Originally Posted by ChristianArp
Firstly, the rally was (at least for me personally) a bit overshadowed by Klaus Hammer, who had a big off about 6-700 metres after my marshalls post on stage 5. Cut down two trees before hitting a third tree that stopped the car. Really fast place, probably 150-160 kph on a very bumpy road, he lost the rear in a left 4-ish corner, and hit the trees almost immediately. Stage was stopped, as the reports were that it looked really bad, and that both were trapped in the car. Two ambulances and a medical helicopter was called, and were there very quickly.
Luckily, the injuries were fairly minor considering the off, Klaus was flown to hospital with a reported broken shoulder and collarbone, codriver could get out himself and was taken to hospital to be checked over, but no apparent major injuries to him. Very good news considering the reports of the first 10-15 minutes after the crash.
The race itself:
Indeed a victory for Ib, but a very close fight all the way to the final metres of the event.
All day Esben actually looked a lot quicker and more efficient in his driving than Ib, but on the final stage it was clear who had the advantage. Where I timed them (~12 k's into the stage) Ib was 4 seconds up on Esben and equal with Christian. Christian looked stressed all day, and the car was very nervous to look at.
Ib, very smooth, very boring to look at, but got the stage times he needed.
Positives:
Morten Karl! That car just sounds sooooooooo good! And goes like the clappers too, holy moly it's a fast car, with a driver that's not afraid of it! Very impressive, beating all cars except S2000 on stages that were veeery fast and flowing. A pure joy to watch, nothing else can be said.
Jacob Jensen - results might not show it, but the kid certainly does try.. both runs on my second stage of the day (8 and 10) he almost went off in a mega-fast right 4+, and both times he saved it to no apparent loss of time. Very entertaining, although I think he uses underwear as fast as tyres. :eek:
Kjeld Seidler. He might not be super fast, but you can see improvements all the time, and it isn't exactly a perfect car for rallying.. positive attitude, also when I had to stop him after the Hammer off. And the car does have a very crisp sound, a welcome change to the many screaming maxi's and r-cars.
Jesper Bisted. The corner Jacob Jensen almost went off at twice, Bisted did it - and promptly went about 50 metres into a (luckily) newly harvested corn field.. and kept his foot in it until he had righted the ship and made his way back to the stage. Spectators certainly enjoyed it! Driving looked good the rest of the day as well from him.
Steen Andersen. I can't exactly be called his biggest fan, admittedly - but good to see him out of the old Evo 7 and into an Evo X.
Negatives:
Tim Svanholt: Problems all day for the championship leading driver. Got stuck in 5th gear on stage 2 and then had further problems later on as well.
The foreign invaders: Rune Danneborg broke the radiator on stage 2, and Joachim Grahn blew the turbo right next to me also on stage 2 - end of the foreign challenge, but also revealed what nice guys Joachim and Per Andersson are.. they had just retired, and were now stuck in the middle of the stage. What do they do? They signed a boat load of autographs to the local kids, and let them all have a go at sitting in the car! :)
Ib Kragh: He did win the rally, but my gosh he knocked over my chicane every single time he passed it!! And once he took down three barrels in one pass - hard work to fix. ;)
Delays: A lot of them, but then again - having the radio to listen in on meant that I had plenty of information, and most of the delays were caused by one man complaining all .. the .. time! Too bad, but nothing that we could do about it. The race director was out twice to talk to him.. to absolutely no avail unfortunately.
Think that was it, all in all it was an enjoyable day, and the stages looked very technically challenging, even though there were a couple of sections with several seconds of 's2000 on limiter'-syndrome.. :D