Rally Aussie Outback - Wed December 16th 2009

Aaron Cloutier · Dec 16, 2009

US and OC rallies are set up. I'll be running the US rally in about an hour and a half. Late comers are welcome just go ahead and join the rally and we'll get your results worked in.

I'm really looking forward to this one. a8w_08 is one of my favorite packs and Oz is one of my favorite sets of stages. So many good cars, with the new Subaru, the focus and C4. It's hard to make up my mind! I love the big fast cars with the instant acceleration.....mmmmm

Good luck everyone and thanks to all the new people, hope everything goes smoothly.

Aaron Cloutier · Dec 16, 2009

Wow.... just ... Wow...

Great set of stages, but a miserable bit of driving. I swear I was off in the trees at least once a stage. No retirements, though I finished the last half of SS11 with no brakes... (after two CFHs then no brakes I should have just retired)

Warren Dawes · Dec 16, 2009

I loved this Rally, great car and of course I felt at home in Australia, some great stages there. Some fast flowing stages mixed with some tight twisty stages.
Great fun and thanks to Cam for the company on TS.

Eric Nelson · Dec 16, 2009

OK i misunderstood the date / time thing in the event title. I am totally unavailable on Tuesdays US time.

Crap and any other nights this is going on?

Robin Cook · Dec 16, 2009

umm me too has the europe rally been run already ie last night or are they run seperatly

thought it was 20:00 gmt on wednesday the 16th

Eric Nelson · Dec 16, 2009

US Start: 03:00 GMT *
Oceania Start: 10:00 GMT *
Europe Start: 20:00 GMT
Wednesday Dec 16th

OK so for me US timezone correction makes it 2200 EST on the 15th? for USA

Euro is 20:00 GMT on the 16th which puts me at 15:00 EST for USA

Then there is the OCEANIA 10:00 GMT which puts me at 05:00 EST on the 16th for USA

so if this is correct then I could join at 3PM (15:00) today the 16th of DEC.

comments?

Aaron Cloutier · Dec 16, 2009

Yes, that is correct. It doesn't matter which you choose.

Aaron Cloutier · Dec 16, 2009

Robin, the euro rally will be run in about an hour. The US one is the only confusing one because of the time difference from GMT.

Robin Cook · Dec 16, 2009

thought id missed it. cheers mate

Cam Wedgwood · Dec 16, 2009

Aus Rally OC has been run and done. Really enjoyed this style of event as it felt like RBR should. I sucked and was well and truly left behind Warren, but still enjoyed the sideways action. Thanks guys.

OFF TO EMAIL MY RESULTS TO rallyresults@westnet.com.au

Sebastien Levret · Dec 16, 2009

EU Rally OC finished for me.

I drive very carefully, but at the SS4, my right tires jump on the mountain and put my car on the doors. I was not able anymore to control the car and jump into the hole. Grrrr.

Fun first rally for me, thanks RD !!

Eric Nelson · Dec 16, 2009

OK wel at least I understand whats going on regarding the times.

Could I offer a suggestion for you next posting of an event?

Do the time conversion to the ACTUAL time in the time zones in the intro announcment post.

ie. December 15th USA 2200EST/Euro 2000GMT/ AUS december 16th 1000

We do this for a GTRE/RACE07/STCC Friday event for the USA/AUS/EURO participants and it eliminated confusion. Mostly regarding the actual prior days date regarding the USA/Aus timezone difference for calendar date.

Sounds like all had fun and hope to be in on the next one!

Robin Cook · Dec 16, 2009

haha yeah i had fun and ive got a list of things that need to be sorted for the next rally.
had ffb issues 4 times during rally where it would just reverse for no reason and i need to turn the pace notes up really loud

prob finished last and had fun doing it too

Thamx for setting this up arron

Much prefer the 02 scoobie though would help if i learnt to setup my cars properly

Cam Wedgwood · Dec 17, 2009

Eric Nelson said:
ie. December 15th USA 2200EST/Euro 2000GMT/ AUS december 16th 1000

I reckon Aaron setting them up is enough for me... I don't expect him to work every detail out for me. Surely we can all work around GMT... For me, I just add 10 hours to the posted GMT time. Easy.

Eric Nelson · Dec 17, 2009

NOt trying to make things harder, just easier to understand for a new guy coming in to join future events. The difference of the date because you are essentially running on 2 different calendar dates for the exact same event will continue to cause problems.

Seen it happen before in a different racing club and we changed it to alleviate the ongoing problem. Just my experience. This is not circuit racing so personally t doesn't matter to me how many actually make it to the event. My experience on the wheel wil be exactly the same from here.

Warren Dawes · Dec 17, 2009

Eric Nelson said:
Could I offer a suggestion for you next posting of an event?

Do the time conversion to the ACTUAL time in the time zones in the intro announcment post.

This has been a constant issue with the scheduling of events at RD.
Whilst I can understand why people might get confused and want the organisers to post the event in their timezone, this is almost impossible to manage. The organiser cannot possibly know what timezone everyone is in, and these events are for International participation.
For example, the USA has at least three timezones (maybe even more), and there are daylight saving time adjustments to consider as well.
And what if the organiser miscalculates it for someone??
The only safe way to do this, (as is done for nearly all RD events) is to post the events in GMT, the one true international standard for time, and allow participants to do their own conversion. I don't think this is asking too much.

However, it seems a good idea to at least make it clear what day it will be in each timezone.

To help participants convert GMT to their own timezone, here is a reliable converter that I have always used, and it takes a few seconds):

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

EDIT: Regarding which night is best for the USA guys, why not check with Aaron to see which he also prefers. Maybe you guys can run your Rally after the Euro one on Wednesday night (USA time), it probably doesn't matter to the overall Rally event.

Eric Nelson · Dec 17, 2009

YEah Good point Warren. Clarifying the date would help I think. I see what ya mean about the rest of the timezone issues.

http://forum.racedepartment.com/racing-clubs/

there are 2 exaqmples of Date stamping on the announcement in the link that I provided. See what ya think Aaron of ya see this post.

one if Rfactor event and the other is GTRE event.

Warren Dawes · Dec 17, 2009

Yep, the date stamping addition should be helpful, but even that may cause a little confusion sometimes:

eg, when I use Timezone converter, I always enter the GMT date specified, and then Timzone converts it to the correct day for my timezone. So, for me, it is always safer to know the correct GMT date and time for the event, and I can then confidently do my own conversion. If the event specifies Friday for US and Saturday for Aus, I could easily get the day wrong. Whereas specifying the correct GMT date, I will always get the correct day for me.

I hope that is clear, it is not easy to explain. I guess we can just try it and see how it goes, but usually once you get used to the set race night, it becomes easy.

Aaron Cloutier · Dec 17, 2009

Heated debates over times

I will post the US times as EST with GMT in parenthesis just because it's on a different day. I don't mind running the US races after EU if that works out better for you Eric.