Two Guys Rally

Rally Racing Online: Season 1 Is Over [ July 10th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

My time spent practicing for Rally Japan of the RSL was well spent. With 2 stage wins and consistent top stage finishes I placed 1st in Japan. Which bumped me up to 3rd overall in the championship 1 point ahead of VMethos. This was the final event of the season, and I sneaked by into 3rd.

It was a close race, and VMethos lead the rally up until Stage 5 (Noiker) where I overtook him by .08 seconds overall. I proceeded to beat him on Stage 6 by 12.17 seconds bringing me ahead of him overall by 12.25 seconds. Apparently VMethos and I had prepared well for Japan as we came in 2nd and 1st respectively. We had finally beat Turbo and Wild Swede consistently through a rally.

Wild Swede jokingly claimed that this driver was seen exiting the Citroen Xsara I was driving:

I am happy with a 3rd place overall for my first RBR Season. Hopefully I can be more competitive in the future and pose a threat for 1st place overall.

Rally Racing Online: Japan [ July 7th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

The past few weeks were riddled with practice sessions in a rally racing video game called Richard Burns Rally. Why was I practicing? Because I’ve positioned myself to possibly take 3rd place overall in the Rally Sim League’s RBR Rally.

This week I am racing Rally Japan, which is the sixth and final rally of this season. It is the most technical rally in the lineup. It has the slickest off-road surface so having an off or going wide through a turn has a huge effect on the overall stage time when compared to all the other rallies we have seen this season. It also has the longest and highest speed stage in the series: Nokier. And that 7:30-8minute+ stage is driven twice, once forward and once backward.

So with 1 point separating me and ‘VMethos’ I have to place the best I’ve ever placed on the hardest rally. It is also impossible for me or VMethos to get 2nd place as 1st and 2nd placers have gained more than 17 points on 3rd and 4th. However the race for 1st overall is still raging strong between Wild Swede and Turbo. This season of rally has come down to a nail biting finish.

Hopefully I can sneak past VMethos and place on the podium my first ever season with this game. More updates as they come, check back later.

Rally Racing Online: Finland Placement [ June 23rd, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

If you did not know already I play Richard Burn’s Rally competively against whomever over at the Rally Sim Driver’s League.

Anyhoo, after my poor performance in the ‘oh so scary’ Rally France I was ready to do well in Finland. With good reason too, VMethos and I are in a tight race for 3rd place in the championship. He squeaked by me in France and gained 2 points overall on me.

Today was race day for me (you have about two weeks time to do your race in one 90 minute session) and I had a hard time getting into the rhythm of the race. I felt out of control and sloppy…that is until I noticed my times for the day. I set 5 Personal Best times out of the 6 competition stages, and on the stage I did not set a personal best I had a non-race ending Roll that lost me 5 or 6 seconds (ONLY!!!).

As for the times that I set (barring any penalties):

SS1 - Sikakama - 5:52:18 (PB)
SS2 - Kaihuavaara - 4:06:05 (PB)
SS3 - Kaihuavaara II - 4:14:44
SS4 - Mustaselk - 5:21:08 (PB)
SS5 - Mustaselk II - 5:24:92 (PB)
SS6 - Autiovaara - 3:41:93 (PB)
Total - 28:40:60

Special Stage 3 is the stage I rolled on, yet miraculously landed on my wheels and was able to get right back onto the stage. However I did have a very close call with damage on Special Stage 4. I got extremely lucky that I did not end my race by running into a log on the side of the road. It punctured the radiator and ripped the front fender off.

Let’s hope I can fend off VMethos and gain some points as we go into Rally Japan, the final rally of the season.

Update: I placed 3rd overall in this event behind Wild Swede and turbo. This has brought me within 1 point of 3rd place overall. In order to guarantee I get 3rd overall, in Japan I must place 1st…or 2nd with VMethos behind me.

Rally Racing Online: Australia Placement [ May 15th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

So, Rally Australia just ended and my times were good enough to finish in 3rd place! Podium finish! Woohoo!

I started out slow on SS1 with a 5th place start and ended up climbing. I Climbed to 4th by the end of SS2. Finally I reached 3rd by the end of SS5 and stayed there. It was a fun rally and now I get to recce Rally Great Britain (some of my worst stages). Good luck to all that are competing.

If you would like to play Richard Burns Rally online with us, the site for competition is the Rally Sim League.

Rally Racing Online [ May 5th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

I posted earlier about how I was competing in an Online Rally League called Rally Simdrivers League. The guys over at DirtyImpreza.com dragged me into the competition and I ended up getting 6th place in my first rally. That was back when I was new and slow. Now that I have finished the Australia Rally, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be competitive with the top three. Stage times for Rally Australia were:

SS1 Mineshaft - 5:24:51
SS2 EastWest - 6:43:97 (rolled across finish line, lol)
SS3 NewBobsI - 5:51:12
SS4 NewBobII - 5:53:64
SS5 EastWestII - 6:49:00
SS6 GreenHills - 4:01:70

Total Rally Time: 34:43:94 Here are some highlights from SS2 for your viewing pleasure:

Video Games and Rally Competitions [ April 25th, 2008 ] By:Charles Smith

Sometimes rally racing is too expensive for the real world, so a cheap solution is video games. This time I’m competing with Richard Burns Rally against a few of the guys from DirtyImpreza.com. I just completed my USA Rally with a painfully slow time of 24:16:82. Although to be fair, I was just trying to complete the rally without DNFing, and I came mighty close.

In the 2nd stage I crashed into a tree and lost gear controls, so I was stuck in 2nd for the last few corners of the stage. In the 3rd stage I ran into a camera man and rolled the car. In the 4th stage I took a turn too fast over a crest and rolled at least four times. Luckily the rally prepared Toyota Corolla I was driving managed to keep on going. Making it to the end of 6 special stages was, eventually, taken slow. Why not all out? Because the season is about gaining points, and as many as possible.

Here are my stage times for fun:

Prospect Ridge I - 4:40:27
Prospect Ridge II - 4:52:42
Diamond Creek I - 4:07:55
Diamond Creek II - 3:52:64
Hulapai Nation - 4:24:36
Frazier Wells - 2:19:58

Maybe I’ll see you out there on the intertubes.