As I thought before the Rally, this will be very difficult and I also told Johan to read the pace notes that little bit slower so that I could have a chance of getting to know the cars at the beginning of the rally which I thought was going well until a couple stages in....
SS1 - Lyon-Gerland:
A difficult stage in the FWD as it constantly wants to understeer and I was very scared that the difference of the car would see us in the wall.
Took it easy and made no misstakes and we got a resonable time out of that.
SS2 - Joux Plane:
Another stage which I thought would be good for getting to know the car, very fast stage with some tight corners in it as well. Was going well and had gotten into a good ryhtm when we came to a road to the left and a hairpin straight ahead. Got good into the corner but soon realized that I had written the note wrong as I understeered a bit on power and a tree, that I didn't see on the Recce before the Rally, ended the stage for us. (Retirement)
We spent quite a bit of time getting the car going again and managed to do so with quite some damage to the front, an overheating engine which we knew would cause trouble further on in the rally but found a lake along the road to the next stage and used that to try and cool the engine a bit before the following stage.
SS3 - Joux Verte:
Was looking forward to the stage before the rally but after the troubles on the previous stage I was just hoping that the car would get up the hills without overheating before we could go downhill again.
The Alfa sursprised us by pulling nicely up the hills and except some understeer moments and some close calls with a few trees we got the finish with a resonable time in the bag on top of that
SERVICE
SS4 - Bergheim:
Here comes the most difficult stages of the rally due to the roads being thin and there being hidden dangers everywhere, but also some nice wine if one is lucky
As the Recces told us that the car would be very fast on these stages I didn't even have to tell Johan to read the notes quickly, he was allready on it.
With me pushing the car to the edge of adhesion and beyond at many places showing off my driving style of taking as much of the green stuff as possible Johan was basically rapping the notes to me and we set, considering the new physics of the car that caused me to overpush with two misstakes under brakes which resulted in 2 half spins that cost us a few seconds each, very fast time :mrgreen:
SS5 - Sieversdorf:
One of the extucursions on SS4 seems to have damaged the suspension as the car was sitting to low which caused us to hit the road in bumps and such. (Loaded a setup I thought was set correctly but had forgot to save the supposed setup, meaning 185 instead of 220 suspension clearence
)
This came to an unfortunate end of the stage when we were closing in on the K lefts down the hill as we bottomed out on one of the bumps the car was allready in a slight slide and this slide grew into a spin and into the wine fields we went with an engine that wouldn't start.
Thankfully the French owner of the field came and helped us out of the field and offered some wine while he got the engine going for us. When we got to the finish, slightly all over the place it was too late to set a time.
SERVICE
SS6 - Bergheim:
Time for the re-run, this time in the dusk of the evening.....
Was on for another good time but missjudged how much I cut the corner where you can put almost the whole car outside of the tarmac. Took to much on a lefthander there and now one of the spectators are in the hospital and I will be visiting him very soon.
After that took it a little bit easier and got through the stage without too much damage. Managed to do so but very worried about the spectator
SS7 - Sieversdorf:
This time the car had no damage and took it easy in the night and got through the stage without too many issues, had a spin when I hit a stone when running a little bit too wide at a corner but got through this time
SERVICE
SS8 - Swiss Tarmac:
Oh, what can I say.... New physics, stones close to the road, hidden dangers behind crests.....
Got a few corners into the stage before the car understeered on me and I decided in a split second to pull the handbrake and side-ended a big rock with the rear right wheel.
Powered on through the stage taking it easy to survive the rest as the rear wheel got bent in the crash and managed to get through with a resonable time considering the car tracking strangly and reacted strangly at times
After the stage me and Johan had a look at the damage and did a quick fix by using the stones around us to straighten out the suspension arm and fitted a new wheel and powered to the next stage, almost missing the start.
SS9 - Paddys:
The fix worked the trick and while trusting everything Johan told me would be behind the next crest we went through the stage very quickly but had one scare, in a "Gena Vänster 1" (Cut Left 1) I took to much of the inside and almost flipped over, just about managed to bring the car down on the tarmac again and powered on.
Here follows a couple of lines from my notes from Paddys, in Swedish and English
Vänster 4 över krön; Höger 4(Fyra) 100(hundra); Vänster 3(tre); Lång Höger 3 Gena Slutet; vänster 4.
Left 4 over crest; Right 4 100; Left 3; Long Right 3 Cut End; Left 4.
Höger 4 över krön till Vänster 4 till Höger 4 till Vänster 3 över krön 100; Lång Höger 4 till Vänster 1(ett).
Right 4 over crest to Left 4 to Right 4 to Left 3 over crest 100; Lång 4 to Left 1.
Don't know if those makes sense but they make sense to me when I was driving the stage
SS10 - Foron:
Was going well until we came to a left 2(två) I had forgotten to written minus so I carried to much speed, lost the rear end due to the road being incorrectly cambered to the road and spun off into a ditch.
After some help from the enthusiastic spectators we could get going again and had no more troubles for the stage but was frustrated that a misstake in the notes I had written myself would cause a crash....
SERVICE
SS11 - Cote d'Arbroz:
Hello nice stage that suits the Alfa quite well
Had some trouble at a couple of the hairpin in the first part of the stage but then, with the help of Johan speeding up the notes and telling me to drive, not think, we flew through the rest of the stage getting close to a crash at the long left that tightens but survived and got a very good time on the stage
SS12 - Bisanne:
Another stage that I got through quite well. Took it very easy in the beginning of the stage but as soon as we started going downhill again the Alfa got into it's own and we got through the stage with only one close call, the car really wanted to understeer when I flew through a Right 4 which should have been 3 and the wood fencing on the outside would have written the car off
SS13 - Akagi II:
Oh yes, what a run and what a stage!
Got the setup almost spot on for the stage, could possibly have been slightly lower and maybe I should have shortened the gear but that would have killed the previous 2 stages.
Put the allready tired wheels to good use in the dusk of evening and got a good time down for the stage, big thanks to Johan who put up with me telling him to read the notes faster and faster
SS14 - Lyon-Gerland:
Oh well, all good things has to come to an end I guess. Was on a good run but unfortunatly understeer in the Left 2 after the hairpin and tried to use the handbrake but unfortunatly the rear end went completely and the barriers spun us around.
The guys in the team will have some work to do after that misstakes, the car didn't like it but finished the stage. Except the misstake with the notes on Foron and Plane and the unfortunate problem at Sieversdorf on the first run through I'm happy with the result, hoping I might have slipped in a top 5
Cheers from both me and Johan
