Boo hoo, I crashed my car… 
Boo hoo, I lost my place in the pace notes and the driver is yelling at me…
Rally Japan this weekend…
I have a feeling Solberg will make a strong showing. He was leading last year but got taken out by a rock.
Hopefully we’ll get a good three-way battle between Loeb, Solberg and Gronholm. If any of them suffers any misfortune, I expect Hirvonnen and Sordo to be right there to take advantage of it.
lol, yeah that was a little weird/difficult to watch…
Looking forward to Japan.
no speed channel on campus :tdown:
It’s not on speed this year. There was a petition somewhere.
Are the races still on Speed TV? If so when? I love watching ralley car. :tup:
ok thanks. It would look and sound awesome on my new LCD HDTV and sound system…too bad I guess.
So it seems that the inevitable has happened. History has been made. If you know the results of Rally Japan, you know exactly what I am talking about. :tup: to the official greatest WRC driver of all time…
My heart goes out to Petter Solberg. If only his car would not break…
Something needs to happen on that team. Somebody is not doing their job, as there is no excuse for this many DNFs and poor finishes for a factory team. Especially when their car is not substantially different from what they were running last year.
At least Ford has that excuse for the few events where they had problems, as they are running a totally new car this year.
It is a new car though, but I am not sure if there are any differences in the new model. Probably not enough to explain it breaking so much.
I also thinks its funny that the Factory Ford Focuii have the same problems at the same points (crashing at same point, turbos both breaking same way, similar transmission problems…). It seams that either both finish (and finish well), or both suffer from the same problems. Do you ever wonder if Leob wins so much just because he doesn’t suffer from the same mechanical problems as other drivers/teams?
I don’t wonder, it’s a fact. He has a great team, and that team never lets him down. Same goes for his car. Plus he also may be French, but he’s got the luck of the Irish smiling on him, it seems, most of the time. Stuff that ends other people’s day he keeps right on truckin’. Of course, he’s also a very consistent driver who almost never makes a mistake. All of those things added up are why he’s now the number one WRC driver of all time.
Loeb drives pretty much perfectly. I think he also used to be an olympic gymnast.
It’s interesting to watch the difference between Gronholm and Loeb when it is a close race. Loeb will push and push, but it almost never results in a mistake. OTOH, one of the more recent events had Loeb chasing Gronholm, and Gronholm caved under the pressure, spinning out twice on the same stage. It makes for fun spectating, that’s for sure.
It is great to see the 2nd drivers in the teams developing, too. Hirvonnen is just getting faster and faster, and if he wasn’t playing 2nd fiddle to Gronholm he’d be even more of a contender. Ford was smart to pick him up this year. Atkinson has been doing better, and his car has let him down a little less than Solberg’s. Plus I love listening to his co-driver, it’s amazing he can get the pace notes out fast enough with that Australian drawl of his. :biglaugh: Then there’s Sordo, who’s already got plenty of speed on tarmac, but just needs to get gravel figured out in the WRC car. Watch out when he does.
I couldn’t believe Hirvonen’s speed and consistency in the last 2 rallies, his improvement this year has been amazing.
What’s more amazing is that when Gronholm pushed to try and catch Loeb in the last few stages of Japan, he was beating Hirvonen by 20-30 sec.
There’s no question that Loeb, Gronholm and Solberg are on a whole 'nother level compared to the rest of the WRC when they are driving at their best. They are just freakishly fast.
Well hurry up and watch Japan, and you’ll be caught up. 
I can’t wait for more tarmac rallies.