PoR Week 42: Things get damaged, things get broken...

[spspears]

Week 42 of the Rallyesim Championships wasn't especially kind. We had just about every conceivable problem, from software crashes and bugs to broken hardware to display problems to good old fashioned driving errors.

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But before I get to our tales of virtual rally for the week, I want to recognize the real-life motorsports accomplishments of one of our CMS/PoR members (because he tends to keep these things to himself). In September, Bryan won his third SCCA Solo National Championship, driving a Mazda MX-5 MS-R in the C-Stock class. A short article about Bryan can be found here. And oh, by the way, he also won the 2010 SCCA ProSolo Championship, again in the C-Stock class. He accomplished these feats by winning every event he entered this year. Congrats Bryan, on a great season!

Bryan's not bad on RSRBR either. He competed at the Provence Bis hill climb, placing 8th overall and 4th in class N4. This was the third France Hillclimb Cup event this year where he placed in the top 10 overall. He currently sits in a three-way tie for 5th place in class N4 for the year.

Steven and Jerry were back in action on the WRC circuit last week at the Rallye RACC Catalunya. This was the last round of the Junior World Rally Championship, and Steven was hoping to break into the top 10 after an 11th place at France a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was not to be. He clipped a tree on SS8 and damaged the radiator on his Peugeot 207 R3T. Though he lost only a few seconds on that stage, the car overheated and expired within sight of the finish on SS9. Steven took time penalties on SS9 and SS10, but continued on legs 2 and 3 of the rally, eventually finishing 27th in JWRC and 101st overall despite some err..creative driving.

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Jerry suffered a mechanical failure, as the accelerator of his Ford Focus WRC became stuck wide open during Leg 1 of the rally. Unfortunately, he was unable to fix it in time to complete the rally – though we wondered why he couldn't just drive it the way it was. With the times the fastest guys set, that must be what they are doing, right??

Rick and Aaron once again headed off to the bizarre corner of rally that is the Hungarian Championship. This time they were at the aptly named Strange (don't know if that's Rally Strange or Strange Rally – not sure it matters anyway). As usual, the event featured post-apocalyptic weather conditions and every possible road surface. Evidently there was even an eclipse, with a night stage thrown in the middle of day stages on leg 1. Whatever.

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Anyway, Rick somehow seems to be in his element on these rallies. Maybe it's the aviator in him, though I suspect if that's the case his real calling was flying A-10s for the Air Force instead of F-16s. He set a number of very fast stage times until one of his competitors sent a crew to fit his car with slicks while he was in the queue for a snow and ice covered stage. We suspect it was someone from the Wacky Races stable – perhaps Muttley. Actually, it was an apparent bug in the RSRBR program, but the unfortunate result was that he got stuck and had to retire during leg 2. After time penalties, he still fought back to a very nice 45th overall and 8th in class A8W.

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Aaron actually drove the rally as if it was an episode of Wacky Races, retiring on both legs 1 and 2. Fortunately, it's only leg 3 that matters if you want to score, and most of the field wasn't persistent enough make it through to the final leg. Aaron brought his Prodrive Impreza home 14th in the N4 class and 75th overall. His video of Frazier Wells II shows that he's certainly getting the hang of AWD cars – that stage is super fast and tricky in good conditions, let alone fog and snow!

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Finally, we had three drivers in action on this week's two France Cup events. Bret and Greg were in southern France at the Rally des Côtes du Tarn. This was a coefficient 2 rally with only five fast special stages. Bret got off to a good start, but a crash on SS2 led to a broken gearbox and he had to take a car repair penalty on SS3. On SS4, the same stage bit him again, but he pressed on to finish 16th in class N3 and 134th overall. Greg was driving a 2WD version of the Punto this week, in class A7. SS2 proved to be his undoing as well. A crash led to overheating and retirement from the event, but the crew fixed the car to get him some seat time. By the end of the rally he was getting a bit more comfortable with the tricky little Italian beast.



In the Rallye de San Martino, Justin's rally was over before it really even got started. He was the unfortunate victim of a computer problem on SS1 that left him with a DNF.

Although we had more than our share of problems this week, we still managed to gain in the stable standings. Our closest competitors, Rallye-Normand.com failed to score in Week 42, leaving us less than 500 points out of 24th place and the top half of the table. Here are the details...