The Rally Photos Thread
Posted by Administrator
Ron Versluis Junior Moderator Location: Vancouver Island Join Date: 10/09/2014 Age: Ancient Posts: 2 Rally Car: none |
Matt Brandenburg Senior Moderator Join Date: 03/02/2014 Posts: 96 Rally Car: BMW M3 |
|
Skye Nott Infallible Moderator Location: Vancouveh Join Date: 12/18/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 476 Rally Car: Xratty |
|
Dave Grenwis Ultra Moderator Location: Minneapolis, MN Join Date: 08/16/2012 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 125 Rally Car: '92 VW Golf |
|
John Vanlandingham Junior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Older Lake Superior..WATER!
 John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Matt Follett Infallible Moderator Location: La Belle Province, Montreal Join Date: 03/13/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 645 Rally Car: Don't Laugh, the Justy is Fun! |
Chris Krepski Ultra Moderator Location: Gatineau, Québec Join Date: 02/25/2010 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 31 Rally Car: 1991 VW Golf, 8V of fury! |
Jari Hamalainen Elite Moderator Location: Cape Coral, FL Join Date: 12/12/2010 Age: Ancient Posts: 119 Rally Car: Opel Monza, Chevy Monza to be finished 2012, BMW 318 iS |
John Vanlandingham Junior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Don't try this at home. Professional Draifers on Closed Kurs:
Volvos are awesome Be there or be SQUARE John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Brian Klausen Elite Moderator Location: Denmark Join Date: 03/21/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 388 Rally Car: VW Golf GTi 16V |
How did I miss this thread? Time to whore me and my car!
From 2013 - the finals of the Danish Championship - our first time at a national event. Utter catastrophe in terms of the actual result, but given the circumstances we were stoked. Started out by blowing up a tire on SS1 due to a rear brake locking up. Managed a quick fix repair just in time, limped through SS2, and then we had dropped far down. Put the car together at service, and put it into parc ferme for the night, to continue the next day. Here we developed serious transmission and clutch problems, which haunted us the rest of the day. But we finished! In our debut national event - that was great! 
One of my favorite pictures of all times: 
That was our last event of 2013, so we get into 2014, where we started a bit late. I had a transmission to fix, and that took a fair while. But before I could do that, I had to redo the entire ceiling in my garage. That was delayed quite a bit by my mom being hospitalized for 3 months straight, due to cancer (which she recovered from - again - despite having Parkinsons disease as well - I totally love my genes... not...). So, we did a few events over the summer - one did cost me an engine - no fun. But the next picture is from a "mini rally" (short one-day event we have in Denmark) in the late summer. Everything went like clockwork at this event. I can't be bothered to check the standings, but it was a good event! 
Then we participated in a sprint - that blew immensely. We managed two heats. The first the car handled like utter s**t - I had completely misjuged the tire pressure. Second heat it went pretty well - until the CV-joint stub axle on the left came loose, and totally destroyed the wheel bearing and the hub. DNF - hrumpf... 
A bit of video from the out side, from when it was still going. We first appear @ 7-or-so minutes: Then we participated in another mini rally. This went ok-ish. I was totally busted from lack of sleep for days, tracing a cut-out problem due to a faulty sensor. Had to get up pretty early, went for recce, etc., then a pretty long wait since our class is at the end of the pack. When we finally came to the start of SS1, a team had gone of pretty severely, and the stage was paused for more than 30 minutes. Just what I did NOT need - I had serious problems with getting into the groove to begin with, and now a 30 minute wait - I never really got started, and SS1 had several small cock ups - but nothing fatal. The video is from SS2. At 0:52-ish we have an "Uhuhhhh"-moment going across a crest. The skid marks that can be seen is from a guy in our class, that went a bit too fast and spun exactly 180 degrees, ending up going 70-ish mph backwards. Somehow they stayed on the road, got the car turned around and continued to go on an win the class. The last event of the year was the finals of the Danish National Championship. We were late for the starte of recce, so we had to skip SS3. SS1 to 5 were night stages, so obviously pace notes were important. SS3 was a sprint like stage, and we had a sketch of the area, so we figured we'd do notes from the sketch as best we could, wing it for the first lap, and then take it from there. It turned out ok-ish - but boy was it dark. Just starting out on lap 2 we got overtaken, and I decided just to "hook on" to him - that worked well - pace was much better for the remaining 3 laps  .
