Round 1 review
Welcome back with our monthly press! Today, we take you trough the cold Round 1 on the Scandinavian peninsula, this time in Norway. Where else would be opening event that grandiose?
Opening ceremonial was held in Christiania Torv - old square in Oslo. Every driver supposed to participate in this season arrived, and not only them. It was phenomenal
Sebastien Levret, two times champion himself who stood side by side with crews on the start ramp. In the end of the day, he was invited to take a part in shakedown in his "old" Citroen C4. "
It is good to see him again," said
Jakub Sulej, two times vice champion. "
Yes, we are in contact, but watching him staying around stages as spectator is not just right. I was glad he could sit in it again." Sadly,
Sebastien didn't win. It was
Jakub who made fastest time. "
Unsatisfied? That's how I should feel?"
Seb laughed. "
No. We haven't prepared our car as much as Jakub and other drivers. We are aiming to next season and it takes time to set everything right. I am here because of my fans and other visitors, not because of win." He finished on fourth place, behind
Rick Bamford and
Warren Dawes.
But nothing is just how it seems to be. Tyre choose was very demanding, because fresh snow from Thursday changed into brown slippery mud during Friday and times from shakedown now meant nothing. First stages were dominated by
Jakub Sulej, leaving everyone in snow spray behind. Everything went well until stage n°3, where he made a mistake. He was fast too much in one tough turn and rolled onto hidden strain breaking cooler. He was able to finish the stage, but with huge loss he immediately dropped down in the field. In first servis time, mechanics fixed the damage, but
Jakub pushed very hard to minimize the gap and made another mistake. At that moment, second servis was far away and he had full hands of work to get there.
But how its known, one cries and another laughs. Thanks to this,
Mark Birney appeared in the lead, with
Tor Anders Berven close behind. When dark has fallen, their time difference wasn't bigger than few seconds. But
Mark sticked with bad tyres and crashed, losing a lot of time. Even other WRC cars were struggling on mud unlike production cars, such as S2000, which were dominant. There for the first time of the rally got quick and light cars into fights for podium.
Tor was first after
Mark's flat out, but
Simone Demi with
Warren Dawes weren't far behind. But
Tor hit retarder and was penalized for it. Due to this,
Warren was in the lead with
Simone behind!
Last servis was shorter compared to the rest, so if someone decided to change anything on the car, it had to be fast work. Weather forecast was announcing that temperature will cool down during the day, which can involve into icing roads. Still, every driver chose tyres to mud and snow.
Simone was gaining every possible second to pass
Warren in the results, even though it wasn't easy to do. But last two stages played in
Simone's card and
Warren had to settle with worser pace. There were other drivers also, mainly in WRC cars trying to floor the throttle as much as possible. But only one successful driver was
Mark Johnston, who won rest of the stages, and he jumped over
Warren to second place.
Tor Anders Berven, who was leader after second service, finished fourth. "
I could have done better, it is sure. I think marshals didn't judge the incident well, I am sure I didn't roll the barrel, only moved, which is 5 seconds penalize, not 30. I should be on podium," he complained. Next WRC driver was
Norman Biscuit, but this time with A1 class car, 2001 year Subaru Impreza. He finished fifth just behind another S2000 beast
Jeremy Loveland. Pretty bad results from
Attila Kiss, who has been forgotten down the field, along with another WRC and production cars drivers, beaten by less powered cars.
This season has increased number of classes, including Rookie and Junior cup. The only difference between these classes are cars. Rookie cup is composed of N3 2WD cars, unlike Juniors are driving racing A6, kit cars and R3 cars. And it was just
Daniel Tonsberg who totally outclassed everyone else. He finished eighteenth overall, which is remarkable results and gave 6 minutes to second rookie
Norman Bruce. Junior
Aaron DeMare finished first in his class and five places behind
Daniel overall, twenty first.
You can find Round 1 results here
http://www.racedepartment.com/rd-ra...1-rally-norway-16th-20th-july.html#post864834 and final standings here
http://www.racedepartment.com/rd-rally-championship/59325-rdrc-season-3-points-tables.html
It is being tradition to ask
Rick Bamford, main RDRC staff, what can we expect in upcoming round.
"For round 2 we go down-under to Australia, the Coffs Harbour Rally. In the early part of the year, the days are long and the weather should be hot making for a perfect weekend for competition.
Day one starts with a real heart-starter on the Greenhills stage before moving to New-Bobs which as we saw last season has been partly surfaced with tarmac making a very slippery stage. Combined with a number of blind crests and super fast roads, this one takes courage. The famous Mineshaft stage follows before service allowing repairs to be undertaken for anyone that pushes too hard over the massive jump.
After service the cars return to the forest for a new challenge in the championship, Diamond Creek. Again with big crests, high speeds and a very difficult edge to the road punishes small mistakes with VERY big crashes.
From there we drop into East-west with its tight twisting sections. We finish the day with a bang over the rough Propect ridge stage.
The second day is a repeat of day one's stages so expect the times to be faster the second time around."
One note at the end, RMI motorsport retired from a Citroen Xsara WRC and got Škoda Fabia WRC 2007 held by First Motorsport until now. Let see if they will find better pace with new car.
But for now, it is all. But don't worry, we are back soon, as next round is just behind the doors! See you in a month.