motor

geekdiggy · 10-19-2003, 09:10 AM

well basically, if you weren't keeping up with the rally of corsica then, well, you're a big idiot. be it listening in via world rally radio or just checking up on the posted articles periodically, you could've been in on one of the most exciting rallies of the year, and there's been many so that's saying something

thursday: petter solberg crashes the life out of his impreza, doing the business to a telephone pole -which sadly didn't survive- but his crew of 12 were given permission to work through the night to repair it enough to compete, and repair it they did. petter and phil made it to the start ramp

seb loeb: was leading the rally at one point but on day 2 stage 8 (in quite rainy conditions) he had a slight crash off the road and lost 10 minutes

markko martin: also had an off on stage 8, and lost 4 minutes removing/replacing a broken left rear wheel. that promoted good ol' francois duval to the lead (keep in mind solberg was 8th place at this time)

solberg: SOMEHOW managed to climb all the way up to 3rd place, beat sainz, then embarassed the hell out of francois duval by turning his 17 second deficite to a 13 some-odd sec lead going into day three, with duval and carlos sainz trailing respectively

sunday: a gamble of tire choices by all drivers, with the big benifits coming to carlos sainz who pulled within .01 sec of duval, but then lost 11 seconds to him on the 3rd stage of the day. markko martin became the big loser when he crashed off the road, in frightening fashion, and retired.

on the last stage sainz's tire gamble worked and he managed to turn his 11 sec deficit from duval into a 5.1 second overtake on the VERY LAST STAGE, pipping duval out of 2nd place. solberg, of course, won the rally by an easy 36 some-odd seconds

winner: solbergdiggy
2nd: matador
3rd: francois "vedy divigilt stedge" duval

interesting facts:

- this is solberg's 3rd win of 2003, his 4th career win

- first tarmac win for Subaru and Pirelli since 1998

- solberg's technician crew earned this rally's Inmarstat award for their "hurculean efforts"

- richard burns led this championship by two points on thursday, but only scoring one point this weekend drops him into third, putting an end to his 8-month run at the top

- carlos sainz, scoring 8 points, moves into the world championship lead going into the next rally

- carlos sainz last won the world championship in 1992, 11 years ago, and before that in 1990 with Lancia

- the next rally is in spain

- carlos sainz is a friggin spaniard

- what a coincidence

- you're an idiot for missing this rally

- you'll be an even bigger deuschbag if you missed the next one

- if you miss it, lemme know, so i can kill you

draak666 · 10-19-2003, 05:02 PM

Thanks for the summary geekdiggy.

How come you guys already saw so much of it? Over here we only get a 1 min. item in the news per day. Rally is ALWAYS cool. Much more interesting than F1, IMO. I try to watch as much of it as I can.

And of course I'm glad that there's a Belgian doing well again. I've been following Duval ever since he was driving local rallys over here. Mind you, the people at Ford were putting enough pressure on him now, since he allready broke too much cars the previous rallys. I'm happy for him.

TT · 10-19-2003, 06:50 PM

Just finished watching the coverage on TV.. absolutely beautifull rally! I'm so happy for Sainz! It would be so nice to see him crowned again, but the season is still not at its end and the battle will be fierce.
Very nice work also from the young Duval, always able to back up Martin when the latter has problems! Not a bad performance also from Gronholm.. to bad his chances are almost 0 for the championship...
I don't really know who I'd like to see winning this season.. King Sainz is a myth, Solberg is skilled, a nice person and had lot of bad luck the past seasons... Loeb is another talented driver, youg and fast, with a young car...
I just hope to see another battle like this one next week in Catalonia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ziploc · 10-19-2003, 06:59 PM

thanx for ruining my telecast in 2 hours

no probs tho

i know im in for some good TV!!

novass · 10-20-2003, 02:12 AM

just saw the footage, good shit! i didnt want to check the forum in case someone posted who won before i got to see it. i was impressed with Duval he did a pretty good job and almost had second til the end. im glad Sainz is moving up on the board, like TT said, i think it would be nice to see him win again. i was also very impressed with Solbergs efforts, his mechanics too. to think they almost gave Solberg Makkinens car but decided to fix it and he went on to win.

anyone see Martin's crash too? whooo, that wouldve scared the shit out of me knowing im gonna fall off a cliff, thank god for roll cages. Loeb was also looking pretty good til he got stuck and lost quite a few minutes. very good rally IMO. some interesting surprises. cant wait for the next one

TT · 10-20-2003, 04:43 AM

anyone see Martin's crash too? whooo, that wouldve scared the shit out of me knowing im gonna fall off a cliff, thank god for roll cages.

Pretty scary indeed! Luckily there were lot of trees and bushes and the car stopped w/o rolling to much...
Pretty scary also for the amateur cameraman.. not to far away from the crash :shock:

novass · 10-20-2003, 06:23 AM

^ ya you have to give the camera man some credit for keeping a steady shot with something like that happening so close to you. these rally drivers are nuts to go that fast in such treacherous terrain. im glad they do it tho

TT · 10-20-2003, 06:24 AM

Yeh, the shot was absolutely perfect.. at first I thought it was an official TV crew filming that!

stracing · 10-20-2003, 08:53 AM

damn you all

i only to get to watch a shitty 1hr review :x
i'm so jealous hehe

Ziploc · 10-20-2003, 05:09 PM

er go 2 hour straight coverage?

TT · 10-20-2003, 05:12 PM

Radio rally is live.. and free

geekdiggy · 10-21-2003, 01:43 AM

i'm so disgusted with SPEED's coverage of rallies. they used to have one hour of coverage per day of the rally, and now they have a measley two hours for three days? that's crap. and ralph shaheen does a shit job, we need to fire him. they missed so many of the good parts of the rally it was ridiculous, i almost wanna move to europe just to watch eurosport

novass · 10-21-2003, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by geekdiggy

i'm so disgusted with SPEED's coverage of rallies. they used to have one hour of coverage per day of the rally, and now they have a measley two hours for three days? that's crap. and ralph shaheen does a shit job, we need to fire him. they missed so many of the good parts of the rally it was ridiculous, i almost wanna move to europe just to watch eurosport

oh man, dont even get me started on this subject. i moved last year, not far, but where i was living we didnt get the Speed Channel. i moved close to end of the WRC season but i was only able to catch about 4-5 rallies. then they had to go and do this shit. its not like they have a huge lineup of shows where they werent able to continue the hour per day, i dont fucking get it. its bs!