Here yes, because there are service areas after every stage. But if there wasn’t and you didn’t have a spare, or have more flats than spares, you’d start with a flat or missing tire.
1 Like
Whew, finished up Monte Carlo. All started to go wrong in the last 3 stages. Crunched the front left on Stage 10, damaging the radiator. Thought it was fine until the start of Stage 11 when the co-driver called “there’s something wrong with the engine!” Down a bit on power but thankfully I was just into the ice patches, so no too bad. Ended up getting a puncture about 1/4 of the way from the end, managed to nurse it home without changing it, thankfully not loosing too much time in the very slippery ice. Few quick fixes and off we went into Stage 12. Got another puncture about 1/3 of the way through, decided to to replace it, and ended up about ~30 seconds off the pace.
All in all, made it in one piece, which I think is definitely an acomplishment! Especially given how trecharous the ice/pavement mixes can be. You can go into a slow corner on pavement, thinking it’s dry all the way through, then it turns to ice just around the corner and you’re gently drifting into a parked car and a very expensive sounding crunch.
4 Likes
So, I have to tell you guys about something funny that happened during Rally Monaco. I was pretty happy only finishing 4 seconds down to Roo at the conclusion of SS1 and was pumped for the next stage. I came out of the start chute on SS2 with my fangs all the way down to my navel and felt like I was killing it. About a third of the way in, 2 of my daughters came storming into the office going all bipolar on each other in the worst way. You guys know that I drive in VR and while I was trying to listen to my co-driver, they were getting into a major fight behind my head, screaming at me to stop playing my stupid racing game. I was yelling back, pleading with them to please give me 5 minutes, which had the effect of throwing gasoline on a barbeque. Eventually, they began throwing things at each other, which coincided with me bouncing my Fiesta off of a wall, and then one of them stepped on my keyboard, snapping off one of the legs. DR2 went to the option menu with the cursor jumping from item to item about 10 times a second. I tried to catch the cursor, which wasn’t responding to the escape key, as they continued battling to the death behind me.
After what seemed time for the stage to be over, they finally stomped out of the room. Now able to focus on the problem, I realized that DR2 was no longer the program of interest. I ALT-TAB’d back in and my utter amazement, my car was still in the stage. Except it was heading for a van parked on the side of the road. Bam!. I finally got the car under control but the harrowing experienced had taken most of the fight out of me.
It took me a few stages to realize that @Aginor was truly kicking my butt, as well he should, me being a Southerner and not educated in the ways of winter driving. After about 7 stages, I finally figured out that the car was getting more grip near the edge of the road where there was a little bit of snow. Did you guys notice this too, or was it my imagination? Anyway, Msr @Roo was going so fast it seemed as if he might have had a hot date waiting for him down in Monte Carlo. Probably his wife, because for sure, she was not going to miss this stop on the rally circuit.
Anyway, Herr @Aginor was beating me going into SS12 and I was ready to accept my fate, as I was still confused by the ice and losing a bunch of time at the first check. But the poker chip that I had kept for good luck after last night’s games in the casino, which rested in my overall’s internal pocket, brought some luck as my time suddenly went from -4 seconds in red to +30 in green. Poor fellow must have had an incident. A shame, because he really had some great speed for most of the rally.
Like most of you, I had never driven Monaco and very much dreaded it being on the schedule. But, it turned out not to be to bad and I look forward to coming back here again. Must bring Claudia, without the kids no doubt 
5 Likes
Snow has better grip than ice, yeah.
It was 8 seconds slipping down a hill, plus 24 of penalty for endangering spectators, of which at least 16 were a tad unfair (I grinded along a metal barrier, the spectators were safe behind it). But hey, that’s life. Should have kept my cool and not cut those turns.
Maybe I will keep my third place then that’s a win for me.
In fact… finishing was already a win for me, Monte Carlo is a hard rally.
3 Likes
Just finished Spain.
I love the Evo’s… but not on the first two stages.
In the first 3 left on Stage 1, I was way too hot and smashed the car up pretty badly, plunging off the side and taking all sorts of penalties, I burst the two left tyres. Replaced the front left, but every right hander I spun. It was quite funny, I could imagine the commentary team laughing… “here he goes… round again”.
There was too much to mend at the first pit, so I had to go out with a bent car.
The remaining stages I spent trying to make up way too much time, taking far too many risks, getting away with far too much and it was brilliant fun.
3 Likes
LIVE – FIA Junior WRC eSports #RaceAgainstCovid Shootout Final
Alt. Rally Monte Carlo -
Nobody broke an hour this time 
@Roo @chipwich and @Aginor round out the top 3. With chip really having that great 12th stage.
Next up is Australia (unofficial points totals if you are interested- Chip 19, Roo 15, Aginor 12)
2 Likes
Finished Spain and this time didn’t have too many moments. Soon as the wet tracks and rain started though I lost my bottle a little bit and my times show it. Apart from one head on crash into a barrier on stage 4 which I saved by closing my eyes and praying it was fairly incident free.
