2011 South African National Rally Championship

We had a decent start with the Auris, sadly a slipping clutch at the end of SS7 had us changing the clutch and taking lateness, unfortuantely this caused us to start SS8 35km behind a S1600 car which we caught within 7km.. sat behind him for some 10km.

The car is a definate step forward from the RunX, it does everything the RunX does, just alot easier, now its building the confidence to push the boundries.

On the event itself... well you dont get better rally roads, super highspeed forest roads, when you get it wrong, it goes seriously wrong. Unfortuantely there were some casualties, 2 of which were in the first stage.

A total of 5 rolled cars shows the pace is hot, and everyone is trying hard.

You guys have changed cars and are still having clutch problems. Surely there must be some cause somewhere.

MSA have released championship points but have not scored anything for the Gauteng Rally, pending the appeals. I can't see what the issues are here anymore. The facts are that onboard cameras from the 2 Toyotas were used to prove them guilty of short-cutting, but the onboards on the TV coverage clearly proved that everyone was short-cutting, so surely the penalties should be removed and lets get on with the rest of a cracking season.

Clutch problems werent really related, just yet another rally without a clean run.... i trust this to will pass, :-)

Sadly i think this TDR issue will carry on for some time, this issues needs to be adressed now and sorted to avoid the same problem all over again next year.

The how to avoid it in future will be difficult. I mean the regs said that shortcutting would be penalised and yet people still did it but only a few were penalised for it. I have no problem with them penalising people, so long as they get all of them. I'm also confused because I heard that they'd only nailed those with onboard cameras, but the TV coverage clearly showed everyone except Conrad shortcutting. It's all weird and sad, needs to be sorted out pronto and let us get back to this excellent championship.

Saw the TV coverage of the VW Rally last night. It was quite good coverage and the onboards seemed to be of a higher quality picture than normal, it all looked great.

Grant, one thing they went on about was the different tyre types that could be used and saying that Cronje might be getting an advantage from his choice (I personally doubt it, I think he's just in another league right now), but what are the differences? Width of tread or cut pattern?

BTW I ROFL at your onboard while in the dust of the S1600 car, that conversation was classic!
Moosa: Who's this in front of us?"
Grant: Don't worry about it, just go.
Moosa: You come drive the f***ing car then!

:p

Actually it's quite funny listening to our co-drivers in action. In Europe they tend to read the notes and just sit there, here the co-driver is constantly telling the driver to go faster! My other favourite and a good example of what I'm saying is onboard with Jan Habig and Robert Paisley, I think it was stage 2:

Paisley: Long right 6
(They cross the flying finish and Habig lifts off and slows down)
Paisley: No, right 6 long, keep going, keep going!
Habig: We're finished the stage.
Paisley: What?!
Habig: We're finished.
Paisley: Oh...

Glad you were entertained Mr :-)

I suggest you go listen again to our conversation again, i think you missed the jist of it, you will then understand better, we requested a bigger dust gap and were denied, just a bit of frustration, unfortunately the context doesnt get put in place before showing the actual footage.

Incidently we caught the S1600 7km into a 35km stage...

As for Habig and Paisley, we all did the same, the flying finish was moved and at that stage, were not looking up to see it, so when the bugger in the other seat slacks off we get upset about it :-)

Yeah I know the story, I just thought it was rather amusing how upset he got about your response. ;)

As for the Habig / Paisley thing, ok that makes sense then, cos I've not known Paisley to be that confused. His look of confusion is now understandable too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce D

Actually it's quite funny listening to our co-drivers in action. In Europe they tend to read the notes and just sit there, here the co-driver is constantly telling the driver to go faster! My other favourite and a good example of what I'm saying is onboard with Jan Habig and Robert Paisley, I think it was stage 2:

.

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Remember 1 thing, overseas theyr driving on pace notes, here we drive on route notes, we adapt to a pacenote somewhat , but at the end of the day were describing the road, there they are telling them how fast.


We experimented with 205's in that particular stage, but didnt really see the benefit due to the 2min we lost in the dust.... the tread patern is essentially the same, just more rubber on the road, this can be beneficial at the coast, but the cars will struggle a bit more at altitude.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce D

Yeah I know the story, I just thought it was rather amusing how upset he got about your response. ;)

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I'll say it again, go and listen again..

Please some onboard action. :)