Unofficial British Rally Championship League

[Morbid65]

I've actually done Finland before so felt a little more confident with this one, and that maybe bit me a little as both of my Paijala runs had 1 silly but fairly significant mistake that cost me a bit.

First leg started off okay, but first trip through Paijala saw one of those really annoying minor misjudgements that turned into a big thing, captured poorly in pictures:


Landing wasn't hard as it barely touched the ground while flipping, so I got lucky with only minor damage that wasn't noticeable. Had a minor off a few corners later trying to push to make up for it that reminded me to calm down a little, rest was pretty uneventful.

First run at Leustu I brushed the fence about 20 seconds in and it bounced me off into some mailboxes, felt lucky to avoid a puncture but probably didn't lose too much.

Second run through Paijala I lost focus while feeling like I was moving pretty good and overshot the bridge with a big lock up. When I realized I was in trouble I tried to turn it in anyways to use the guardrail to save it but I hit it too early on the sloped part and caught some air, landed with my front end up in the air against a tree but I guess it saved me from going into the river. Again got lucky with no obvious significant damage but it was a big hit, and lost a lot of time reversing back up to the road and getting going again. Hurt my confidence a little for the rest of the stage but no other incidents I can remember.


Used up all the repair time and wasn't able to fully repair the car but nothing was too bad considering what happened, so the second run through Leustu was a little timid but uneventful... Came out the other side placed better than I expected though.

I don't think I've ever even run a Central European stage and I normally don't like tarmac much, so next one will certainly be an adventure.

 

[Dreadmed]

Solid run for me, slid off the road a couple of times but thankfully not a repeat of Modern Classics (headfirst into a tree + hidden boulder in the verge). I'll need to get my specs next time, for some reason I thought there was only one service so I skipped shakedown entirely...

 

[bozian]

Bit of a bittersweet effort this time. Picked up a very unfortunate puncture on stage 2 and got handed a 90sec penalty for changing the tire. Seeing that, in the end, i finished 1:29min behind P2 is quite annoying. At least the pace seems to have been okay for the first gravel rally in the i20. On the upside: few things match getting a finland stage right. Positioning the car into a drift before a blind crest and nailing the exit is pure joy.

Tinkered a bit more with the livery as well and made it nicer to look at :-)

 

[Ali]

Päijälä is, to me, the most difficult stage in the game, so I didn't exactly expect to finish this rally. I just find it incredibly difficult to drive here without going absolutely flat out. To my surprise I completed the first two stages without any notable mistakes. Then, on stage 3 I half-rolled my car, but didn't really lose much time (nor damage my car too much!). Stage 4 I ran wide and hit some logs head-on, resulting in some damage that I wasn't able to fully repair, but nothing too bad. On stage 5 I just wasn't paying attention and instead of turning left I tried to go right

 

[Tool1312]

Nice. Just sat down and completed the CER stages.

AND...........

No interruptions from the missus lol.

Had a few silly spins but nothing too bad. Weirdly at the end of stage 6 I had a lot of wear on multiple parts, suppose it's to be expected, plus I gambled on a worn set of sorts so they'd gone off quite a bit towards the end. Good job the service halt before the longest stage was a long one.
Nice touch for the last two stages to be dry/wet, so the wets have to run on a dry stage first meaning they're a bit worn from the actual wet stage and are a bit lairy.

Currently first overall but only two full runs on the board up to now so I don't expect to be there for long lol

 

[Speedster502]

Love seeing everyone's write-ups and photos, genuinely brings a smile to my face to see so much engagement with this!

Have kept meaning to type up my run from Carlisle (Finland), but have been away with work for the past week or so. Will make sure that I do the results and Jim Clark preview once I’m back in the UK!

Leg 1: SS1-SS3
I felt like I made a relatively decent start to my run through the fast roads of Finland, I’d managed to dial the Hyundai in on gravel to feel pretty controllable on the limit without making it too safe. Somehow ended up trailing the leaders by over 50 seconds by SS2 though!

Leg 2: SS4
Unfortunately this where my run started falling apart a bit, as I was busy preparing for this work trip I ended up leaving the rally for a few days. Once I hopped back on I never quite felt that same early confidence that I once had and started making little mistakes here and there. So much so that by the end of the first sector I was already missing a door - this actually made making out the co-driver calls somewhat tricky which definitely knocked my confidence to fully-commit.

Around midway into the stage I hit the final nail into the coffin, as I took a slightly optimistic cut and hit a huge rock on the inside which instantly punctured. I felt conflicted at this stage as I couldn’t decide whether to push on or change - I elected to push on.

Leg 3: SS5
I was keen really keen to make-up lost time from SS4 and see if I could claw back some of the lead that @Hasnain282 had built over me after SS4’s calamities. I was some 30 seconds back though so it’d require something pretty special…alas I wasn’t able to make a dent really 😅

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A frustrating rally, as it definitely felt like this could have been a case of what could have been. I certainly won’t be leaving runs so far apart next time around and will try and do it all in one sitting…that said Jim Clark is going to be a challenge and a half!