DiRT Rally League Mid-Season Review

We have reached the midway point of our first official DiRT Rally League, and what an exciting first half it has been. Gaps of less than 10 seconds in three of our five events. 3 different winners so far, and 5 different podium visitors. We had fatal crashes, a lot of dead trees and lots of tyres left behind in the forests, mountains and Snowbanks. But we have seen times that even Sebastien Loeb would be scared of. See all the standings and the overall result here: http://flag-to-flag.com/dirt-rally-league-results-standings/

Event 1 – The Title Contenders First Show

We started our season a month ago with the R4 cars. And @Waffen and @Chicane already showed that they are title contenders Waffen won the event 17 seconds ahead of Chicane, but both of them left the whole field behind with almost 2 minutes. @puluminati came 3rd, 2 minutes and 8 seconds off.

Event 2 – A New Name in the Race for the Title

In our second event we went back in time to the 1970’s with some powerful RWD racing machines. @bouckaertje surprisingly won the event after “only” being 4th the week before. @Chicane came in 2nd again, only 3.2 seconds slower than bouckaertje, the smallest gap of the whole season. @Frenzy got his first podium finished 3rd 44 seconds down. First week’s winner @Waffen crashed on the very last stage and therefore only finished 8th. @YuckierDragon had his best finish with a 4th place. With four crashes this event has been the most demanding so far.

Event 3 – The Comeback of Waffen

The third event got us to drive the F2 Kit Cars, very light FWD Beats. If you look at the top 3 its Event 1 all over again. @Waffen, after crashing last week found his way back to the top and won the event , 5 seconds behind him @Chicane had his third 2nd place finish, and @puluminati 3rd with a gap of 40 seconds to the winner. @bouckaertje who has won last week crashed out and only finished 8th. @Conzomg who debuted a week earlier got his season best 5th position.

Event 4 – The Curse is broken

Event 4 put us back into the 90’s, the era of great Rally Drivers like Colin McRea, Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz, Didier Auriel and many more. The 2nd place curse that seemed to have come over @Chicane, finally got broken. He won his first ever event of the Flag-to-Flag DiRT Rally League, only 3.3 seconds ahead of @Waffen in 2nd place. @bouckaertje ended up third 17 seconds slower than Chicane. @Frenzy in 4th showed a good performance, he was 31 seconds behind first place. @Mystro debuted with an 8th place finish.

Event 5 – It was exciting until …

… bouckaertje went into McRea mode. After the first three stages Frenzy was in front of Chicane and his fellow countryman. The gap at this time between the top 3 was only 4 seconds. The second half of the event tho changed everything. Chicane and Frenzy both did some mistakes that cost them their lead over bouckaertje, who had one perfect stage after another in the second half of the event. In the end @bouckaertje won with a 31 second lead over @Chicane and 50 seconds ahead of @Frenzy in 3rd. @palamies and @NERDsBulletBurn showed their best performances so far this season coming in 5th (palamies) and 6th (BulletBurn)

Stats:

Average finishing positions (number of finishes):

1. Chicane: 1.8 (5)
2. Waffen: 3.0 (4)
3. bouckaertje: 3.4 (5)
4. Frenzy: 4.0 (5)
5. puluminati:4.2 (5)
6. YuckierDragon: 5.0 (4)
7. Palamies: 6.3 (3)
8. BulletBurn 7.2 (5)

Overall time, best 4 results (thx to Frenzy for collecting the times):

1. Chicane: 1:43:50
2. Frenzy: 1:47:01 (+0:03:11)
3. bouckaertje: 1:47:02 (+0:03:12)
4. puluminati: 1:52:44 (+0:08:54)
5. YuckierDragon: 1:53:01 (+0:09:11)
6. BulletBurn: 2:07:08 (+0:23:18)
7. Waffen: 2:08:56 (+0:25:06)

Average Points (number of finishes):

1. Chicane: 19.4 (5)
2. Waffen: 18.25 (4)
3. bouackaertje: 16.4 (5)
4. Frenzy: 12.4 (5)
5. puluminati: 12.0 (5)
6. YuckierDragon: 10 (4)
7. Conzomg: 8 (2)
8. Palamies: 7.6 (3)
9. BulletBurn 6.0 (5)
10. Mystro 5.0 (1)

I’m looking forward to the 2nd half of the season, and more close battles,  check out the site in the coming days to see what we have planned for our “league break” next wednesday. And make sure to join in when our league returns for the 6th event at March 16. you will find a post to that event next week. Until then i’ll see you on wednesday for some RallyCross action.

“If in doubt, flat out”

– pulu