Doing some practice runs earlier, had a really good feeling so decided to drive in the OC1 session instead.
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Pre-Rally:
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Whew, first rally of the season, and going from practice: it's going to be tough. The first stage is an absolute nightmare, really tough to find any grip.
As for my goals, I was very happy with my performance in the WRC-2 Rally Club event, finishing 4th out of 26 runners, and hope to replicate that success here. I really want to finish the rally clean, without DNFs and CFHs. I don't have the pace to push for a victory yet, but hopefully a clean rally should yield some good results, especially on such a tricky rally which I suspect will have a high attrition rate.
Post-Stage:
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SS1 - Finished, mostly cleanly. Hit a barrier once or twice in the hairpins sections. Was a bit awkward as my camhack glitched, so I was driving with a view I'm not used too. Still, pretty happy with the pace, and the fact that I finished the stage, it's surely the most difficult on the rally.
SS2 - Yikes, not a terribly good stage. OK, I finished, without CFH and DNF, but I wasn't driving very fast at all. It's amazing how the confidence goes outside of practice, where you know a crash will lead to a bad result. Had two spins in the last sector, didn't lose too much time I don't think.
SS3 - Not too fast on this stage again, although it's much easier to drive than the previous two. Had a really anti-climactic off-road excursion midway through, got back on the road with minimal time loss.
SS4 - Oh man thats a lot easier to drive. My pace didn't really reflect that though, only 8 seconds quicker than the first one.
SS5 - Much more confident in that stage. A few minor mistakes, but nearly 30 seconds quicker than my first run through.
SS6 - It's surprising what a little confidence can do, 17 seconds faster than the first run through, al though conditions were near identical. Had a lapse in concentration near the end and hit the guardrail in one of the hairpins, luckily got away from it without damage.
SS7 - That went OK, I hadn't spent any time on this surface in practicing Cote D' Arbroz, was instead focused on the power stage, quite a bit slower on this surface.
OK, end of day 1, maybe not the quickest, but no DNFs, no CFHs, and mostly clean driving. A good start to the rally, I think, just need to keep it up for the rest of the stages.
(the timer glitch occurred here, so I wasted no time in going into the next stage, these stages are recalled from memory.)
SS8 - This went OK.
SS9 - So did this.
SS10 - And this one. (good memory, right?
)
SS11 - Uh-oh! Broke my suspension here, front-left. Ran over some tires. OK, not too bad, no CFH, no DNF, but still, the next few stages will be tough.
SS12 - This went OK, actually, the suspension wasn't too bad.
SS13 - But this one was a nightmare, felt like the car wanted to go over the edge.
SS14 - I practiced this stage a lot. I really wanted to nab at least one power stage point. Unfortunately with the damaged suspension, it wasn't too be. Really quite gutted about that actually, but oh well. Clean, no problems.
(no problems with the timer glitch it seems, no default times AFAIK.)
Post-Rally:
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Mission accomplished.
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Geez, that was quite tiring too. Very happy that I met my goals though, no CFH, no DNF. OK, my pace wasn't the fastest, but on a tricky rally, having no penalties should help a lot in the final classification I hope.
Good luck to all the other runners, I hope you have as much fun on the stages as I did.
And a big thank you to all those involved in organizing this event.