French Rally

Congrats to the winners, how can you go so fast (appart from making no mistakes)?

This second rally for me was a bit better (only a bit) than the previous one as I didn't crash as much. The tarmac surface allowed for a bit faster pace, specially when approaching turns, as I could control the car slightly better than in gravel, but the lack of dust is not worth the difference :)

I did not take any notes to write my post-race report and my bad memory only lets me remind about few crashes, no call for help and *only* a couple of hairpins correctly taken using the hand-brake, a technique I'll have to practise a bit more for the future along with the quick accel lifting to take high speed turns in the following events. Long way to go yet, but lots of fun.

また日本のラリーで会いましょう!!

I'm pretty happy with 2nd, I was beaten by a clearly better rally driver and my run-in with the cameraman didn't cost me anything, so I can't complain. Enis had me worried for a while but the tricky as hell Bisanne stage seemed to catch him out while I had a great run through there. Now its down to me to hit the top step!

I really struggled with the tarmac surface of France. There seemed to be a pretty fine line between braking med-hard and locking a tyre and having the car spearing off in any direction it pleased.
I did however have a few good runs, but did manage to end up down an enbankment and needing help at one stage.
Not looking forward to Japan, altho it is back to a dirt surface the narrowness of the tracks will make it tricky.

See you all there.

Fell into the trap of trying to run every stage as fast as I could go, it started ok for the 1st 3 stages but I got caught out badly at Joux Plane. I expected that stage to be a decider and I was right, I got into trouble on a fast section and rolled it, ended up facing the wrong way and there wasn't room to turn around (took me about 15 seconds to concede defeat and ask for help.)
Cote D'Arbroz II was a nightmare too, got turned around a few times. Infact there was hardly a single stage where I didn't have to use reverse atleast once.
Joaquin did some amazing times anyway, I wouldn't have been able to compete with that even with 6 PB's.... grats to Joaquin.

Didin't have any practice prior to the Friday night. Had a very comfortable 2nd place with some 35-40 s advantage over Scott, only to have the damnest luck with the two of the stupidest rolls and calls for help I ever saw. Lost about 1 minute on "Bisanne" (stage 3) and ended up f'cking 3rd again, despite being clearly 2nd fastest. Third time in a row stage 3...

I think this is my first Lantern Rouge. Hopefully this is the only time I choose the 'Return to RBRNet' option by mistake.

Wow, top 5 despite a costly mistake on 4 out of 6 stages on what I thought was a conservative pace. Just goes to show how unpredictable rallies can be.

Congratulations to the podium, and especially to Mr. Perez with some dazzling stage times.

After I false started Joux Plane I decided I would try to go all out on that one. I was on pace to get in the 5:30s until a small dip of the inside wheels near the end of the stage turned the car around and I had to do a 10 point road turn :( I didn't think below 5:30 was possible, much less 5:23. Unbelievable time Mr. Perez!

Japan was my favorite rally 2 years ago when I was playing the game (haven't driven there since) so I am looking forward to getting back there this week. Hope to see you guys in the server for some practice runs :)

John - nothing wrong with being Lantern Rouge! It is my screen name on every game/forum except this one ;)

Hey John, since Lantern Rouge is already taken, you could go by "Numero Nero"

From CyclingNews.com:

"Germany's Markus Eichler has picked up where Giovanni Pinarello has left off by winning the Giro d'Italia's title for lowest placed rider in the general classification – this year noted by the numero nero."

It would be nice if some of you fast guys saved a replay or 2 of your stages and uploaded them somewhere so that we slowish people could view them.

Maybe we could gleen a few tips from them also.

I'm with John aswell,a bit more care needed pressing DOWN instead of UP.
Kinda ruined my rally really.

I'm just glad it's over with. The tarmac physics felt really goofy to me so I just tried my best to bring the car back in one piece and get a decent finish. Couldn't even do that well enough, though. Really fucked up the last 3rd of Joux Plane and part of Joux Verte II. However, looking at the final standings, it seems I wouldn't have gained much ground despite those mistakes. Top 10 is fine with me I guess.