RBR MF Cup - S3 - Round 6 - Catalunya

[Bruce D]

Catalunya Rally Event Info
-----------------------------
11-13 March 2011
RBR MF Cup Season 3 - Round 6

Rules
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Open to WRC, S2000, N4-N1 and A7-A5 cars
Tyre choice is free for all stages
Pacenotes - Audio only, not visual
One SuperRally per leg, 3min penalty for each SuperRally used.

Stages
------
Leg 1
SS1 - Chironhead (England) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 7.0km
SS2 - Chironhead II (England) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 6.9km

Leg 2
SS3 - Falstone II (England) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 6.6km
SS4 - Noiker (Japan) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 13.8km
SS5 - Sipirkakin (Japan) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 8.7km

Leg 3
SS6 - Noiker II (Japan) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 13.7km
SS7 - Prospect Ridge (USA) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 7.8km
SS8 - Prospect Ridge II (USA) - Mod: Tar - Weather: Good - 7.9km

Total Distance - 72.4km

Entries
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Send your entries to BruceD by PM or by email to [email:1x121oof]rbrmfcup@gmail.com[/email:1x121oof] Entry info as follows: Name, Country, Team, Car.

Submitting times
----------------
Start each stage using the "RSRBR2009" button under the "play alone" section, do your stage. The time will be recorded in the window at the bottom of RsCenter. If its not recorded, you did something wrong. Use "public sessions" tab and "Go" button for BTB stages.

Once you have completed the stages you wish to do, select the File menu and click on "Save times" The times are saved to your RBR directory under the folder "MyTimes". Once you have done all the stages, send all your html files to [email:1x121oof]rbrmfcup@gmail.com[/email:1x121oof] to be scored. Please note that more than 1 html file can be submitted so you don't have to do all the stages at one time.

Non-RSRBR users
---------------
Record your time and split times and mail them to the above email address.

PAST WINNERS
------------
None

Entries open immediately. Rally and entries close at midnight Tuesday 15th March 2011

[Bruce D]

Please note there will also be 2 online sessions - one on Wednesday night and Sunday morning. If anyone else wants a online session to suit them please let me know what time and day to make it.

[NeverKnow]

I'll try to do this event on the Sunday morning online session. It would be my first online rally and hopefully by then I have figured out how the online rallying works.

[Bruce D]

Well if you have problems, let me know, I'll let you do the offline version.

Please note that I'll only accept the first entry recieved, so if you do online you can't do the offline version, unless you have a problem and contact me about it before submitting stuff

[tannat]

Bruce-I'll do this offline-but have a crazy week up until our Saturday AM departure for spring break. Will try to make it...


James

[NeverKnow]

Well if you have problems, let me know, I'll let you do the offline version...
If I have any problems I'll surely let you know.

I did few online sessions with my laptop using the gamepad and I'm familiar with the system now. Now it all depends on if I get RSRBR installed correctly on my desktop...

[lcd]

I'm facing some Internet hiccups lately, so I won't risk to race online.
I'll do the offline version with the new rule ( minimum 5' time before each stage) ;)

[Bruce D]

Given the length of this event I don't mind if you do it over 2 days. Thats what I'm doing, although technically I could have finished it all last night. It's a really tricky event, been off a few times already.

[Bruce D]

Man these online guys don't know how to finish anything! Got a nice entry from last night though, 12 entries at least finished a stage, a further 5 who started stages but never finished them, but they will be classified cos they set at least 1 split time, so thats 17 entries with none of the regulars entered yet!

BTW I won't be counting the "foreign" online guys for the championship this year, this is just a test for now, but next season they will count.

[Bruce D]

I seem to be the only one here... :s

Finished my runs last night, had to take a super rally on the 2nd Nokier stage, just lost it big time on a bump and ended in a tree. Very adventurous rally, I'm not expecting a good result at all. Just looking at my times vs the online guys I was quite off the pace on some stages. I didn't get the car sorted over the bumps and suffered for it.

[NeverKnow]

Setting the car up for bumpy tarmac stages is even tall order for manufacturer teams. The car needs to be soft enough to absorb the bumps but stable and stiff enough to handle high speed cornering and g forces of driving on asphalt. They have the advantage of actually feeling the cars movement and adjusting accordingly, we on the other hand have to guess what is it doing. Most deadly are the bumps in high speed section when you are doing 180+ km/h and slightest bump could throw the car off the road.

Anyway I have succesfully installed RSRBR on my desktop and so far I haven't encountered any glitches, even Finland stages with gravel mod are driveable and quite fun. Though I haven't managed to test the online function yet. Is anyone else planning to do the rally online on sunday morning?

[Bruce D]

I've got a feeling Tannat will be doing that one, he's normally just going to bed at the time I've set it.

