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“Sigdalsrally 2022”, which was the first stage of the Norwegian National Championship, took place last weekend. The competition took place around the village of Nerstad. The famous Norwegian biathlete Ule Einar Bjorndalen also came from this area. In contrast to the current thaw in Latvia, the competition took place in good winter conditions.
Eivind Brinildsen celebrated the victory in a fierce battle, surpassing Ole Christian Weiby by 0.2 seconds. The Latvian crew Mikus Grantiņš with the co-driver Aldis Hanzen also started, who dropped out after the fifth stage.
“Everything in this race was very compact – there is a road around the three mountains, and it is also divided into special stages. The roads here were very fast, as well as extremely difficult and with opaque springboards and bends that seem to never end. Here is 15 kilometers. a long stage took 18-20 pages, which means that in one line of the transcript I marked 3-4 objects per 100 meters of the track, each of which has additional remarks, such as “do not cut”, “late”, “close”. , “Bridge”, “met”, etc., “the portal rallys.eu tells Aldis Hanzens.
“It is really extremely important here that the pilot with the co-pilot is” on one wave “, because mistakes here are severely punished – there are rocks and big ravines on the side of the road. If on the roads of Latvia and the Baltic regions we mostly lose only a few seconds when driving a little off the road, then here each such tour can end with an expensive repair or a search for a new car, because it will no longer be possible to repair the existing one. “
“In the race we start in class 13, which is 4WD class for all-wheel drive cars of group A, N and R4. We start with Group A “Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI”. The car was prepared for the race – a sequential gearbox, Ohlins shock absorbers, a lot of fiberglass in the body parts to reduce weight, eventually reaching a light and powerful car, just like a rally needs. Of course, we haven’t forgotten about braking either – the braking system has also been improved so that we can stop as soon as possible. Of course, the competitors in the class have also held the wrench in their hands, and at least as seriously built cars are facing us in the class. “
” One of the stages here was reminiscent of the famous Ouninpohja speed stage in Finland – opaque springboards, where to hit the next bend, you have to jump while slipping. As an example, I can make a small cut-out from the transcript – at the top L2 close to T a little right MET down at K3. Of course, all of the above also happens at high speeds. We really enjoyed this stage. “
” We didn’t do as well this time as we would like. The car was well prepared, but what was to be denied there this time was that I, as a co-driver, “burned out” a bit. It also knocked the pilot out of the rhythm, and so we were forced to fight in order to stay on the track and avoid mistakes. After SS5, we decided to withdraw from the race, because we realized that the risk of driving in this way was too great. Leaders of previous years, such as Evens Moens, agreed to some extent, admitting that in some quick sections the accelerator pedal was released because they were afraid of those speeds. The smartest, most stable and the one who rides with his head wins, not all corners last. If you want to win in Norway, you have to approach all the “homework” professionally and thoroughly, grinding the transcript, driving and, of course, reading the transcript. “
“We have opened the season and gained the first experience, but at the moment we can’t say anything specific about the upcoming competition plans. It is possible that we will be visible in some competitions here in Latvia, as well as we have unpaid bills from last year Lausitz rally in Germany, but time will tell how the season will turn out. “
Rally results:
