RDRC S7 Round 2 - Rally Norway (22nd-24th March 2015)

[Robin]

Well for it being my very first online Rally ever, I think I did pretty well.
At the very least I had a tremendous amount of fun!
And I have learned that the Karlstad stage is my archenemy!

Very curious to see the end results later!

 

[Viesturs Priede]

SS1 - Was a bit stressed entering the first stage so did some quite dumb mistakes on the few very first corners. After that I felt a little bit better so I started to go faster but it was still on the safe side. Then, at one point I managed to roll the car over pretty heavy and as I landed on the roof I had to call for help. Also, during the roll I managed to lose left side doors. I was really pissed that I've started my first stage after such a long break this way but I kept telling my self to forget it and just drive. Which I did and finished the stage without any more trouble.
SS2 - Im really scared of these fast USA stages so I went really, really safe here. No big mistakes, just very slow and safe through the stage. Felt nice to finish it without any big mistakes.

SS3 - Bumpy, some mistakes even though I was playing on the safe side here as well. Until I lost control of the car under braking and managed to slide into a photographer. Damn, I've forgot to take them away. So basically another CFH here. Really pissed went through the stage without any more trouble.
SS4 - A few spins, a roll-over if I recall correctly. Pretty messy stage. I've never liked it.
SS5 - It was good. Kept cool through the stage, kept my Cpt.Slow rythm, driving on the safe side, no risks - it was good. I think 4th fastest time out of 14 drivers at EU1 session. Others must have done a lot of mistakes here!

SS6 - Huge mess-up. Rolled over once but managed to land on the wheels. Then a huge and heavy roll-over which damaged the car quite a bit - had to call for help this time as I landed on the roof. 3rd CFH already? God, with driving slow and safe I imagined I could have done a lot more better mistake-wise
SS7 - If I had some memory about the previous stages then this one I've had forgotten completely. Had no idea what to expect and I managed through it only counting on the pacenotes. Pretty slow obviously. Others must have done quite many mistakes if I had 5th fastest time here, lol.

SS8 - A little bit better, still 5th time in the session.
SS9 - I've never liked this stage but Im feeling lucky I managed to finish it. Many crashes, spins. Went down the cliff a few times. Went into spectators once. Meh.. a stage to forget..
SS10 - I remember I used to like this stage but first off sent me into a huge spin and then another off made me roll over the car which caused another CFH.

SS11 - Decided to go a little bit more agressive for the last 3 stages. It was pretty good until I met another reporter crew that stood in a suicidal place.. another CFH
SS12 - Agressive start but the stage went pretty bad, I dont even remember if I had another CFH or not, but there were quite a few mistakes and I think definitely a roll over. Stopped counting the CFH's a few stages ago already.
SS13 - Again tried to go more agressive here but it did cost me huge loss of time again due my own mistakes.

Overall Im happy I didn't retire a single stage but I was hoping for more consistent result with less CFH's, spins, rollovers, crashes and stuff. With going slow, easy and without any idea of fast stage times I thought it might be possible but turned out Im still the old crashinator No retirements after such a huge break from RBR and with only 3-4 stage runs before the session with different cars to choose my car for the season I'd consider my result good enough.

Thanks for the rally, I missed this so much..

 

[Sam McDonald]

SS1 - No issues, took it at 90% to get a clean time with no mistakes and see how fast I needed to drive for the rest of the rally
SS2 - No issues, could of gone quicker in hindsight with better choice of ratios
SS3 - No issues, took it a bit easier as I knew I tend to make mistakes on this stage
SS4 - No issues, was still driving at 90-95% to get trough clean as that was what mattered to scoring points
SS5 - Decided to attack a bit more and was working until the final corner of the stage, where I braked slightly to late and ran on a fraction but got caught in the dirt and losta good 15 seconds meters away from the line
SS6 - No issues normal stage
SS7 - no issues ran on a little bit at the 1 left but no real time lost only a couple of seconds
SS8 - no issues clean stage
SS9 - Retired after really simple mistake, dropped a tyre off a bank in a slide and hit the post lining the road and engine overheated soon after
SS10 - Decided to go flat out and recover as much time as possible, good stage some hairy moments but got away with them
SS11 - Engine wouldn't restart after going slightly off road in too high of a gear and stalled even though the car had no damage
SS12 - Drove on the limit just to see how fast I could go against the guys at the front of the leaderboard and went pretty well
SS13 - Same philosophy as SS12 as I know I wont be scoring points after the two retirements and this time didn't get away with it and had two high speed barrel rolls and couldn't get the engine restarted

A real frustrating event for me as when I pushed and the times were not bad and even when I was not pushing that hard the times were acceptable but silly mistakes forcing retirements that didn't need to happen but snow is my weakest surface and on the gravel and tarmac rallies hopefully there will be a chance to post better times, had the opposite luck from rnd 1 were I had 2 CFH and no retirements to 0 CFH and 3 retirements.

