http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/100...JPG?img=img900
Last Saturday was national rally held near Jyväskylä called Jyväskylän Suurajot - 1000 Lakes Rally. That name might ring a bell... I think this was now 4th time for event to be held as such, in the midsummer with emphasis on the historic rally cars. This year around 165 cars started and some 40% of them in historic classes. Event had 5 stages near Petäjävesi and Uurainen, and like always with Central Finnish rallies, some of these stages has been used in the WRC event as well. Beautiful fast roads with a lot of going up and down, flowing bends as well as treacherous bends. We did SS1 in whole, some 40 cars in SS3 and most of the cars in SS5.
On SS1 we stayed at a tightening right after a faster section. Young birch trees on the left, about hundred rally fans on the right. That section continued with an S-bend, and a little later on another set of S-bends if you walked around. Very nice, that is. 6-7 cars had close calls there, going wide. First car to roll was a small Fiesta, unfortunate braking that let the rear end loose and the car spun and rolled. That was so early in the corner that I didn't even see it, only heard. A little later we saw a much heavier crash. BMW entered the corner too fast and too wide, soon after exiting the road rear left hit a stone and the car rolled around 3 times into the trees. Crew okey, car not so. 3-4 trees thick as a leg got chopped in a blink. Car was well into the trees, but it took less than 10 minute from spectators to got it back on the road and pulled away. Funny thing - or "funny" - it was my friend's friend that drove that BMW, first proper event, first stage... It's tough how it takes a long time to build a car and then three minutes into the stage, crash, and months work again. This picture tells a lot. You can see the crash here - the whole video is very nicely done by the way.
For SS5 (parts of SS Kuohu from old 1000 Lakes) we opted for the first corner of the stage, a tightening left. Only a few slides there, it was quite close to the start of the stage, so not so high speed. But it was nice place to spend the rest of the day anyway.
Here's a crash compilation video from SS2 which had a treacherous left-hander that was the most action-filled place on the rally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZ2Jxt2EYY
Here's my friend's photos from the event: 1000 Lakes 2013
And now I've reached the moment where next rally for me is Rally Finland. There are one national event next weekend and FRC event the weekend after that, but those I will miss other activities.