Other than that, the event went pretty good - 24th OA in the absolutely cheapest car of the event. No service crew - just me and my navi - and no service van - just the stationwagon I have for a DD. It can be done .
Video is from one of the later stages (17 out of 21 in total) that has a bit of gravel in it. Brgrds Brian 
|
Rob Ultra Moderator Location: LI, NY Join Date: 09/25/2010 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 629 Rally Car: None, anymore. |
Anders Green Junior Moderator Location: Raleigh, NC Join Date: 03/30/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,478 Rally Car: Parked |
How are the start orders decided over there? Is there a ranking of classes that is always used? How many cars were entered in this rally? Do all the rallies use the same method of determining the start order?
Anders Grassroots rally. It's what I think about. |
Brian Klausen Elite Moderator Location: Denmark Join Date: 03/21/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 388 Rally Car: VW Golf GTi 16V |
Quite a few questions .
Basically the answer is: it depends - on the event and/or series that the event may or may not be a part of. In the event in question, they always use the same ranking of classes. So classes run together, and they always start in the same order. It should be said that for a minirally (as this was), no single stage is allowed to be longer than about 4.5 miles when it is a "through stage" (does that make sense?), and no longer than about 6.5 miles when using a circuit design (i.e. like a sprint course where you do 2-4 laps on the same piece of road, and then often have half a mile or so run off to the goal line. Those fairly short distances mean that it is unlikely to get a difference of more than 1 minute on any given stage, within a class. The classes are ordered by some theoretical pace that the regulations for that class should be able to offer, but obviously there are "anomalies", though rarely something that would warrant someone in class 1 to need to start in class 6 pace-wise. Minirallies generally see around 50-70 participants in Denmark. The event in question is part of 4-part championship/series, that is very well organised, and very popular, and thus typically sees more like 60-70 participants. For the national events, we see as little as 25-30 participants (a new low at one event this year), up to around 50. We are in a bit of a slump these years - unfortunately. The national events use a seeding system, where your pace relative to other participants is calculated based on the last x number of events. I think they go back 2-3 events or so. They have a relatively advanced spreadsheet for that. If you haven't participated in the last 2-3 events, you will be placed somewhere in the pack on a judgement call based on car, if someone knows about your skill as a driver, etc. Pretty loose basis. Since there is no limit on the length of the individual stages in national rally, the seeding gets important obviously. Then we have a number of sprints, and they tend to just make a judgement call based on car and if the organizer knows about previous merits. It doesn't really matter though, course you are not required to show up at the starting line in a particular order - just whenever it suits you. It will be frowned upon to show up first for the first heat in a slow car though, so it's usually no problem. This is in a very relaxed series, that is made for the drivers only. No spectators, just a bit of fun, though competition is fierce, and the championship is pretty prestigous after all is said and done. I know of one rallysprint that does it differently. In previous years they did a starting order for the first heat, from judgement call based on car and experience. But the starting order for the second heat, was the reverse of the over all standing after heat 1. Starting order for heat 3 was the reverse of the over all standing after heat 2, and so on for heat 4 as well. This way no one knows who won, until the very last car has crossed the finish line. Keeps the spectators excited. This year they changed it a bit, because their judgement calls were a bit... off . So they introduced a timing lap before heat 1. This then determined the starting order, and then from there on it was the reverse of the over all standing after the previous heat.
At this race you are required to keep an eye on your place in the standings, and show up a bit early. Then the officials will keep the order. Brgrds Brian
|
Bob Legere Super Moderator Location: Spofford, NH Join Date: 03/07/2007 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 308 Rally Car: 1971 Opel Ascona |
Vintage rallying, circa 1995 at MFR. The day I met JVL in person.
Opel is a 4-letter word... http://www.flickr.com/photos/10498579@N07/sets/ |
John Vanlandingham Junior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.