We came to our 2nd rally and this is national event again.
So our little car was lost again between cool professional guys.
No problem this time - I put couple stripes on my car so now it looks like rally machine as well ;-)
On the other hand I drove my car over 700 km from home to Merritt without problems, my car has muffler! so actually its luxury car :-)
What is really really good - there is no rain in Merritt!! I can't believe I will be driving on dry gravel! Finally.
H'm, recce shows that some stages here are scary even without rain. Princenton Cutoff Road is very tight, has some rocks and big cliffs. In some places you cannot make any mistake at all. If you move just 50cm from the line, you will need to make new car.
Another possible problem - if my driving or road itself will scary my co-driver, she may lose notes.
Nicola stage is nice and fast but has some places with rocks that can hurt my little car and its difficult for novice co-drivers. If you lose notes here, its hard to find right spot again because all corners look similar, a lot of Left 5 - Right 5 sections. So yes, we were lost and could not find the spot because corners are pretty similar and I could not check odometer (partly because we did not make many marks, partly because its hard to see odometer at night at high speed in shaking car).
We definitely need rally computer...
Comstock South? Its nice and interesting stage with 1 asphalt section but there are some rocks as well.
Dillard, Missezula, Helmer Lake - very nice stages. I love them: no huge rocks, a lot of different corners in various combinations: corners before crests, corners after crests, corners on crests. Nice.
Unfortunately we did not have time for 2 recces on long Helmer Lake stage (23km) and we had to stop sometimes to allow fast cars (that was going these recce 2nd time on higher speed) to pass us. So I am sure we made some mistakes in the notes :-(
Ok, lets roll. Friday evening, we have 5 stages in Nikola and Princenton Cutoff Road and I do not have any intention to push hard on these stages at night. Better I preserve my car for long Saturday race.
So I drove carefully tried to avoid all rocks and cliffs and I think I was right. How many cars had problems within 2 hours? Runamuck Rally team rolled car on its side in front of us, several Subarus had problems as well: damaged tire, broken suspension, etc. Everybody are fine but time was lost and teams need more money to fix cars and that part sometimes is most difficult part in rally.
Saturday. What a nice warm day, good for spectators and for competitors. Now I am ready to push harder on smooth roads. Just need good notes.
Ready to start!
1st stage: Dillard
Flight without problems
Video from Dillard
Missezula:
RRRR... left 5, right 4, left over crest, 50, right 5 over crest into left 5-, 50... NICE! I can do this all day :-)
... right 3.. what "right 3"?? There is some LEFT corner!
While co-driver looking into notes trying to understand what is going on I am entering into Left 5- (or Left 4) and there is that Right 3 on intersection! But its too late.. Brakes! Spin! Where is rear gear in this car?! Ok, just turn aroung and go, go!
Go, go! Then she finally found correct notes and we drove a little bit faster and much more safer.
Wow, that was exciting, again.
Actually it was so exciting that my co-driver wrote a poem and read it instead of pace notes ;-)
See below
Actually it was so exciting that my co-driver wrote a poem and read it instead of pace notes ;-)
See below
Again we saw triangle, slowed down, made sure racers are Ok and go to the finish. 2 cars slipped off the road and hill on the same corner. One car cut the tree and this tree fell on another car. Cars are significantly damaged, drivers and co-drivers are fine.
2nd time: Dillard.
I checked tire pressure between Dillard and Missezula stages - shit, we have leak. I changed tire between stages, put spare Pirelli while other my tires are Yokohama and went to the stage. Everything looks fine until car reaches about 100 km/h, then left Pirelli tire pushes car to right, twists it harder when we go faster. Why?? Its supposed to be the same size. Ok, go, go!! Everything was fine until I slide more wide than usual in tight corner and said magic phrase "shit, shit, shit" while trying to keep control. Of course, co-driver was interested what is going on and lost notes again :-)
Done, finished stage and may be not bad because I see previous car in stop zone.
Video from Missezula
1st service: today we have a service crew and friends with tea. Nice :-)
So we are changing all tires to Pirelli and checking if everything is Ok with the car. Yes, its fine.
Crazy Leo helped me again. I wanted to adjust my strut settings and I thought I should make them harder on smooth gravel roads while using softer settings for rough stages and very slippery stages like snow and ice. But Leo said I should use softer settings for smooth gravel roads as well. I did, and it works! Probably I need to softer rear struts a little bit more and harden front struts a little bit back.
Comstock. I did not push hard on this stage because of some rocks however I missed that invisible R1 corner and I missed it twice. I heard correct notes but you can't see this intersection even if you stop right there because connecting road comes from sharp downhill.
