RDRC S7 Round 4 - Rally Finland (3rd - 5th May 2015)

Daniel Monteiro · May 4, 2015

Finland was nice and forgiving this season - given the amount of crashes and rolls during this rally i still managed to finish all stages.

Started off with no feeling, being too cautious because of little practice for this event, and as we all know that is a bad approach. That meant getting stuck in a ditch, and rolling out on a field to the right when the co-driver actually said left... uops, time to wake up

After a slightly originally improvised last junction on Kaihuavaara II, disaster (or good luck?) struck in Ouninpohja: after 1 or 2 km i managed to just understeer that annoying bit too much in a slow right corner and when i hit a tree, the clutch got damaged; that meant almost always full throttle on 6th gear for the rest of the loop, which maybe was a good thing since the lower speed probably saved me from crashing altogether

Then the rally ended with hitting a stone or two and losing 10-15 seconds on each of the last stages, but coming to the end with no calls for help was already more than satisfying.

When thinking about the top drivers, who surely drove their socks off here, i can't help but to look forward to the highlights of this rally, to see how they fly from jump to jump. Great stages guys, definitely a ballsy itinerary! Respect to the brave

EDIT: @Magnus Lindgren you definitely got a time registered, but the master of Ouninpohja tonight was (by a hefty margin) Sam MacDonald!

Karl Raudsepp · May 4, 2015

Prologue and my stage end comments.

SS1 - Good stage, good beginning of the rally, feeling great.
SS2 - Had really-really bad moment in the middle of the stage - crashed into of some little but though trees. Radiator broken, engine overheating. Managed to nurse car in the end of the stage. I hope I can finish next stage and make it back to service.
SS3 - Yay, that's one tough Citroen I gotta say. Took this stage quite careful, not only because my engine was overheating, but nature of this stage is cruel.

SS4 - Probably my favorite stage of this rally. Enjoyed every crest and corner here!
SS5 - All okay, no drama.
SS6 - One driving error in the middle of the stage yet again, but car is okay. Pace and feeling is great, but hardest part is still ahead.

SS7 - I like gravel more on those original finnish stages. I hope I don't have too much confidence before Ouninpohja...But oh well, let's see.
SS8 - Took steady approach, no drama untill last 3-4 km, where I managed to hit some trees yet again. I guess suspension and stuff is okay, but radiator is broken once again...
@Sam McDonald was flying over here, nice time! @Magnus Lindgren Yup, you're also showing up in my timing for this stage.
SS9 - Luckily it was short stage, so my tough Citroen's engine didn't die completely. Also had one nasty moment with huge slide, so I guess I've had tons of luck so far...

SS10 - Really potato pacenotes over here. I wonder why I'm missing 2nd split time on this stage. I will add HTML/CSV times with my replays anyway if that helps.
SS11 - Only stage where I didn't use default setup - I changed final gear to longer one. Seems like good time however.

Good stages this time, I guess it really expressed nature of Rally Finland. Can I run WRC car tomorrow?

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 5, 2015

Łukasz Demolin said:
Well, that was brief. Went trough SS1, and then everything simply crashed. A pity, I liked the stage choice and there is not a snowball's chance in hell I'm gonna race tomorrow

Ah well, better luck next time!

Well, better luck at your... uhm, closest to home rally next time then!

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 5, 2015

Karl Raudsepp said:
Good stages this time, I guess it really expressed nature of Rally Finland. Can I run WRC car tomorrow?

Yes you can!

Michael Nelson · May 5, 2015

Ran this rally last night in OC2. Didn't get much time to practice during the week leading up to it. Managed to test all the BTB stages a couple of times including Ouninpohja.

Rally start and I was pretty tense for some reason, but then at the jump into medium right near the midpoint of the stage I took a really wrong trajectory, was airbourne for quite awhile heading to the side of the road contemplating my error... somehow managed to save it (without too much drama even), and considered my rally kind of a free ticket from that point on and relaxed a little.