[tannat]

I've got a feeling Tannat will be doing that one, he's normally just going to bed at the time I've set it.

We leave for spring break tomorrow, so I'll be doing this offline (I hope) before we depart tomorrow am...

Would love to run with NevrKnow online-it would be educational. Must set this up sometime...

[Bruce D]

It's actually a pity you wouldn't have time to discuss things between stages though.

[lcd]

I'll try to be online on Sunday morning, otherwise I'll do it offline. ;)

[tannat]

Times submitted.

Huge mess of a rally-simply didn't have a good bumpy tarmac setup for the focus. Multiple offs, hit a marshal, and retired on sipirkakim (supperally please :D )

Good luck to the rest of you.. :up:

[NeverKnow]

I have finished my rally. I did this morning online session, I started alone but about half way through few other drivers joined the session. I think it was the first time in RSRBR I actually enjoyed the tarmac stages. They have been seriously improved since the first versions of tarmac stages.

It was quite eventful and I got caught out by the bumps a few times. Car worked perfectly with slow/medium speed bumps and smooth asphalt but I didn't get the car behave so well as I would have liked over the high speed bumps. The rear always seemed to jump up and the only cure I found was just to slow down. It would have been easy but I couldn't have seen them at times.

The first stage I was little bit sleepy and it took some time to wake up and adjust to rally speeds. I wanted to take back some time on the next stage but unfortunately for me I clipped the cliff wall near the start and rolled. Resulting broken rear right suspension and just coasted to finish line.

On SS3 I was too slow and was more consentrating on staying on the road than being fast, possibly lost way too much time there

SS4 I started slowly but quite quickly I got into a good rhytm and got a good time, for me at least. For the next stage I made few setup stages and they worked for that stage at least but I didn't know if I had cured pogoing rear axle or not. SS6 I drove carefully and the setup changes I made before previous stages seemed to work but the stage times wasn't that good.

On SS7 Prospect Ridge I was comfortable with the setup and wanted to go flat out. It all went well until about 1k from the end where there was a bump I didn't see and got caught out. I hit a tree with the rear and lost brakes, so I coasted to finish. Lost about 20-30 seconds at the end of the stage.

I made few setup changes again, they seemed to work but I was way too careful at the downhill section.

Overall I am not expecting much result wise but it was interesting rally nevertheless and I got quite a school in car setups.

[Bruce D]

Yeah I think I may have set that Sunday session too early in the morning. I'll try for a later time slot next time, say 10am...

Very interesting results none the less, nice to see a variety of cars in different classes.

[Bruce D]

I've set 2 more online sessions, both at 8h30pm Server Time, for both tonight and tomorrow night, for those that want to do it online, and trying something to see whether I can get even more entries.

[pettersolberg29]

I know I'm not expected here anymore, but after trying to download RSRBR again and failing I've given up trying, so I will focus all my efforts on the offline championship. Cheers for hosting though Bruce over the last couple of years I've done it.

[Bruce D]

Pity to see you go PS29, but I understand your problems and I'm not offended. Will be nice to see you on the Mod Free events still.

[pettersolberg29]

I'll still enter as a 'privateer' on events that don't need RSRBR but it won't be with the regularity I used to do it with!

[NeverKnow]

I'll participate in tonights online session in a Subaru N14. It's just for fun and learning to drive on these kind of stages.

[lcd]

Sorry guys, a DNS for me for this one. :(

[Bruce D]

Unacceptable, you shall be shot. :P :D

No problems LCD, hopefully the next one.

[Bruce D]

Absolutely stunning drive by a dude called Gonz last night, in a N3 class Renault Clio Williams - gave NeverKnow a real run for his money!

BTW last night brought the official starters up to 29, with 22 having officially finished a stage and therefore classified in the results.

[NeverKnow]

Absolutely stunning drive by a dude called Gonz last night, in a N3 class Renault Clio Williams - gave NeverKnow a real run for his money!
...

Before the last stage the gap between us was only 10 seconds, too bad he retired on the last stage though. .

[Bruce D]

I was just stunned by how quick he was, especially on the 2nd run through Noiker. Ok I drove a N3 car the other night and thought it was pretty easy to keep at a good pace but you still have to drive it that quickly.

Anyone seen Macd or Francis44?

[Macd]

I'm here. Can I still do it offline? If yes, then can i have an extension till tomorrow night?

[Bruce D]

Yes and yes. :)

[Bruce D]

I originally wrote my new scoring software around 36 entries - I have 53 for this event! :D

[Macd]

Did the first leg this morning. will get the rest done at some point tonight.

[Macd]

Having some issues with rsrbr at the minute :/ Hopefully they'll clear up at some point

[Macd]

Finished.

[Bruce D]

Ok got all the results in, but just currently fixing a few issues with the results program - the main one being I didn't expect so many competitors!!! :D

I should hopefully have it all done by the end of today and posting this afternoon, otherwise tomorrow some time.

