RDRC S8 Round 4 - Rally Finland (27th March - 2nd April 2017)

[Eckhart von Glan]

well, that's settled then ...

so far about 175 chaps have tackled stage01 and with 3 hours remaining only 85 have finished the event. Seems like the volatile mix of jumps and trees proved even more terminal than the cliffs dropping off in Monte Carlo.

 

[UMC 22]

Hahaha... I feel honoured that one of my photos made it into this edition of the magazine! Not my most flattering moment, but hey, any publicity is good publicity, right?

Unfortunately, I totally forgot that it was Finland this week... until about five minutes ago. I've had a very long day so far, and now have 160km of rallying to do before midnight. Oh dear... this isn't going to end well.

 

[Roy Magnes]

I just did my run on the rally with my Peugeot 306 Kit Car:

Leg 1:
SS01 - Slow start, I don't want to destroy the car on the very first stage of the rally.
SS02 - Felt a bit better, a bit more "fluent" style of driving on this one.
SS03 - I am still confused with the "3" corners that can be taken in anything from 2nd to 5th gear, got caugt out in one that was to be taken in 2nd...

SS04 - Unconcentrated and messy driving, but the time is not all bad
SS05 - Keeping it at the middle of the road, seems to be a good strategy so far.
SS06 - Landed heavily after a jump and damaged the radiator, but otherwise the car is in okay shape. Can't repair it 100% on the service, though...

Leg 2:
SS07 - "Keep middle" he said, but that is not easy when the wheels barely touch the ground over all the crests...
SS08 - This one felt better, did actually keep the car in the middle this time
SS09 - Calm and steady, though I was off the road sideways without hitting anything at one point.
SS10 - Dropped some time as I was braking a lot before each jump, trying to save the radiator.

SS11 - Pushed a bit, felt okay.
SS12 - I am slow enough in daylight, and was even more cautious here in the dark. And then we'll have a long stage!
SS13 - Not bad at all, concidering that I was braking A LOT before everything that looked like a jump of some size

SS14 - The stage itself was okay, I'm just worried about the damage inflicted by the finish-marking barrel...
SS15 - Decided to push a bit on this one, and the time was indeed better.
SS16 - Pushed a bit on this one too, the car feels sharp and still easy to drive fast
SS17 - The final push, and the stage I was the closest to the leading driver in the whole rally. I think it should be enough to be faster than sta8or in the end.

For once I did manage to have a rally without any of those big mistakes that leaves you running half the rally with a bent and wrecked car, so that is a step in the right direction. The pace on the other hand...
This was together with Monte Carlo propably the event on the callendar I would struggle the most with, so safing through and scoring points is absolutely the best way to do it. Looking forward to the next round!

 

[Neilski]

Well, I finished. Currently 37th in PC league, with a buttload of lower classes in front of me (again!), so not exactly a glorious run.
But my test run ended with a broken driveshaft on SS17 (!) after serious damage and engine + rad warning lights showing basically continuously after SS3, so I had decided it was necessary to... reduce the damage somehow. Slowing down before the biggest jumps (and jacking the front ride height to the max) was about all I did, but I think I overdid it a little since only the engine warning light was on at the very end, and even that only came on during SS16 On the upside, the car was in such great shape that I was able to push really hard on SS17 and was only about 7 seconds off the best time (well, so the GUI said but I think it lies now and then).
Still, I have no idea - really no idea - how the fast people kept their cars in one piece. Given that I can't match their times though, even when I don't care about making the car last, I guess I'm just totally outclassed.
I think this will be the rally with the biggest spread of times over the top 20 or so (and most DNFs?).
Roll on Germany - still very much looking like my last feeble hope of another point

Edit: OMFG, I just realised I'm on holiday for all but the last couple of days of Rally Germany

 

[Krister Johansson]

..........Kent Johansson (sorry if I've got your 1st name wrong...)...

It's ok

 

[toxaq]

No Oculus problems this time! Plenty of trees instead though. Excited to have finished, considering I collected an inside pole at speed at the end of Kailajarvi. I've never lost my lights after landing a jump before though, meant the 16km stage was done in the dark

 

[pigloaf]

well, that's settled then ...
so far about 175 chaps have tackled stage01 and with 3 hours remaining only 85 have finished the event. Seems like the volatile mix of jumps and trees proved even more terminal than the cliffs dropping off in Monte Carlo.

So gutted I didn't finish!!! would have banked season best points even with the average pace I was showing

 

[toxaq]

So gutted I didn't finish!!! would have banked season best points even with the average pace I was showing

One day all of ERT NZ will finish a rally together

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

Ugh, I haven't completed a single stage yet, and had a bit wild weekend (so wild that I had to skip rdlms lol) so not sure if I can complete it in time. :S
E: About 10 mins later:

ppffft We don't need no stinking wheels!

 

[UMC 22]

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words...

And so ended my rally in Finland! To be honest, my car was so damaged after SS3 that I was amazed I made it as far as I did... radiator gone, wheels knackered, suspension wrecked, engine making all manner of weird noises. The above happened on SS8, at least four stages farther on than expected! The search for at least a single point in the RDRC continues...

ppffft We don't need no stinking wheels!

