RDRC S7 Round 3 - Rally Alsace (12th-14th April 2015)

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Wheeeew, end of the rally for me!

Once again we're back to the forests of Alsace in one of the toughest, trickiest events of the calendar, a completely different event to last time in Norway.

The past rally was a joyful drive in a comfortable surface for me, this one was mostly the opposite, I was quite nervous for most stages and couldn't set any personal bests during the rally, my only mistake was a junction overshoot on stage 5 and a really massive moment on stage 2 after a jump, luckily that moment didn't come to anything more like an accident, and I didn't hit anything when I overshot the junction, I'm very glad I made no major mistakes and didn't have to call for help, this was for sure one of the most difficult events I've raced in RDRC, the high speeds and the proximity of the trees to the road make it a very mentally difficult rally, keeping concentration when it's so easy to make a mistake is one of the keys of this event.

This being a short tarmac rally makes it harder to pull big differences to others, luckily the tire choice this time was fairly straightforward unlike the last rally with tarmac in Austria, I decided to take dry tires everywhere, even on the last loop of stages because I preferred to have a fast car on the 2 long dry stages and only have to slide on the wet short stage, the last stage was the trickiest of the rally and I don't think my time will do too well against times with intermediate tires but it's definitely possible to use dry tires there just keeping off the grass.

I think my overall time was good and I'm very happy to see that I was a whole 10 seconds faster on stage 4 than last year, having won here on the past 2 occasions I'd love to win again but I have no reference to know how I did against others and I don't think gaps will be too large.

Many many many many thanks to the organizers for the rally and the best of luck to Mike my friend and the remaining competitors who are yet to run, I hope you enjoy the stages and keep it clean when things get difficult, I very much look forward to one of the highlights of the season the next rally in Finland.

Here's la DS3 en action.

eYZ6lab.jpg



Also I'm amazed to discover that stage 6 was my 450th stage in the championship :D I'm only 45 away from the 500th.

Thanks
 
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Best round easily for me, really came to grips with the car in the break between rounds, made the steering more to my liking and more to what I was used to.
I made a goal of retiring from no more than two stages, as opposed to the 5 that I saw the first two rounds.
Made a decent start, SS2 I finished but was well back. It was an absolute dream driving the Alsace stages, they were the first I tested when I was changing my steering, and as such I put in two really good efforts across that stage, the first was blighted by a wide run and subsequent call for help, but the second run, even on inters, was simply beautiful (well for me anyway).
So all in all I think I made an improvement, there were many mistakes but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Next round I'll be looking for a strong result, and hopefully I can bring something home, even if just a few good stage results.
 
I never had as high hopes for this round as for the previous one. I put down a lot of practice and made custom pacenotes for the stages but still I was feeling unsure. Bumpy tarmac isn't exactly my favourite surface.

I made mistakes basically on every stage of the rally. Lyon-Gerlands and Alsaces were okay (although I killed a spectator on Alsace 1) but on all the rest I usually went a little wide somewhere. Nothing major though.

A major error was to come in the last loop of stages. There was less grip than I expected on the Sieversdorf stage, I slid wide into the wineyards and although it wasn't a big crash, it killed my engine. I kinda lost concentration there and that is not what you want on Bruschal Unterowisheim so I made a pretty big mess out of that one too.

Bring on Rally Finland, please.
 
Lots of family planning going on here, so I didnt have any time to practise. Turned out to be especially nasty regarding these tricky stages!

Still, my only aim as a rookie here, is to get familiar with the software, the game, my hardware and see what the game has on offer.
Pretty impressed with the rural stages we got here! :)
My times are not important, getting some wheel-time is, so let's leave it at that, shall we? It was the disaster you can expect from a rookie without practise on the stages. :D
But I least I learned lots tonight!
 
Started off pretty confident as when I use RSRBR, I only ever test on these stages (big fan of Tarmac). Started off being very comfortable with the car. Out of the group of 7 people I was against in the EU1, I was leading by over a minute after SS5.

On the first and second loop, I could really feel the corners and was able to really push hard. Then, on the third loop I had a HUGE moment on Bergheim in which I almost destroyed the car taking a jump flat out. Got away with only an overshoot.

On the first stage of the 4th loop (Alsace), decided to go on Intermediates as I thought it would really benefit on the last 2 stages. All was going well for most of the run until near the middle of the stage all the grip went and my tyres were nearly shot and I understeered and juuuuuust nearly missed a tree but caught it and locked the gearbox in 3rd. Managed to bring the car from 120kph down to about 40kph but it still wrecked the box. Rally over. Bring on Finland!
 
Started off pretty confident as when I use RSRBR, I only ever test on these stages (big fan of Tarmac). Started off being very comfortable with the car. Out of the group of 7 people I was against in the EU1, I was leading by over a minute after SS5.

On the first and second loop, I could really feel the corners and was able to really push hard. Then, on the third loop I had a HUGE moment on Bergheim in which I almost destroyed the car taking a jump flat out. Got away with only an overshoot.

On the first stage of the 4th loop (Alsace), decided to go on Intermediates as I thought it would really benefit on the last 2 stages. All was going well for most of the run until near the middle of the stage all the grip went and my tyres were nearly shot and I understeered and juuuuuust nearly missed a tree but caught it and locked the gearbox in 3rd. Managed to bring the car from 120kph down to about 40kph but it still wrecked the box. Rally over. Bring on Finland!

We drove very close times on stages :) Swopping lead.. I think you drove wrong om Bergheim. You took 1 minute on me on the first split. Must run the start kilometers a couple of times:)

Looking forward to more battles with you this season :sneaky:
 
Oioioi... these roads sure are killers! Or maybe not really... I managed to roll the car on its side at the first chicane on SS2 because I was so stressed trying not to make a mistake :D Called for help there, then manage to damage my suspension after the finish of SS3... again a loop of high tension but managed ok.

And then, the inevitable happened: HIT THE CHICANE at Lyon-Gerland!!! I mean, how is it possible... damaged car again for Bergheim unfortunately.

Much more conservative on the last loop trying to get a clean finish, but to no avail whatsoever: very bad pace on Alsace 2 (or blistering pace for Norbert Leitner and Stefano Cocco!) and then hitting a post at 15 kph on SS9 that got the gearbox stuck in 1st gear... i finally understand the frustration to whom it has happened... so decided to just retire the stage and get a good drive for the last two; at least that, I managed :)


Thank you guys for setting up a scarily fast and challenging rally! To be honest it would have been an even worse story with realistic damage, so i will be happy with my position no matter what :)
 
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