Finnish rallying championship news

[Rallyper]

Lovely rally. I think quite undramatic, but very fast. Nice but cold day outside Turku yesterday. Now back home again in Sweden...

[dimviii]

This is his first R5 season.

did he followed Fin championship?

[AnttiL]

did he followed Fin championship?

He did the full Finnish championship season and finished second. Better than last year’s champion

[AnttiL]

Virtual chicanes will be taken into use for 2019

https://www.autourheilu.fi/uutiset/r...kaudelle-2019/

[PLuto]

Virtual chicanes will be taken into use for 2019

https://www.autourheilu.fi/uutiset/r...kaudelle-2019/

I dont understand finish, but only words "virtual chicanes" makes me crazy...

[AnttiL]

I dont understand finish, but only words "virtual chicanes" makes me crazy...

It means an area with speed display, with drivers required to slow down to a certain speed, for example 50 km/h before they can start going normally again. Another option demands a full stop and start.

Compared to normal chicanes it reduces work from the organizers in the form of carrying haybales and having someone to put them back if someone hits the bales. Also, you cannot hit the bales and thus break your car, or break the bale which would make the chicane then easier for others. And as we've seen with WRC this year, moving the chicanes can be a drag. Although I could also see problems with distinguishing whether someone actually did hit the required speed on the required area or not.

In Finland the problem is that the public roads are usually easier to obtain for rallying and they also withstand better rallying. In the last Finnish championship event we had a stage with 139.71 km/h of winning average speed on a Skoda Fabia R5. That stage had many straight or almost straight parts where the cars went for kilometres completely flat out.

Another option would be to cut the fast sections by splitting the stage in shorter parts, but this always requires more people working on the stage.

[PLuto]

It means an area with speed display, with drivers required to slow down to a certain speed, for example 50 km/h before they can start going normally again. Another option demands a full stop and start.

Compared to normal chicanes it reduces work from the organizers in the form of carrying haybales and having someone to put them back if someone hits the bales. Also, you cannot hit the bales and thus break your car, or break the bale which would make the chicane then easier for others. And as we've seen with WRC this year, moving the chicanes can be a drag. Although I could also see problems with distinguishing whether someone actually did hit the required speed on the required area or not.

In Finland the problem is that the public roads are usually easier to obtain for rallying and they also withstand better rallying. In the last Finnish championship event we had a stage with 139.71 km/h of winning average speed on a Skoda Fabia R5. That stage had many straight or almost straight parts where the cars went for kilometres completely flat out.

Another option would be to cut the fast sections by splitting the stage in shorter parts, but this always requires more people working on the stage.

Thanks for translation. But I still think this is a stupid idea which should never come to this sport... Keep stop and go and going through boxes to circuits, but dont bring it to rallysport...

[AnttiL]

Yeah, I know it feels super awkward but I would rather just not have any chicanes at all, but it seems there' s benefits over traditional chicanes.

Another benefit I forgot to list: a traditional chicane is difficult for the recce because the chicanes cannot be put in place until the road is closed, and recce is done when the road is still open for public traffic. A virtual chicane only needs to mark the area during recce somehow.

[AnttiL]

https://rallysportmag.com/finland-to...speed-rallies/

From the horse’s mouth on virtual chicanes. But hopefully not for Rally Finland, although that would allow driving Ouninpohja again...

[Mirek]

Just an honest question... What's the problem with 1km long straight road? Apart that it's boring as hell for the competitors there's nothing particularly dangerous about it. The organizers shall try to avoid using such sections simply from sporting quality point of view but IMO chicanes are better to be used where there is some reasonably high danger instead. The average speed value is anyway like catching own shadow because the cars and tyres simply grow faster with time.