After the high speeds, huge jumps, and many broken cars in Finland, we are now heading towards the hinkelsteins, tarmac and concrete in Germany. Rally Finland might've given some upsets in the championship, but no class are anywhere near decided yet, and everything is still in play over the 16 stages and 110km long German rally.
Rally Finland was won by Jon Joannides who took his first win of the season, and also his first RDRC win. Jon took the championship lead back in Sweden, but he had to wait for the fourth event to be able to take his first round win. Even though he have lead the season for such a long time, he still have only 34 points down to second placed man Cristoforos Karaolis. And it is between these two the fight will be. Looking at previous rallies, Joannides might be the favorite, as Karaolis did not get a stellar result in Monte Carlo.
In the 4WD- class, Thomas Mueller took his second straight win, and also managed to get in to the championship lead. However, the one that looked like taking the win, Juho Luomela, proved instead that in rally, anything can happen, at any time. Juho took the lead on the first stage, and held it without issues until the last stage when he lost 40 seconds, and also the rally win. In this class there are just 30 points the separates the top three, and will 200 points still in play, it is far from over.
In the 2WD+ class, Andreas Norström took his third win, in as many rallies, and as Tommie Lindberg didn't manage better than third, the championship fight is suddenly wide open in this class as well. Now it's not enough for Tommie Lindberg to just get second in the remaining events, he needs to beat Norström, or hope that Norström doesn't win, to be able to secure the title himself. Stefan Eblut showed once again that with the right driver, the RWD cars can be fast, and is now third overall in this class.
The 2WD- class is heating up. Initially it looked like it would be a fight between Ismail Yakubu and Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan, but as Bogdan has fallen off slightly in the last two events, and Krister Johansson finding extra speed, winning the last two rallies. The championship looks like it will be between Yakubu and Johansson. Yakubu leads at the moment, while Johansson have the momentum. In Finland we also saw Rinus Huisman scoring his first podium of the season.
For new drivers, here is the RDRC-Checklist:
- Check that your name in the league on dirtgame.com is the same that you have signed up with - if not, you can notify the score-keeper here. Remember that changing Steam nickname can change your name on dirtgame.com
- Check that you are indeed registered to your correct league, PC, PS4 or xBox One. You can find your leagues here
- Remember to check the Directors Note Thread in case of rule changes or important notices. The thread is here.
- If you are not signed up yet, and wish to participate in the Championship, you can do so by signing up here
Download the German Edition of the RDRC Rally Magazine here (12.6mb)