 

[Emil Pribanić]

SS1: Good. Safe driving but fast enough.
SS2: Not my best time but it count`s like good time for me.
SS4: Also not my best but fast enough to give +3,56 to Magnar @ that stage. (For me, like i won championship)
SS5: Going fast....very fast....too fast and roll over few time and when i get back to the road gone in wrong direction....lost a lot of time at th end of the stage.
SS6: Flying over Sikakama to take back some time . +1,29 sec slower then "Magnifico" Magnar. Won championship again
SS7: So..so.
SS8: Something wierd to my wheel in midlle of first left corner...Hit something hard and damage suspension. Car is tough to drive and two stages are left before service...DAMN!!!
SS9: Even with broken suspension im slower then Magnar 3,53 sec. He must be pull over and take a leak somewhwere on stage. I cant be so fast with broken car. If so, i will look for first tree when im out from service.
SS10: Another "FAST" stage time for me.
SS11: Good. Safe to finish.
SS12: Read one line above
SS13:Finish

Very good rally for me. Had two WTF moment, lost some time, but finish in same minute with magnar (three time champion in one rally ) . Good fight with Torbjorn. Wish all luck to all who didnt start yet and see you all next time.
PS: almost forget...tnx to organizers for another great rally...see you...

 

[Robin]

PS: almost forget...tnx to organizers for another great rally...see you...

INDEED! This cannot be stated too many times! A huge thank you to those who spend a lot of time setting this up!
Its all done in a great atmosphere regardless of results of individual drivers! Truely outstanding and a lot of fun!

 

[Torbjørn Withbro]

Had a good run in my first rally in a Ds3 WRC.. only 2 mistakes during rally.. Lacking some speed but had good fun

Thanks to organizers

 

[Norman Bruce]

No retirements or C'sFH, but, from Peklo onwards I kept spinning at various points on all the stages, loosing some valuable time. At Kaihuavaara near the end of the stage there is a medium right, I missed it both runs and somehow managed to go between the trees and escape damage.

 

[Ivan Navarro]

This rally in the snow was really fun for me! I'm starting to get the hang of it a bit more I think. Still more cautious than quick, but my goal is finishes, while hoping for points.

I got off to a poor start by spinning in the first stage and smashing into a trees after completing the stage! I took some damage into the very fast Diamond Creek stage, and the oversteer slowed me down quite a bit. I was happy to get a time posted though after such a stupid mistake to start off the round! After that I had another spin on the first run through Autiovaara when the snow bank grabbed the front tire. Other than those two mistakes, it was not bad, just kind of slow and safe.

Thanks Ole and the rest for organizing this event, congrats to those who've finished their runs, and best of luck to those yet to drive. I'm looking forward to the highlight videos and maybe seeing myself with a point or two!

 

[samekyo]

How did you move gauges to center?

I used WorkerBee's codriver mod.

 

[Michael Nelson]

Just finished running in US2. A very mixed rally for me, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't particularly good either.

Last year here I came in 17th place, which was definitely not a good debut in the WRC class. I think I've improved a lot, and even though Snow isn't my strongest surface, I wanted to push for a good result here. Last time out in Janner I came in 7th, but not too far time-wise behind 4th. I definitely wanted to go fast here to eliminate any thoughts of what if.

LOOP 1
Kaihuavaara went quite well, new PB for this stage. Felt pretty good too. Wasn't entirely on it for Diamond Creek though and lost a bit of time to practice. All in all a not too shabby loop though.

LOOP 2
The Harwood forest stages had proved challenging to me in practice, and likewise here too. I couldn't get into a rhythm at all, and was quite a bit off practice times. Mustaselka was OK, didn't feel great, but it wasn't horrible. So not a great loop, but still not too bad.

LOOP 3
Was slow on Sikakama, well down on practice again. Really struggling to find a rhythm. Karlstad came around though, and that felt very good. Quicker than how practice had gone too, very nice stage to end the loop, and end the feelings of lack-of-rhythmyness (that's a word, right?).

LOOP 4
Only for the second running of Karlstad to begin with disaster. Went a bit crooked over the jump and somehow hit a spectator. Upon watching the replay I conclude that I must have just grazed the side of his jeans, which had been blowing in the wind towards my car. Lost 30s. Tried pushing on Peklo to make up time and found myself having to reverse twice after contacts with trees. Still, no DNF and no damage asides from bodywork, so not as horrible as it could have gone. A bit slower than practice though. Autiovaara went horribly too, with a roll near the end and then went off near the final corner.

LOOP 5
Tried to put loop 4 behind me and focus on driving clean. Kaihuavaara went well, was pretty happy with that. Again, a little bit off the practice pace on Diamond Creek, but it still wasn't horrible. The second running of Autiovaara was a little better than the first, but it really wasn't a great stage still, and on I lacked practice on.

OVERALL
So overall I'm left feeling pretty disappointed. My time is much worse than it could have been, I just can't seem to replicate my practice pace when it comes time for the actual rally. At least it presents some clear goals for next rally.


