That's how rally car looks from below
Are we really ready? No time to test and adjust struts? No service crew? Just 1 spare tire?
Who cares.. what is important - red suit looks nice with white car ;-)
3 short Friday stages was easy task. Well, co-driver lost on 1st stage. I told her - I will drive faster on rally stages than on public roads, you better be ready for this. Co-driver on 2nd and 3rd stages was better but road became more slippery because of rain that helps to transform gravel road into mud. Looks like gravel tires does not work on mud, well everybody told me this before.
Lets hope it will be more dry road on long Saturday stages...Yeah, right! When we came to service area there was some clean grass (its May 29) but according to information from other drivers there are 30cm or more snow on the stages. Mud covered with snow? I hate this.
May 29, 2010
BTW: Where is my crew?? Its turned out they went to stages instead of service area, yes I know they want to be rally drivers as well but I need my tires!
Ok, crew arrived 10 minutes before my check-in time on 1st stage. What to do with tires? Put some mud or snow tires? What is the difference if we have neither?!
Fortunately I met Crazy Leo, he said - there is Yokohama trailer right here, they sell and mount tires, take snow tires, don't use gravel! Ok, $1,000 more or less, anyway I already spent a lot.
Ok, there are just minutes to start, I am sitting in the car, buckled up, helmet on, wired, engine started while crew changing tires.
Car dropped on the ground and I went the same second! Is this Formula 1?
Rally.. well I spoke too much to co-driver arguing about readings and lost track on 1st stage. Lost truck just a little bit and then lost about 8 minutes in deep snow. Co-driver could not open door so I gave triangle to marshal, rope to spectators and tried to dig snow by myself. Thank to spectators and marshals and co-driver that lost polished fingernails trying to pull the car.!
No, this is another corner on this picture. But I missed it a little bit as well :-(
Due to a lot of snow rally organizers had to change route and make 1 stage from pieces of 2 other stages, we forgot to add 1 extra "right 2" before rally (remember tires), then we did not add this corner because I was driving without intercom and only on 3rd pass we had this corner in place.
Then I jump in the car and go but I did not connect intercom to my helmet thinking I can do this on the way. But I could not find that wire for a minute driving slowly through corners. So I gave up and drove like crazy hearing just some notes from co-driver that screamed trying to reach me thru helmet. Almost went off road 3 or 4 times while co-driver lost her voice at the end of stage. That's was fun!
snow and mud, mud and snow
1st service. No, I am not saying something like - lets increase bound in front struts and decrease rebound in rear struts. I don't know what to do with my struts yet. Need to read some books before.
I just saying how its amazing and how crazy to drive on snow over mud. How we get out of deep snow. How much better I feel car on new struts when its driving 120km/h in ruts...
\Quick check between stages. Snacks and tea. Well, may be it was too much after sleepless night. 1st stage after service I was driving slowly, just wanted to sleep.
It was pretty difficult but relatively slow rally. Recce was made several days ago on dry road and now some notes do not make any sense, snowfall changed everything. There is no sense to "keep right" or "keep left" anymore, choose trajectory and so on. You just drive in track, muddy track in deep snow and trying not to lose this track. When you loose it just a little bit, car hits snow and tries to go sideways so you push it back into track.
I don't have any idea how RWD cars (there are some Toyotas) are driving is this condition but they are driving and driving fast. I think its more easy to drive FWD here however FWD Golfs were out of road several times as well.
Amazingly, every car finished this rally! Some with minor damage. While 2(?) years ago 11 cars did not finish (it was rainy but no snow that time)
We took 12th place (20 cars in regional class). If not that stupid simple mistake on 1st stage and a lot of time lost in deep snow, we could be in top 10. That's rally - if you want to be faster, don't make any mistakes.
But it does not matter now. We did this! We finished our 1st rally despite crazy road conditions. Am I a real rally driver now? Sure! At least I feel like real rally driver, I drove over crests and blind corners sometimes 120 km/h listening to notes. I am almost cool as Sebastien Loeb ;-) Ha, ha.
Thanks to the team and co-driver who pushed me to complete my dream!
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