I haven't improved any of my times on the second pass, this stage would look good in the higlights Roy & Senad

SS9 it got very very laggy and I was all over the road and sometimes out of it, I almost crashed into a house


SS10 made a mistake at the start at cut a corner waay to much, sorry. Everything else was going pretty well until I made a big mistake by going waaaay too fast into a corner and hitting it sideways, my co driver was very scared because we lost the door, not a bad time in the end.

SS11 I feel much more confident now, I felt how I went faster trough the corners and started to handle the wheel like I used to before my break, a very respectable time in the end, offcourse it won't be a match for the top times but I felt very very good, tried a different setup for the dry and it seemed to work


SS12 it was going well, the back was a bit loose but no serious moments, until i oversteered into a rock in exactly the same way as in Norway, that sent me into a 360 spin and lost a lot of time there, luckily this time no big damage (great great grandma I guess) the time wasn't good

SS13 I had the brilliant idea of pushing hard, it didn't work and I oversteered into a three and into retirement

SS14 that was a huge blow, just took it to the end, with a lot of mistakes. S$%t 2 retirements in SS13 now.

So, all in all a pretty bad rally for me, but there's always another chance. Atleast there weren't any points at stake and got some good seat time

I drove all of it with a netbook with a terribly small screen :/

I guess a top 15 is possible, a top 10 would be a dream.

Thanks David, Fernando, Graham and Viesturs

I talked a lot to the reporters

 

[Viesturs Priede]

Damn, missed the EU1. I guess I'll go for OC2 or EU2 session. Would like to do OC2 but Im still at Andris house with heavy hangover. Lets see how it goes.

EDIT: OK, Im at my own home now, but I dont really feel like driving the rally now would be the best idea of the day. So I`ll just have some rest and do the EU2 session. There will be more people as well - so its going to be more fun. Plus there is going to be Roy (hopefully) so I can find out throughout the rally - how terrible Im doing

See you at EU2 guys

 

[Javier de Diego]

Before run the rally I feel so faster, and so much confident, and thats good. but not at all. My worst rally. I went so fast in the most of the stages but I make some mistakes. The only one stage where I haven't been fast was Autiovara (lot of understeering, can't keep the car on the gravel...). And RBR crashes in the last 2 stages (I don't now why).

So nothing more to say, I'm not happy so I'll forget that rally and look forward the next rally.

 

[Norbert Serban]

Finally a perfect rally for me, without retires.
on SS1 and 2 I made little mistakes, but after that, I just flying on the finnish roads
on the last stage a little heatr attack, I almost hit a tree.
looking foward to results, but I hope for a good result

 

[Graham Bridgett]

lost a potential class win on one corner(again) thanks to a missing pace note.
Not pleased.

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Will have to pass this round. just graduated and moved countries in the last couple of weeks, and am looking for a job, so have my hands full right now.

All the best for all the drivers who are still to take part! Looking forward to joining soon.
(Seems like it is going to be tight between Graham and Norbert for P-RDRC honours!)

 

[Viesturs Priede]

So.. finally.. Since last seasons Wales rally I havent achieved this.. No retirements for me Not even CFH`s ..

SS-1: Was going slow but clean. Too much braking before the finish line though.
SS-2: Was facing some unexpected understeer at some points. Few mistakes. Still going slowly.
SS-3: Because of the wrong tyres I was going a bit more carefully. But it went OK. Messed up the start though.
SS-4: Was way too careful at the beginning. Had a half-spin after the jump. I think that the head gasket was damaged, faced some serious lack of power. That was a bit weird because I didnt have any crashes before that.
SS-5: Messy, almost hit trees few times, spun at the first hairpin.
SS-6: Also a complete mess. Had to calm down so went for a smoke.
SS-7: Less messy after the smoking pause, still few mistakes.
SS-8: At one point I lost all my concentration and made few kinda big mistakes. Also went off the road few times. Realized that I have to pay more attention and find my pace ASAP.
SS-9: Few tiny mistakes but all in all it went fine.
SS-10: OK, just 1 huge off-road at 3rd split.
SS-11: I like the other dirrection of this stage better. It went OK but I know that it could have been better.
SS-12: Went more careful than in the first time here, still had an offroad but it was definately better.
SS-13: Had some scary moments but I think it was OK.
SS-14: Had 2 mistakes that ruined the time here, nothing too big but I had nowhere to run so I didnt care much.

Interesting that I did SS1-SS4 faster than SS5-SS8. I couldnt say I was extremely slow but I wasnt going flat-out, found the pace and kept going carefully to survive.. And I succeeded, Im really happy about that Also won the EU2 session, Im just a little bit disappointed that Roy and Oscar didnt turn up, wasnt able to see how much Im losing to the leaders. I know that I wont be anywhere near the class podium but it would have been nice to compare the times during the rally.

Either way, thanks for the organizing, I enjoyed the rally, even though I thought that Im going to suck here. It wen just fine

 

[Chris Williamson]

Pretty average rally for me - not especially good, but not especially bad either.

 

[Warren Dawes]

Unfortunately Mitsubishi weren't able to raise the finances to run the EVO 9 in this Round, so I'll be missing this one.