O.K start to the season for me, had a blast on the Finland stages (not my favorite normally) , must say some really nice stages in this rally
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SS1: Forgot to load 'cam hack!'
, caused a shaky start, was trying to find grip levels and brake limits before 'blue barrels', a bit untidy in some sections, but glad to get first stage clean, good confidence booster, small off at the 'medium left (tricky) near the corn fields.
SS2: Memory still not working, no cam hack again? doh!
(default cockpit is view is a bit cramped for me)
clean run overall, feeling better about the rally.
SS3: Finally cam hack! is on, first half clean until i hit a spectator on a med left, then had to use reverse later on, recovered o.k continued to end, might cost me +30(+) sec to leader. Glad that's out of the way!
SS4: Rolled three times on the first corner (med right, downhill)
motor stalled, motor restarted after 3 attempts, about +20sec, no major damage just smashed front window, stayed on cockpit view (horrible), told the co-pilot to buckle-up it's gonna get rough! pushed hard for the rest of the stage to make time finished ok.
SS5: Clean run, just a small spin, quick rev, continued to finish +3 sec.
SS6: Some untidy bits, car behaving nicely, clean run good!
SS7: mostly clean, some really nasty bits on this stage, awesome if you get it right. Was very close to a dnf, had my right rear wheel hanging over the cliff for about 20 meters while in a high speed drift (fast right), rammed it into 2nd and just prayed i didn't spin-out or go over, the brakes saved me. Finished o.k.
SS8: Some snow bank riding, not much else.. pleased night stages finished.
SS9: Feeling better about the car, opened-up the throttle a lot more, clean run
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SS10: Drove it like i stole it, a bit of advice i got from Mark J:good:
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SS11: more of the same.
SS12: No damage, clean run again, phew it's over
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I was meant to be in the OC3 session, gate crashed OC4 instead. Normally i take my time but i rushed the stages so i'm not sure how the rest OC4 did, had one good battle with Warren, early on. Will wait for the results.
Congrats to the podium and everyone else for turning up, thanks to the RDRC team for organising.