RDRC S9 Round 3 - Rally Argentina (1st March - 7th March 2021)

[SirMull]

Strange... it should be " Unexpected Moments: NO "
But on SS5 one drone was suddenly in air.... as i have understand then this kind of things should not be there if there is no unexpected moments. I actually did lost my concentration because of that and run off.... lucky me i got back on track with no harm to car.... 10 seconds lost alltough

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Strange... it should be " Unexpected Moments: NO "
But on SS5 one drone was suddenly in air.... as i have understand then this kind of things should not be there if there is no unexpected moments. I actually did lost my concentration because of that and run off.... lucky me i got back on track with no harm to car.... 10 seconds lost alltough

I also don't really know how it's programmed; I have also seen the drone in Monte-Carlo. Maybe with the unexpected moments turned on it appears more often, I don't know.

 

[SirMull]

usually it don't disturb me... but in night stage it was strange light what looked like far away in long straight..... this time i kept watching that light because it was unexpected Stupid me :d

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Strange... it should be " Unexpected Moments: NO "
But on SS5 one drone was suddenly in air.... as i have understand then this kind of things should not be there if there is no unexpected moments. I actually did lost my concentration because of that and run off.... lucky me i got back on track with no harm to car.... 10 seconds lost alltough

As far as I know "Unexpected Moments" are retired cars beside the road, random animals etc. The drones are there now and then. I've also seen it in Monte. Didn't see any in Sweden though.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

at least in dr2, these events are really unexpected, whereas in rbr it was always the same stag jumping across the road at the very same spot in one of the japan stages. one could actually figure out if it was a quick run or not depending how far away it was.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Done the final stages and in an eerie replay of my bad luck in Sweden, I again hit sth. - not a bridge but a stone this time - and had to nurse a car with overheating motor back home. I still don't know how I managed to hit that stone, it was on the left side of a small straight. I must have hit a rut, because the lancia suddenly jumped to the left and crashed into that rock head on, flipped over, bonnet gone, tire blown, radiator completely dented, all in one instant. Blam! Like in Sweden, I then lost about 3 min. on the last 3.5 stages and again the car died as I crossed the finish. The weirdest bit: I actually gained positions on leaderboard as others retired, that felt strange.
The last few inches:

 

[David Mann]

I did manage to fall off the road on that right turn just before the bridge

If it's the one I'm thinking of, I've almost gone off there a couple times in practice. Which is weird, because there is yellow tape there, but I think the pace note is a bit late or something.

By the way, I've noticed that there are several inconsistent or misleading pace notes in Argentina. For example, that narrow 3 left, 2 right with the stone wall on the left side is called as a 4 left narrow, 5 right coming the other way. I hit that wall a few times before realizing that the 4 left (which is a blind corner) is really a 2 left!

 

[LynxD]

The rally was going ok, fast and rocky... With a lot of dust on track, but in the night stage, the lights went out, and it was a bit ghosty, and I think that I saw a Chupacabraz somewhere, and that's why I stopped by the ambulance (again), just to check the Tequilla, to stop seeing thinks...
Guys, good luck.

 

[AlleyViper]

It's done. Again in one sitting, which seems a bad idea on this rally as the anticipation starts to wear. Despite no punctures, I'm disappointed by my too many mistakes -- specially on the rally I was most looking forward to!
After resisting the danger of a time trial run on S1, ended spinning on night stages while (sillily) fighting for 2nd place with hrmstealth and kiedry. This made me fall back in both S4 and S5, letting hrmstealth's Stratos flee by 33s.

After the 5th stage, bluespearman's mean green lead and kiedry took a break out of timetables, so I tried to chase hrmstealth's Stratos new leading still on softs. Slowly and steadily in the last rain stages, the 33s gap was reduced to 23-24s by stage 9-10.

By the 11th stage, the final choice of softs bit me in the, erm, middle-rear. I put too much hope on reduced wear in the wet stage + the short nature of the "long" stages. Then started to struggle with grip by mid-stage 11, and lost all time recovered by the second half. Two spins set me back +13s by the end, failing to capitalize on the lead's early stage small mistake.
Facing S12, I was still comfortably away from larst's recovery, but had to further slow the pace to avoid punctures, as an ugly accident+reset+tyre change could quickly deny that -- any hope was lost to catch the NZ Stratos. S12 went without ugly crashes or spins, but a lot of hickups as I was starting to go too wide everywhere and failing to countersteer my way out of trouble. Lost 4 extra seconds to the temporary lead, finally setting me 42s behind.

Again, thanks to all involved, and specially the brave souls that set their times early.

 

[Roy Magnes]

I got to do the first 7 stages of the rally before heading to work today. These are my notes from the stages

ss01 - Soft tyres. Cautious start in the middle of the road

ss02 - Medium tyres. Hit a rock and had to reverse early on. Then I left the road and was lucky not to hit anything, and could get back on only dropping a few swconds...
ss03 - Clean run and an okay time

ss04 - Another clean stage, but a bit too slow and careful.Looks like the softs could have been faster so far in the loop.
ss05 - Left the road on this one too, but only for 4-5 seconds. It was getting really slippery here.

Service - Surprisingly little work to do to the car to get it 100%, very pleased with that.

ss06 - Soft tyres. Again just staying in the middle of the road, propably going too slow and not utilizing the extra grip.
ss07 - Still not feeling all that comfortable with pushing on these stages, so I backed off again and kept it in the middle of the road.

After the first half of the rally I am in a good position for points, even though some of the faster guys still have to race. This event requires precision to navigate all the rocks at a rapid pace, and I feel the Mitsubishi is the proper tool for the job. It is just the driver that lacks the skill level to preform. Looking forward to the last loop of stages!