Loch Ard was nice (I thought it was reverse first so had a bit of confusion on the start line

). SS3 was very laggy for me, although the second time in practice it was OK. A bit slower than practice hence, but not too bad.

SS4-SS6 were all OK, a bit slow on Loch Ard II, I only practiced it once. SS5 felt quite nice though, asides from a small error near the end.

SS7 was OK, I more took it as a chance to get into the right mindset for Ouninpohja.

Ouninpohja went quite poorly, though not horrific. I made it through cleanly, but for some reason I was way off my practice pace (~30s!) , and I don't understand why.

The rest all went fine, SS10 has some pretty horrible pacenotes, including a 6th/5th gear kay turn in the beginning. The stage itself is quite nice otherwise though. Like Karl I have a missing second split.

So overall I'm a bit annoyed at my pace discrepancy between practice and rally. I suppose that's sort of a nice place to be at though, now I worry more about my pace than about crashing, so I guess I've improved a lot since last year.

I definitely have to thank my teammate for all his help as well.

Really looking forward to the next two rallyes, where I'll focus on sorting out the pace discrepancy.

Good luck to anyone yet to run.

function9 · May 5, 2015

Thank you to the organizers. Didn't have any problem on the stages, except for a few small moments and a handful of seconds. Biggest problem was I had no setups for BTB tracks. I tested Ouninpohja so much and didn't even get to use the setup, lol.

After I closed out RSCenter I saw a A8W-09_Normal folder was created, I guess they go in there for BTB stages online, figured they'd just load from the A8W-09_BTB folder. Oh well, still had fun.

Thanks again!

asteroulis · May 5, 2015

Shouldnt it be open right now?

Karl Raudsepp · May 5, 2015

asteroulis said:
Shouldnt it be open right now?

OC3 session? It starts in 50 minutes.

asteroulis · May 5, 2015

Thanks.I thought it was 9.30 gmt +2hrs but its +3 because of EEST

DrKruntz · May 5, 2015

Uff... a great hard work and sweating for this 4 Round...!

(Work problems forced me to compete for this round in OC3 session instead of in the EU3 session...).
The race was very intense and difficult on slippery Finland roads.
I managed to achieve my purpose... conclude without major damage all stages, including the tremendous and endless Ouninpohja, an eighth round really long and stressful

A real shame my faults on all three Humalamaki and Humalamaki Reverse stages, a track that I can not seem strangely to digest and where very often I alternately stunning performance at disastrous sessions as in this case... even if luck helped me and the engine, although damaged, has allowed me to conclude the stages though with high times chronos!

However, I think can be satisfied also this time.
I regret only one thing... unfortunately the next 5 Round I can not participate because I will be overseas for family commitments.
Well... Greetings to all and see you at 6 Round so.

Jon Grainger · May 5, 2015

Looking forward to tonight's rally! Read all about it on our website,

http://walkracing.com/racedepartment-rally-finland-pre-rally-report/

Norbert Leitner · May 5, 2015

I had no time to practice for this rally so i don't expect too much. I hope i can made it through the end without a DNF. I fear from the 30km stage

Robin · May 5, 2015

I wont be driving this round. My babygirl has just been born! So my priorities are elsewhere at this point. I'll be back soon!

Torbjørn Withbro · May 5, 2015

Robin said:
I wont be driving this round. My babygirl has just been born! So my priorities are elsewhere at this point. I'll be back soon!

Congratulations

Take care of the soon to become simracer

Those small "critters" takes time. Believe me

I got two of those small "critters" soon to become simracers/rallydrivers

Tomas Reinicke · May 5, 2015

Manged to survive Ouninpohja but to many DNF on other stages :-(
But still fun to jump all over the place!

Thanks to the organizers

Norbert Leitner · May 5, 2015

I had 3 stage retires sadly, no perfect stage, but survived Ouninpohja from the first try, woohoo!

I won't be in a point scorer position like last rounds for sure.

Magnar Haarstadsveen · May 5, 2015

I drive tonight also for fun and some practise in my Golf TDI that I use in the American rally championship. It was not a good night, a lot of mistakes and crashes, but also some good stages.