AMR. Very short spectator stage with very slippery gravel mixed with sand and some rocks that come from nowhere (previous cars just dig them out and place on middle of the road). And I stopped here 10 meters before finish! Because car shook during recce and notes were not readable on last corner before finish. Left or righ? There was an intersection right before finish and I was not sure which way to go. Shit :-(
Finally: Helmer. Very nice long stage but we do not have very good notes here, just 1 pass on recce. Yes, notes were lost again despite pretty distinctive 3 Left3 corners. But we drove well here, probably got close to previous car when finally found notes and drove in clouds of dust.
Results: 10th place.
I drove slowly on Comstock tried to preserve car on rocky stages, I drove without notes some sections on most of stages, I stopped 10 meters before finish on AMR (because was not sure which way to go), I span twice but somehow we got 10th place in regional! I was gentle to the car and it brought us to the finish and then home :-)
BTW: My best times were on Helmer1 and Helmer2 where we drove in dust. On Helmer1 we drove without notes for about 5km (see video) but we still had 10th time. On Helmer2 I stopped right on spectators section because some spectator turned powerful lamp on and I thought this is car in front of me span or had an accident. Then we drove without maps for about 3 km, then we got closer to another car and was sliding through corners in dust. Sometimes I have not seen anything and drove on notes only! That's when I felt I was not real rally driver until now (interesting what I would think after my 10th rally?). Then I made mistake and spin. But despite all this we set 8th best time on this stage!
So we are changing all tires to Pirelli and checking if everything is Ok with the car. Yes, its fine.
Crazy Leo helped me again. I wanted to adjust my strut settings and I thought I should make them harder on smooth gravel roads while using softer settings for rough stages and very slippery stages like snow and ice. But Leo said I should use softer settings for smooth gravel roads as well. I did, and it works! Probably I need to softer rear struts a little bit more and harden front struts a little bit back.
BTW there is Crazy Leo blog: http://crazyleo.net/
Comstock. I did not push hard on this stage because of some rocks however I missed that invisible R1 corner and I missed it twice. I heard correct notes but you can't see this intersection even if you stop right there because connecting road comes from sharp downhill.
AMR. Very short spectator stage with very slippery gravel mixed with sand and some rocks that come from nowhere (previous cars just dig them out and place on middle of the road). And I stopped here 10 meters before finish! Because car shook during recce and notes were not readable on last corner before finish. Left or righ? There was an intersection right before finish and I was not sure which way to go. Shit :-(
Finally: Helmer. Very nice long stage but we do not have very good notes here, just 1 pass on recce. Yes, notes were lost again despite pretty distinctive 3 Left3 corners. But we drove well here, probably got close to previous car when finally found notes and drove in clouds of dust.
(c) Thumphoto
1st pass on Helmer - dust and sun
2nd pass - dust and high beam lights
No visibility in the corners? This is rallying!
(www.rallysport.ca)
Results: 10th place.
I drove slowly on Comstock tried to preserve car on rocky stages, I drove without notes some sections on most of stages, I stopped 10 meters before finish on AMR (because was not sure which way to go), I span twice but somehow we got 10th place in regional! I was gentle to the car and it brought us to the finish and then home :-)
Video: SS15 - Helmer
BTW: My best times were on Helmer1 and Helmer2 where we drove in dust. On Helmer1 we drove without notes for about 5km (see video) but we still had 10th time. On Helmer2 I stopped right on spectators section because some spectator turned powerful lamp on and I thought this is car in front of me span or had an accident. Then we drove without maps for about 3 km, then we got closer to another car and was sliding through corners in dust. Sometimes I have not seen anything and drove on notes only! That's when I felt I was not real rally driver until now (interesting what I would think after my 10th rally?). Then I made mistake and spin. But despite all this we set 8th best time on this stage!
Crazy Leo got 3rd place in national, driving last 2 stages damaged car. Cool!
Thanks to friends and spectators for nice pictures :-)
Short video from congealedmeat (SS10-Missezula)
Not related to this rally but IMHO the best rally tribute video
Poem from co-driver
(sorry, cannot translate it well)
Поворот, поворот
И опять по газам
Шум в заносе колес, рев мотора
Поворот не дает отдохнуть тормозам
Ну а я посылаю хвалу небесам
(и это вместо того чтоб читать легенду! прим. драйвера)
И опять поворот
И опять по газам
В клубе пыли призрак дороги
Ты несешься вперед не зная что там
Я сжимаюсь в комок алегорий
И опять поворот
И опять по газам
И опять нецензурное слово
(а шо делать?! прим. драйвера)
Камень, слева обрыв
Но ты держишь штурвал
И тебе покорилась дорога
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