A classic 3-way battle for the lead on this one, only decided on the final stage.

[Bruce D]

Here we go then:

This was always going to be a challenging event so times were going to be spread out a bit, but the closeness of the fight was amazing.

Stage 1 and NeverKnow sets the pace, beating the amazing Gonz in the N3 Clio by 3sec, followed by Macd a few tenths slower, Tannat a second behind that and BruceD another 4sec back. FGARACING got his Mk2 Escort up into 6th at this stage.

http://i52.tinypic.com/oqauu0.jpg

Macd fought back on SS2, but only beat Gonz by 0.54sec, so although he took the overall lead he was only 0.49sec ahead! NeverKnow lost 17sec on this stage, dropping to 3rd overall. Worth noting the deadheat between Tannat and BruceD on this stage. Another noteworthy performance was by Ronan14 in his A7 Peugeot, mixing with the boys, while that Mk2 Escort was still setting blistering times.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2ivi9so.jpg

Both NeverKnow and Gonz had "bad" stages on SS3, dropping to 12.7 and 32.5sec behind Macd overall. Philouphanie won the stage in his Lancer by just 0.17sec from Macd.

http://i55.tinypic.com/1zn5z6o.jpg

[Bruce D]

The first run throught the long Noiker stage turned things around. Macd lost 25sec to NeverKnow, who was now just 7sec behind while Gonz also lost time, dropping to 42sec behind.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2sbms60.jpg

Acajouman in his Peugeot 207 S2000 took the Stage 5 win while Gonz and NeverKnow were seperated by a hair's breath, but both gained significant time on Macd, who was only 7th quickest on the stage. NeverKnow moved into a 10.5sec lead over Macd with Gonz now 35sec behind. BruceD had snuck pasted Tannat on this stage, the American having taken a SuperRally.

http://i55.tinypic.com/30lkox3.jpg

Stage 6 was the 2nd run through Noiker and Gonz won the stage by 8sec from NeverKnow, with Tannat beating Macd, who lost 28sec on this stage. Overall this meant NeverKnow lead by 27sec from Gonz with Macd 30sec behind in 3rd. BruceD took a SuperRally this time, dropping behind Tannat.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2qkulhd.jpg

Philouphanie won stage 7 again, with Macd 2nd and Gonz 3rd. NeverKnow was only 5th quickest, losing 43sec and that meant the overall lead was now just 1.03sec with Gonz 8.9sec behind. This was anyone's rally now with 1 stage to go.

http://i51.tinypic.com/qx7a6w.jpg

[Bruce D]

Soafahana in a N4 Impreza won the final stage but NeverKnow set the 2nd quickest time to win the rally overall. Macd could only managed 4th quickest, and Gonz crashed out, taking a Super Rally and a super 3rd overall.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2qn74pd.jpg

So NeverKnow took the victory in the end, Gonz won N3, Soafahana won N4, A7 went to Ronan14, S2000 to Jerome030 and FGARACING won the H group. Joni Esteve won A5, Colorin won A6/S1600, Nikola Labas won R3 and the fun entry of Skwal76 won Group B.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2emq32g.jpg

The win means NeverKnow closes the gap to Macd in the championship but there is still a way to go and anything can happen.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2crvqip.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2aep374.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/315e7wp.jpg

[Bruce D]

http://i52.tinypic.com/33tjqex.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/2uojc60.jpg

[Macd]

That last stage killed me :( I knew i should have just taken it easy. Ah well, live and learn. Good battles though :)

[tannat]

Wish a few more of 'our' group had participated, but pleased with 3rd. Set a few good tiems as well.

Really like the new software, Bruce :up:

[Bruce D]

Thanks, I need to tweak a few more things but I think it's working well. Had some major issues to sort out just before releasing the results, and I still see something now, but it'll get better as I tweak it more. Not exactly what I wanted to do but better than nothing. Maybe I can work out this programming thing.

[lcd]

The combined offline/online results look so great. Welldone Bruce. :up:

[Bruce D]

It does, doesn't it. I really was pleased with the results from each online session, a decent number of guys each day and some interesting times came from it. Pity they aren't consistent enough or don't come in from the start of the rally, otherwise things could be very interesting.

[lcd]

You could Inform some of them via chat feature of RSRBR Center-though I've never used It
and don't know exactly how It works ...

Another thing: Find a striking name for the next season (the title appearing In public sessions board,
e.g. Burns Challenge rnd 1,2,3, etc or Rally Masters:Finland,Greece,Spain etc) so those often playing
online to recall It easily and maybe follow It more often.
How about all of us suggesting a title for the next season's championship and vote for the most 'catchy' one?

[Bruce D]

Sounds good to me, lets hear them, Rally Masters sounds great though.