Good luck to all those yet to run, and a big thanks to Ole and Roy.

 

[Magnar Haarstadsveen]

I had a good rally yesterday. No big mistakes, but i was very lucky on SS3. Early in the stage i hit a bank and nearly rolled the car.........after a loooong time on 2 wheels the car went back down on all 4 wheels.........phhhhhhu!!!! That was close.
And i had a little offroad on SS10 but only lost a few sec there.
I had a very nice and close fight with Emil on many stages, good driving Emil and very fun

Thanks for a very good rally........now i'm loking forward to some hard black stuff to drive on

 

[Jon Grainger]

Just completed my 8:30am rally, was good fun.

Unfortunately I had a small roll in SS1 by the big lake, which meant I lost about 10 seconds, and then resulted in slightly damaged suspension in SS2 which lost me another 5 seconds.

SS3 - SS7 were perfect for me, running quicker than my PB on one stage, and within a second on the others.

SS8 and the second run through Karlstad was going well until I hit a tyre stack on the last corner with the line in sight! Spun me around and broke the radiator, losing me about ten seconds again.

This meant I had overheating light on during Peklo Snow, and 0.5km from the end, the engine cried enough and retired me. I had to skip SS10 because of clicking Repair.

But I got my head together and had three great runs through the end of the rally, SS11,12 & 13 were all personal bests, I didn't roll on SS11 as I did at the start, and really pushed, being ten seconds quicker than my PB in SS11, nine seconds quicker in SS12 and 3 seconds quicker in SS13.

So all in all, a good learning rally. The honeymoon of Janner where I got a podium, probably wont be repeated unless the other RDRC2 runners have BIG problems, but we will see!

Anyway, some photos of the Walk Racing Fiesta from Rally Norway!







Thanks to the organisers, look forward to the results!
Regards
Jon

 

[DrKruntz]

Ok drivers...

I finished this second challenging round too

My race was quite regular, trying to avoid significant damage to the vehicle, avoiding dangerous road cuts and the snow banks.
Despite this, in four stages I had engine shutdown which made me lose a lot of valuable time and earning only very nervousness!
I will have to study well this Skoda Fabia problem to prevent it happening again in the next rounds.
However, I can be satisfied of this approach on the snow to which I am not very accustomed, also because the created setting (trim) it turned out not very guessed.

But everything need to gain experience and to improve for the next round.

I'll see you at the next race... and excuse me for my poor english

 

[Teemu Toikka]

Teemu Toikka - Tesnaukki - EU

Am I doing it right?

 

[Karl Raudsepp]

By rejoining league? Ofcourse

But no need to sign up for each rally any more

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Teemu Toikka - Tesnaukki - EU

Am I doing it right?

Yuuuup!!

But no need to sign up for each rally any more

However, he needs to do it on this rally, as he's not on the entry list

 

[TTupsi]

I had great fun in the OC1 yesterday with my teammate @Aidan Keranen .

1st leg
I took both stages relatively easy and safe. Decent runs through both and the fastest time of our session in SS2 beating two WRCs.

2nd leg
Harwood Forest in usually a good stage for me and I think I got the fastest time on both runs, although I hit a tree on SS3. SS5 was nearly perfect run for me. No issues or mistakes so far, hooray!

3rd leg
Siikakämä is a terrific stage but I have never "got" that stage. I just can't find the rhythm there. OK run there considering it was snowing and in the dark! On Karlstad I was once again fastest. No issues so far and my expectations were getting higher!

4th leg
This leg had the vicious Peklo stage. I had practiced it more than any stage coming to this rally and I actually had a very good run through until... 1,2km before finish I came into a K-right a little too wide, caught a tree with my rear left, spinning me nose-first into another tree. Had to CFH and was stuck in 1st gear for the rest of the stage. On next stage I could switch gears but it seemed like my driveshaft had broken and I could only reach a speed of 70km/h at max. That was my hope of a podium finish crushed.

5th leg
Not much to lose or gain I just enjoyed the stages and got another stage win on SS12. Almost rolled the car on SS13 too.


This is rallying, one tiny mistake can cost dearly. Podium finish will probably be out of my reach but hopefully I can still score some good points and get a few RDRC-2 stage wins.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

This meant I had overheating light on during Peklo Snow, and 0.5km from the end, the engine cried enough and retired me. I had to skip SS10 because of clicking Repair.

Ah! That's where the lack of experience kicks in sadly.
If you retire on a stage. You automagically get a fixed car for the next stage. So you didn't have to skip a stage.

This is a thing we 'never' inform drivers of, as it's very rare that we have guys that new to the plugin.

 

[DrKruntz]

Hi drivers...
I add some pictures of my Skoda Fabia Evo2 Round 2... are my first shots!
And thanks to Jon for the explanation

 

[Emil Pribanić]

Nice ride Cocco