Spectator report, Saturday in NORF2008
Greetings from Jyväskylä trip, my 16th in a row.
My rally spectating always starts with a thorough recce of the stages. Saturday was an interesting rally day with plenty new in the route.
I found a really interesting tightening right over crest from Himos stage. On Kakaristo I fell in love with a breathtaking flat jump right to tightening left over crest which was really confusing and difficult. On Juupajoki there's a nice crest braking 30 to fast tightening left. It seemed that the route was really difficult, especially those three places that I was gonna watch.
First in the morning I went to Himos. Hirvonen started the show with a beautiful save hanging by the edge of a ditch. Then after couple of close calls Aava hit the bank with the rear of his car and then hit the front and span over. Spectators helped him back to the right direction. Then came Latvala who hit the bank and ended up in the ditch. Quickly spectators carried him back on the road and he could continue. After that it seemed that everyone was in trouble and there was 18 (!) off the road excursion that needed spectators help to be able to continue. Several cars had to retire because of accident damage, and three cars rolled, including Sandell and Pinomäki.
Then to Kakaristo, where Henning started the show hanging on the edge of a cliff at 150km/h! That was a huge save! Galli came a bit faster and in a totally wrong line jumping directly off the road with no chance to save. He didn't even touch the road but flew directly to the ravine rolling the car several times. I run to the car and Galli laid on his back on the roof of the upside down car. I asked if he was okay and he replied me irritated with a shout I´M OKAY I´M OKAY!!! Then he asked where are we? and where is the road. I pointed him the five metres up visible road, and he said oh...
Then came Andersson with a high speed off ending up towards a big tree. One tree fell down and stuck the road, but was quickly removed by the spectators. Andersson put a triangle on the road but in a useless place, just on top of the latter jump hiding in the right. Salo came and couldn’t see the triangle until it was too late. He came flat out to the first jump and it is impossible to stay on the road at that speed. He rolled spectacularly over Galli’s car which was still at the bottom of the ravine. What a relief that no one get hurt in this really high speed place. After Salo´s accident the triangle was moved on top of the first jump but still for example Ogier, Wilks and Ceccoli had serious close calls there!
Then we went Juupajoki, where we witnessed Villagra’s and Arminen’s rolls and Companc’s and Aava’s close calls.
So we witnessed 23 offs and 8 rolls in one day…
About the competition itself Loeb controlled the rally, so he deserved it. Hirvonen was really on his limits with wider lines and more close calls. It would have been interesting to see Latvala’s performance later on, but he wasn’t ready, yet, and drove off twice…
Atko did good as well as Rantanen. Hänninen isn’t the fastest, but knows that result counts.
The most pleasant to watch was Sebastien Ogier, he drove amazingly, reminded me of Loeb a couple of years ago. Retired from fourth position in r2, amazing! There’s now a lot of Ogier fans in Finland after his performance, it is nice that many have noticed his drive at the end of the start field.
Great rally again.