Oh yes the last stage finish was mental, the bit were you are doing about 200 kph 
approaching the marshalls? Well my wife had been doing some baking and did some sausage rolls, she stuffed one in my mouth as I was in full flow and the heat nearly burned my tongue off so I couldn’t control the end and went flying into everything at full speed. Good job we don’t get penalties for those finishing dramas?
The show goes on 
4 Likes
Just finished Spain. I can say 2 things after Spain, 1 i missed Pikes Peak hill climb and 2 I hate guard rails.
First stage was a throw away as I punctured a tyre. The rest were pretty fun, but I had nothing for that speed demon @chipwich! Good rally man!!!
5 Likes
Same, they are calling Season 1-4 “Year One” so maybe in Year Two? Seems like a lot of work though putting together all the cars for 1 course, I like it a lot, but can’t be the most profitable use of time for the developers.
2 Likes
You needed to keep listening to your co-driver. I’m pretty sure the calls were:
“3 right into argument behind, 2 left move keyboard, and 6 right opens long into caution, duck, flying objects!” 
Ha! No, no wife or girlfriend for me yet. Funny story there…
Summary
So I’m an engineer by trade. There’s a joke that goes like this:
An engineer is strolling along by himself in the forest. As he’s walking, he hears a voice and stops.
“Hey, hey you! Yes you, down here.”
He looks down and sees a frog, which he picks up.
“I’m a beautiful princess who was cursed by a wicked witch. If you kiss me, I’ll turn back into a princess.”
The engineer thinks to himself for a while, then smiles, puts the frog in his pocket, and keeps walking. The frog calls out, and the engineer takes her out and holds her up.
“Didn’t you hear me? If you kiss me I’ll turn into a beautiful princess and do anything you want.”
Again, the engineer smiles and puts the frog back in his pocket and starts walking again. The frog once again calls out, quite indignantly, and the engineer pulls her out again.
“What’s your problem? I’ve told you I’m a princess and you just need to kiss me, but you keep ignoring me!”
The engineer smiles and says “Look, I’m an engineer. I’m too busy for a girlfriend. But a talking frog? Now that’s cool!” 
Now in my final year at college, as engineers-in-training we had to work on a final capstone project, which is basically a practical test of everything we learned up to then. There was a girl who I was friends with who was in my capstone group. Everything was purely platonic, though she dropped quite a few hints that she wanted more than that. I was laser-focused on the project though and didn’t want to get distracted. So I told her the joke about the engineer and the frog, and told here she was my talking frog…
Went over smoothly enough at the time, but she did have a bit of a meltdown at the end of the year. Project went great!
3 Likes
Great story Roo, but I hope that you don’t ever regret the princess that got away. 
2 Likes
Oh don’t worry, she turned out to be the witch!
Had some good fun in Spain just now. Went for my usual recce run in each contender beforehand. Interestingly I think the Integrale would technically be the fastest, with it’s light weight and high power, but it just felt a little floaty and it gained speed so quickly that I kept having to jab the breaks and break the flow on the road. Probably better on a dirt stage. The Evo, meanwhile, is down on power and up on weight, but it just flows along the roads sooo nicely. Felt much more comfortable and I think it’s the best road racer, at least for the default setup.
First couple of stages went well, but took an off-road excursion at the start of Stage 3. Went off the side of the hill on the early 2 right without a guardrail, and was scrabbling up the incline for quite a ways. In Stage 4 I ended up hitting the same guardrail/rock wall combo that took me out in the R5s, but thankfully due to the slower speed in the rain, it wasn’t terminal this time. Did get a puncture, but made it through relatively unscathed otherwise.
Tough break Keets. After the first two stages you were right there with me. Would have given me a good run for my money. Next time. 
4 Likes
3 Likes
Australia up next in the fun rally, I like this rally, but in the little Mitsubishi there’s far too much scope for me to stack it.
Let’s see how we go…
1 Like
Numbers have dwindled quite a bit for Spain this week. Not sure if it was just people with other things to do or a poor choice on my part, or both After the weekend Rally here I’ll take a look and maybe make some adjustments going forward. Big thanks to everyone who has raced in any of the events so far. I know it’s helped me not think about the real world for more than a few hours during all this.
3 Likes
Didnt fair so well in the Monaro. 3 stages with no repairs. I had to retire in the end.
I’m starting to think I don’t like the Mitsubishi.
Edit: for speeling
2 Likes
I really liked the short stages and many repairs, it reduced fears.
…although in my case that was a bad thing, as I then lacked caution.
2 Likes
It might just be that 2 rallys a week might be hard to finish. I know that work has slowed down for some, but I’m actually more busy than before the pandemic. Having said that, if we have to kill one, I’m really loving the R5 cars and the season long series. Please don’t kill that one
4 Likes