 

[Andy Oakley]

All done and pretty happy really. Made a bad tyre choice on the night loop with hards which cost me a heap of time and a small off which beached me on a rock on SS10 but other than that a really clean damage free rally somehow! Hopeful of a possible top 10 once everyone has gone through.

 

[SirMull]

Driver with user name MSC69 in class J-RDRC have changed car. Monte and sweden he/she have drive with Open and now Argentina with Ford. That should be against the rules?

 

[AlleyViper]

Driver with user name MSC69 in class J-RDRC have changed car. Monte and sweden he/she have drive with Open and now Argentina with Ford. That should be against the rules?

Please check the sign-up thread (link) for these situations, one car change along the season was allowed as long as acknowledged prior to the start of the rally

 

[Roy Magnes]

Driver with user name MSC69 in class J-RDRC have changed car. Monte and sweden he/she have drive with Open and now Argentina with Ford. That should be against the rules?

Point 5.5 in the rules allow one car change for the season, just like I did myself before this event

 

[Mark Gormley]

And complete! Struggled with the feeling of the car on wet stages but luckily I still seemed to be going fast enough.

Onto the long stint and I decided to go for the softs and consolidate what will hopefully turn out to be a decent finish position rather than take the mediums and have enough meat left to go for power stage glory. For that reason I only took screenshots from the last stage as I wanted to keep going and keep a feel for the tyres rather than taking breaks to watch replays.

I won't miss all these bumps; I didn't know Renault made tumble driers. Who do I send the dentist bill for new fillings to?

Struggled in places to just keep the thing in line with the camber of the road, a lot of snap oversteer at times when the front wheels hooked in:

And very close to disaster with the rock on the inside here:

Overall very pleased with the run as I've managed to compete with some quick guys. Just need to see how far down the M3 horde from Sweden will push me now!

 

[Durodo]

If there is one thing I'm consistent at, then it's ruining my Rally with stupid mistakes that leave me with a badly damaged engine... every Rally this Season has seen me lose my pace with that.

And this one was even more disappointing, given I actually had the pace to fight for some points at least. On SS1 I was merely 5 seconds behind the RDRC-2 leader and on SS3 10 seconds, but sadly those two stages were the only ones with a fully working car.

I suppose I'm at least doing my Colin McRae Subaru all honors by either being fast or demolishing my car!

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Driver with user name MSC69 in class J-RDRC have changed car. Monte and sweden he/she have drive with Open and now Argentina with Ford. That should be against the rules?

Just to give you an answer from one of the crew as well. As Roy and AlleyViper has said, you do get one car-change during the season.

Struggled in places to just keep the thing in line with the camber of the road, a lot of snap oversteer at times when the front wheels hooked in:

Just need to see how far down the M3 horde from Sweden will push me now!

Doesn't help that the road gets more and more ruts during the rally either!

One of the M3 horde won't be beating you this time (me). I really don't like Argentina at all!

I suppose I'm at least doing my Colin McRae Subaru all honors by either being fast or demolishing my car!

Reminds me of my early RBR days, some years before I joined RD. Roy made me a Legacy-colored Impreza. I drove it like McRae drove the Legacy in Finland. However, I drove it like that, everywhere

 

[AlleyViper]

@Mark Gormley ^ /me bows in respect for your very first but plenty fast run on a full powered R5T under treacherous conditions.
The little bugger can be a pain to manage. You get used to some initial understeer on gravel letting you often handbrake gracefully to power steer out keeping the spool, but then the front can bite hard like a Stratos and turn you unexpectedly when forcing initial oversteer. If you get caught by surprise, the turbo might not be there to help counter steer out of trouble.

Also waiting for the Bavarian armada (and hoping for Thomas Lambaerts rocket R5T times to bring them competition too!). Farther from that league, I'm just crossing fingers to save grace with a shy top10 before disaster on wet tarmac follows

 

[Benutzername]

Driver with user name MSC69 in class J-RDRC have changed car. Monte and sweden he/she have drive with Open and now Argentina with Ford. That should be against the rules?

Hello there! Chose the Opel for emotional reasons but seemingly the Ford is a bit stronger, I didnt test beforehand. It felt really good in Argentina.

I had a drone aswell, by the way.

-

STOP THE COUNT! I doubt I'll ever lead my class again.
Always had a good flow in Argentina and the pace i felt quite comfortable. I like gravel in Dirt Rally 2.0 and "flicks/hairpins" so to speak.
Only stage I dont like is Las Juntas and its smaller counterparts. The other direction is fine. Up until Las Juntas 1 it was a nice rally, on that stage i misjudged a corner, hit a rock, flipped a few times and lost a tyre + orientation. Nearly was disqualified as I was lost and somehow couldnt reset. Despite that and the puncture I didnt lose that much time, but the gap to SirMull increased by several seconds. The wet stages were really good though and I could take the provisional lead there, even if the short stage in between wasnt too good and S9 had two small moments, where I hit an edge of a rock and had to reverse. Didnt cost much time as the corners were slow and I could react quickly, still annoying. But I still felt comforable until my enemy, Las Juntas 2. Was really cautious there and felt really slow and uneasy. Somehow the time was still faster than the other guys, no idea how or if they made mistakes there, too.

Anyway, I'm sure some quick guys will show us, whats possible in Argentina. For now, I'm going to bed with a smile on my face. Good feeling after my Monaco desaster and meh-Sweden.

 

[SirMull]

Just to give you an answer from one of the crew as well. As Roy and AlleyViper has said, you do get one car-change during the season.

ouh you are right. I hope he also notice about change before drive as rules say so.
just asking... why this rule have made... usually it’s same car to all season.