Thanks for a fun evening

Sam McDonald · May 5, 2015

Well last nights EU session was an experience, tried a few new things out in terms of technique and practice and learnt a lot for future rounds.
SS1 - Good stage and clean most importantly for myself for a good beginning of the rally.
SS2 - Oh dear, Loch Ard a stage I like to drive but it always bites back and causes me problems, engine started overheating couple of kilometers near the end and thought my first retirement was around the corner
SS3 - My good old Fiesta survived and I drove it like a madman trying to get it to the end as fast as I could so it couldn't pack up on me and before I got to service
SS4 - After the time loss of SS2 I got some back on everyone apart from Karl on SS3 & 4 good stage
SS5 - Carried on the momentum I got from the previous stages and got some more time back on everyone apart from Karl, he was just to fast for me
SS6 - Starting to hate Loch Ard, though i had learnt my lesson from SS2 and tried to take easier but made more mistakes and undid all my good work of the previous 3 stages

SS7 - Drove really safely just trying to get the car into Ouninpohja with no problems so i could at least give it a shot and put in a good time.
SS8 - Ouninpohja, there are no words to describe that stage, its just insane in every way possible, had a really good first 10km and was up on my own best split and thought great lets keep on pushing, still quicker at the second split and knew i had to slow down for the final 8Km because it is so technical and requires really precise driving, ended up with a really good time and 4secs off my own best time that was done in a WRC focus
SS9 - After SS8 and its insanity, I never really got back into the rhythm and just made really silly mistakes that I didn't do in the first run through

SS10 - Same problem as SS9 and just threw away time for over excitement of previous stages, but wasn't helped by the shocking notes for that stage, i thought Nicky Grist was trying to kill me halfway through.
SS11 - Again same problem, couldn't bring myself under control and threw away more time when I didn't need to.
Great event and Finland always bring surprises and who doesn't love to make rally cars jump through the air while flat out

Jon Grainger · May 5, 2015

I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous going into this rally! After a good result in Alsace, I wanted to keep the pace going in Finland, but knew it would be super difficult as loose surfaces are not a strong suit with my driving style. My default is to keep the car on rails on not slide around, no doubt caused by a sim career made up almost entirely on tarmac racing. So I'd be practicing hard before I knew the stages to get used to this style of driving.

Unfortunately the stages I practiced on, didn't rear the head in this rally! Typical

. However I managed to get a few days of practice going in, along with a productive test last night with my great teammate @Mark Johnston, who as always was a big help. It was good to be able to race on the same server and chat on TS between stages, and his pace was phenomenal!

I had a small spin on SS1 near the end, and set two PB's through Loch Ard and Myttaala Sprint, which put me six seconds behind Mark on the server, in second place.

Painaa and Sikakama were good clean stages for me, but not pace wise, as I lost a massive thirty seconds to Mark, who was just on another planet tonight! Had a good battle with @Ole Marius Myrvold though, until he retired.

Loch Ard 2 was another good run on a stage I'd really struggled with in practice, and was starting to feel a little more relaxed, with a PB by 8 seconds Painaa and finding a second on my PB in Loch Ard 2.

Leg 3 was always going to be tough, so I took it easy on Kaihuavaara 2, loosing half a second on my PB. And then came the daunting Ouninpohja! I kept it nice and clean for the start, but having never made it to the end (crashed etc) I didn't know the last 5km's at all. This resulted in three mistakes on three corners, just suffering with worn tyres and tighter than expected turns. The Walk Fiesta was smoking a little, and still did a 18mins 19 sec through here, not great but not appaling.

The car held together for me in Humalamaki R, before the final two stages, which were without a hitch, winning SS10 by four seconds overall which was a bonus.

Here are a few screenshots I thought you might enjoy

Thanks as always to the organisers and also my great teammate Mark, and all my team for their support. See you for the Barum Rally, one week before my wedding, so lets see how we get on

.