9 days until Rally Germany! Of course everyone is thinking Loeb, but the Germany stages are far from flowing tarmac, even though Loeb adapts to just about anything within a stage or two.
Hopefully Subaru WRT has taken the time off to work out some of their mechanical gremlins and will have better luck from here on out; not like their luck could get much worse.
My predictions for top 3, which will definitely be WAY off:
Gronholm
Loeb
Hirvonen
(I’m rooting for Marcus because he’s the only one even close to catching Sebastian)
I have always disliked Loeb, because he strikes me as an arrogant frenchie. I really wish that Subaru could get their shit together and put Peter Solberg in front for a change, but Germany has some really tight turns that the big STi doesn’t like. As long as the Focus doesn’t break, I think Gronholm is going to win. He’ll be pushing the car so hard though, and he’ll probably end up crashing or breaking something halfway through.
…who do i want to win???Travis “Boyaka” Pastrana…too bad he doesnt do WRC, cause i would want him too…“switching” such diff. sports is BA…but obv. i want petter and subaru to pull their act together and bang out a victory in the GERM.
I’m a big fan of Loeb because of his ultra-precise driving style. I like to root for Hirvonnen and Sordo, as well though, because they are up-and-coming drivers.
Hirvonen has surprised me this season. His driving isn’t the fastest, but it’s more consistent than many of the more experienced guys.
Another point of interest I noticed: Remember when Marcus Gronholm’s turbocharger shit the bed…and then within the same 5 kilometers of the same stage Hirvonen also had the same problem? A similar situation occurred with another team that I can’t recall. That’s what I call precision engineering!
Sometimes he’s almost pouting. By the way, is enormouslysideways.net the quickest route to getting the footage? Whats the turnaround time from airing to getting the footage onto that site?
Kronos Citröen’s WRC team is almost unstoppable. Apparently, they can even predict the weather better than most meteorologists :biglaugh: . Moving Sordo up to collect manufacturer points instead of Pons was certainly a good idea, he proved that in Germany.
It is also kind of odd seeing Toni Gardemeister without a regular ride this year but driving very well when he does show up. You can’t blame Ford for choosing Grönholm over him, but he is certainly deserving of a spot on one of the better teams.
It also has this thing called tarmac, which apparently they don’t like either.
He probably kept a positive attitude because his team was able to put his car back together again after he crashed it in practice. :ohnoes:
I still can’t believe that Subaru is actually 3rd in the manufacturer points with the season they’ve been having. Doesn’t say much for the teams that they are beating.
Picking the Finnish drivers to win in Finland? Who would have thunk it? (Even though you didn’t )
Hey at least Solberg can’t blame his car or his team for this one. :ohnoes:
Also this is probably the first time I’ve ever seen luck NOT go Loeb’s way in a rally. Remember the last time he and Gronholm hit that big rock, he got away with it and Gronhom smashed his oil pan (or whatever sump system they use on these cars). Could he have won if not for that? Probably not, Gronholm was just too fast. However, would Gronholm have made a mistake with Loeb breathing down his neck instead of being 45 seconds back on day 2?
)