Apparently you need at least three... I only had two after the above crash!

 

[Howard Jacks]

Sorry everyone last 2 events for me have just been turn up and race at the weekend, a bit of being busy in the week and a Medieval 2 Total War addiction. I finished both this week and Sweden just fine.

This week knowing how many times I have destroyed cars with trees here in the daily, weekly and monthly events and how Ford never intended the Escort to fly (You really need a rudder and ailerons here) I tried to take it a bit gently thinking that a constant 80-90% is better than flat out and having lots of starting and stopping. What actually happened was one quite smooth role, and the hitting the trees were less of a dead stop shunt and more of just brushing off and carrying on!

I achieved 3 of my 4 goals, no punctures, no hitting the badly positioned advertising signs, no hitting postboxes but I did finish with a broken screen. The general wear and mileage damage meant it didn't get fixed. It was quite shocking been 18th or so after the first couple of stages but attrition meant I was 5th out of about 8 when I finished!

Anyway I am looking forward to the next one!

 

[Webbcar]

Had a great run in Finland. One huge spin missing everything! And really enjoying the jumps. The ERT NZ colours I think is worth about 1sec a km . Thanks for making this championship so much fun.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Phew! I made it! I actually made it!!!
I didn't think I would manage after the long day of RDLMS, but I did!

Default setup isn't made for pushing at all on jumps. The front end bounces like crazy after I land. Here on the last stage. I agree that the skies are pretty, but I would prefer to see the road!

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Provisional Results are out. List of missing RaceNet name will come later on, however, if you spot your name as "Unrecognized RaceNet" on the results, please tell us ASAP!

Click here for the provisional results.

 

[toxaq]

Well I got one of my two goals for this season in this rally, two top 10 class stage times but missed out on a top 10 overall finish by 10 seconds... Curse that lamp post! Thanks Ole (and team?) for your amazing work. Now to learn Germany...

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

Wow, 9th place man I'm amazing
Thank you

 

[Sherwin van der Sloot]

I am very frustrated... Not at this series (obviously), but surrounding circumstances.

I had a good start to the rally as I never dropped outside the top30, which for someone like me is a miracle. Unfortunately during the RDLMS this Saturday, my PC threw a major fit (which cost us over 20 laps, but that's another story) and yesterday my PC "gave the ghost" completely it seems, as it takes 15 minutes to boot up, and everything is agonizingly slow .

I looked most forward to Monte Carlo (which I missed due to moving/internet issues) and Finland... Dammit

Well done to everyone who finished and is still going strong in this championship

 

[PresidentSmug]

Wow can't believe i held on to second. Here's my rally, the rise and fall lol.

 

[Gaudin]

I'm pretty surprised finishing 1st in the -4wd class!

Day 1 I was very cautious, but confident - did some testing beforehand, and keeping the car near 90-100% was my top priority - the 1995 Subaru gets really wonky if too much damage is done, especially the suspensions (it can take a surprisingly high amount of damage overall and still runs, but anything than comfortable).
I always repair the suspensions first, and if possible to 100%, otherwise the car becomes more like a raging bull, buckling and jumping all over the place.

Day 2 was more fluent and confident, got in a real flow, zoned out and just tried to concentrate and not make any big mistakes (no real crashes on Day 1 or 2), so happy with the state of the car.

Day 3, it was time for a little more effort, but still with the goal to finish in a car that's recognizable as such
Did not check the leaderboard till SS17, 10sec behind localboy Juho Luomala was the verdict before the start.
I had a clean relatively smooth run on the last stage, not much hope to make up the time. But Juho must have had a massive crash or puncture, being 10sec behind at the start, I finished 24 sec in front of him, what a surprise!

Sorry for that, Juho led the Rally during pretty much the whole 3 days I think and deserved to win, it's a bit like Tänak last year in Poland.

Thanks again for a brilliant event, top organization, top competition, top everything!

ps: I'm RUBBISH in Germany, but still, looking forward to it (now I have to find setup that's faster than the one I currently have and start practicing!)

pps: sorry no screenshots, in VR I always forget to take them (it's a bit of a fuzz...)

 

[Vasilis Katerinakis]

Well i guess it is time to say how my rally went..
Of course with me singing up on friday and then get accepted into the racenet league, which probably happend sometime between saturday night and sunday morning when i was sleeping, ment that i didn't have time to do a good setup. Making a costly mistake on SS1 didn't make things any easier as my engine temperature was going up. SS2 & SS3 were fairly ok with minor mistakes at SS2 without taking much damage. When we came to the first night stage i had a major crash which broke my headlights and i had a puncture. To add on top of that i had another crash on the same stage and another puncture. All of that made that stage 11+ minutes. Then the rally went downhill. Hit a pole radiator was gone then i repaired hit another pole it was gone again, got a puncture and then on SS8 my engine blew up. Yep pretty chaotic but it was fun while it lasted.
From what i see next rally is at Germany which i look forward to and hope to finish it even if at last place. Thanks for the organisers for organising such an awesome event and for the drivers for the good competition.