[WRC] Arctic Rally 2021

[samzon100]

Photos Arctic Rally Finland Powered by CapitalBox 26-28.02.2021 8)
SS1, SS2, SS4, SS6, SS9 ja SS10

https://samzon.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Arctic...italBox+02.21/

[giù tutto!]

Ok, Arctic Rally Finland is done.

All in all, extremely fantastic and exciting event! Have to say, Mads Östberg is one of the best commentator I have ever heard. Excellent work from him again!

I was surprised how well the drivers managed to keep the cars on the road, but it seemed that the snowbanks were hard enough to save them many, many times. It looked a little bit bad in the shakedown, but the snowbanks seemed to be softer over there. For a moment I was worried if none of them would survive from the stages without the shovel.
Also, it was good that there was only one totally blocked stage (ss4 Kaihuavaara by Lindholm). As many spectators noticed behind the screen, there were only few places to spin without blocking the stage. As I thought earlier, the humidity in February was better for rallying so the drivers didn’t need to drive in the snow dust. I cannot even imagine what kind of whining there could have been in that case.

It’s important to remember that the event was build up in six weeks. If you want to have a winter rally, you have to make the plans before it’s snowing at first time before the winter. It’s a crucial thing to open the roads by snowplow immediately when the first snow come. Then there is a possibility to have the road covered by ice on the natural way. If the roads are opened by snowplow too late and there will be no plus degrees and no melting, the road will be destroyed completely without the natural ice if it used in rally. This is the reason also, why the organizer had to use the same stages which were used in the Finnish Rally Championship round in January. It’s good to remember also, that it is completely normal that the gravel will come out when such a number of rally cars have driven through the stage. It’s happening every time in the winter rallies and everyone who has participated such events are familiar with that. I was quite a surprised when I heard some drivers moaning about that. The only way to keep the stages on perfect conditions for the first fifteen cars is to drive the stages only once. But it sounded already too scary for some of the drivers to drive on these stages for the first time. Some of them said that can’t push because don’t know the road…wtf??? They have done the recce, they have the pace notes. The best, the fastest and the bravest driver set the fastest time, that is the name of the game. It looks like the WRC drivers have used to drive the same stages year after year and immediately when there is something completely new, they become uncertain. I found that weird.

On that area there are plenty of roads which have been used in the Arctic Lapland Rally. It’s not a problem to arrange the rally with the stages driven only once. Because the timing of the Arctic Rally Finland, the whole military area next to the Sarriojärvi stage was out of question. There is major military exercise during that time on every year which is one of the reasons why the ALR is in January. In the ALR there are many stages on that military area. Next to the Vanttauskoski and Kemijärvi there are many stages which have been not used even in the ALR for many years. But as I wrote earlier, the organizer needs to know before winter which stages are needed for the proper natural ice cover. If we are thinking about the countries which could be possible locations for the WRC winter event, the first thing is that the country needs to have a culture and experience about the winter rallies. Otherwise, it’s a disaster, the snow & ice is not the only needed element for the successful winter rally event.

One thing which cannot been seen from the footage of the helicopter camera. The stages of the area have always been very famous about the huge number of crests. In the day light there are lots of them, but when driven in the dark, the number of crests which cut the sight of light are doubled. In the speed which is used on those stages you really need to know which is the last crest before the braking point. It has always been a very difficult job for the beginners with the pace notes to find and understand which crests to mark on your pace notes and which ones not. If you put all of those crests to your pace notes, it’s too much. It is very demanding for the co-driver to read them in the correct rhythm and even more demanding for the driver to understand in which crest is that and how many of them are still to come before the 90-degree corner. During the years there have been plenty of high-speed offs when the driver and the co-driver have not been on the same crest of the pace note book.

There are lot of height differences on that area also which are very difficult to understand even from the onboard footage if you haven’t been on those stages. For example, on the Sarriojärvi stage there is downhill flat out with bump in the middle of it and after that it continues flat out through the left hander over couple of crests and that section ends to the 90-degree junction to the right. Back in the days the drivers with the Gr.N Mitsubishis reached the top speed of 212km/h after the downhill and the bravest didn’t lift the right foot before the braking point for the junction. From the onboard footage it seemed quite mild now. It’s good to understand still that the top speed is not the most important thing on those stages. In 2012 when Esapekka Lappi won the Arctic Lapland Rally with s2000 Fiesta, his top speed was 174km/h against Juha Salo’s Mitsubishi Gr.N and others. The Aittajärvi stage, which was the Power Stage also, has always been a perfect test to find out who is brave and who is not. It may be looked easy if watch the stage times how close they were each other. But can be noticed on that stage more than once that the body language of the drivers was more nervous comparing to the slower events. If you ever have an opportunity to drive through these stages in the wintertime, it is worth of every cent. Then you understand the challenge and the magic of the Arctic Rally Finland.

[dimviii]

. Back in the days the drivers with the Gr.N Mitsubishis reached the top speed of 212km/h after the downhill and the bravest didn’t lift the right foot before the braking point for the junction.

give us a link with a Mitsu onboard at this point.

[dimviii]

open the volume.Rally magic
https://twitter.com/HartusvuoriWRC/s...57766341210118

[AnttiL]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/colin...river-ratings/

Here we go...I can agree with everything except Greensmith 7/10 (Suninen 5/10 is fair if car performance is included in the grade)

[steve.mandzij]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/colin...river-ratings/

Here we go...I can agree with everything except Greensmith 7/10 (Suninen 5/10 is fair if car performance is included in the grade)

I think Ott if anyone deserved the 10, he was absolutely commanding all weekend; Oliver had a great debut, among the better ones in recent memory, but not quite a 10 from me.

And honestly, I'd have rated Ogier lower.

[masa90]

That rating of Ford team drivers is a joke. Should be Teemu 6 or 7 and Greensmith 5 or 6 depending on how they rated Teemu.

Both drove clean rally with a slow car. Yet the worse with huge difference in pace is rated 2 spots above. What bs really.

[TypeR]

That rating of Ford team drivers is a joke. Should be Teemu 6 or 7 and Greensmith 5 or 6 depending on how they rated Teemu.

Both drove clean rally with a slow car. Yet the worse with huge difference in pace is rated 2 spots above. What bs really.

With Toyota or Hyundai they would have been 1-2 with at least 30s lead..

Let me correct you..
Both drove clean AND slow rally (especially Teemu at his home rally).

*Teemu 6 or 7 for what..? lol

[mknight]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/colin...river-ratings/

Here we go...I can agree with everything except Greensmith 7/10 (Suninen 5/10 is fair if car performance is included in the grade)

Not much point to argue about +-1 points, but most I am fine with, except Greensmith.

I think Ott if anyone deserved the 10, he was absolutely commanding all weekend; Oliver had a great debut, among the better ones in recent memory, but not quite a 10 from me.

And honestly, I'd have rated Ogier lower.

Tanak can't get 10 when he ended 4th on Power Stage.

Oliver for me is like 9,5 ish too, Suninen (Poland 2017) and before that Ogier's debut are a level above. That said it's hard to do exceptional single stage times when conditions are basically the same whole rally and all stages are 20-30km.

Ogier is ok for me because of what he did on PS.

[T16]

Greensmith the same as Evans??
Clark clearly doesn’t understand how to award based on the event in question.
Instead he seems to be trying to fluff up Greensmith because he wasn’t quite as shit as last time.
And using ‘not long in a car of this spec’ as an excuse... pretty sure Oliver Solberg’s performance pisses on that drivel.