Thread: Rally New Zealand 2012

00h33 in France, 11.33pm for u

Programme du Rallye Wrc de Nouvelle-Zélande 2012

Weather in NZ:

I must say that I am really bad in souther hemisphere weather. All cyclones and everything is spinning in opposite direction and I tend to forget it.. continiously!

However. It looks like qualifying stage has not experienced any rain in last 12 hours. Probability of rain is increasing and most probbly it will be run with soft tyres (risk of rain is increasing with every minute). Temperature is very low. Somewhere around +10 degrees.

Some rain is expected on Friday stages today but nothing significant for Friday itself. The wind decreases for Friday morning. So, maybe some fog, maybe some very light rain in the morning stages. Most probably the rain stays on the sea and stages stay dry. I quess they are still using hard tyres tomorrow.

We should live without rain until Saturday evening. Wind picks up and rain should arrive by the evening, probably after the stages. Temperature is still very low, still around +10 dgrees.

Sunday is too far away. Looks like heavy rain is coming on Sunday.

Free practice results available here: Free Practice

Small video of Ketomaa : Inland Rd | Facebook
Small video of Mikko: http://www.facebook.com/video/video....50909437468036

QS Start list: http://www.chrissport.co.nz/results/...qstartlist.htm
QS times live here in 6 minutes: RNZ - Qualifying

QS Results:

just got back from shakedown.. muddy but thankfully it didnt rain. certainly looked like a fun stage

now to have lunch and look through my pics

Originally Posted by EWC

Greetings! My wife and I have traveled from the U.S. to spectate Rally New Zealand. This is the first WRC event we have been to, so I was wondering if anyone has any advice for us. Should we stick with one spectator spot all day, or try to hit multipe spots? Looking at the rally maps it seems there are some you could go between, but I don't have a good feel for the amount of time it takes getting around. Also, any suggestions on spots we should make sure not to miss? Should we try to go to one of the service parks, or is it best to stay in the forest.

We have good rain gear so we should be prepared for any weather. Would it be worth it to pick up a pair of folding camp chairs?

We fly to Auckland from Christchurch in the morning, after having spent the last week touring around the south island. The scenery has been amazing, and the locals have all been very friendly. Looking forward to experiencing the north island next!

Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'd suggest moving around. On the Saturday and Sunday there are a good few hours between stages while the cars go to service, so staying in one spot might be boring. Allow a decent amount of time to get between places, as most of the roads around the stages will be windy, sometimes quite narrow, and unsealed. I can't give you more specific instructions than that without knowing what you've got in mind.

You can check out most of the stages on google maps. They've even got streetview! On Saturday I recommend the Mititai stage, particularly the intersection of Birch and Lusk roads (Prime B on the spectator map). Generally, the prime areas marked by the organisers are good. There are some interesting places on the Girls High School stage as well, but be prepared to walk about to find them.

And on that note - definitely try to walk around, but be prepared to cross a few fences. Wear clothes you don't mind snagging on barbed wire, and try to avoid electric fences. Folding chairs are your call. If you plan to move around a lot, they might be a pain to carry around. I'd recommend gumboots as being most essential.

Shakedown was good. The rain stayed away.
Road seemed to stay in good condition, even with 2 or 3 days of rain previous, and 39 passes of the WRC cars. Will be interesting to see what positions the drivers pick tonight. My prediction is that they will treat it as a dry rally.

Tanak was the best to watch, hanging it out on the corners.

At the service park, Loeb's car came in and the marshall yelled "Car coming, get out the way", so I stepped under an ezy-up that was placed on the side of the service area. Loeb drove straight through the open sides of the ezy-up missing the poles my centimetres and me by millimetres!!! Funny in hindsight.

First win for Dani and Mini hopefully.

Latvala fastest! Great start.

Latvala looking like a bowss, must say that Solberg looked quick as well. Hirvonen didn't look so quick, but his time was there. Has been a bit of rain this afternoon. Try and get some pics up later

Shakedown results for the other crews:
ChrisSport

NB! They were runing different route, so you cannot compare the results!

JML picked 13th place to start day 1

Mikko just picked to run 1st on stage!

Solberg 2nd, Loeb 3rd and Thierry 12th

Originally Posted by GigiGalliNo1

Mikko just picked to run 1st on stage! Solberg 2nd, Loeb 3rd and Thierry 12th

Strange. I do not understand their decision. All kind of rain stopped around 2 hours ago on tomorrow stages. Start of stage 1 is at 08:28 that is around 14 hours after the end of rain. Sun raises at 07:34. Jari-Matti starts around 08:55 for the shortest stage and around 09:20 for the second stage (2 hours after the sunrise). Latest weather maps, that just came out, say that there will not be even a single raindrop for tomorrow. I just do not understand Citroen decision.. even not in the longer term. And Neuville starts behind Nobre. Tomorrow we will have two 32 km stages...

How on earth can they think of dropping this round......The Best roads in the Championship!