I'm still learning too but I'll take a stab... Drivers who run earliest are said to "sweep the road," meaning they have to deal with anything loose on the surface, esp. on gravel stages where they encounter the loosest of the gravel. Those cars throw some of that loose stuff off the road, or at least off the best line(s), as they go so drivers who follow have a somewhat easier drive. I'm still trying to understand how this crosses over with the complaint that drivers who go out later have to deal with the gravel tossed ON to the road by earlier drivers cutting corners. This was such a concern in France that they even put posts along some of the corners to keep drivers from cutting and ruining the chances of those running behind them. I think this latter effect is primarily a hard surface stage concern though and Wilcock is talking about the advantage they hope to gain from following others on the opening gravel stages.
Thanks Steve. I thought it was something like that, but was not sure. The way it was worded above it sounded like something else. Jim
I thought those little posts had been put up in France to stop the drivers cutting up the verges on the inside of turns - to reduce the damage the rally did to the surroundings, not to keep the roads clean.
I'm sure many of the locals appreciated it for that reason but see the article posted here for the real motive.
There's a short video of Sordo running a mixed surface stage here. I'm not certain, but I think it's today's short, pre-rally shake down. The whistling noise bugs me but fun stuff otherwise.
Wow expectations seem to be ramping up daily with all the talk on a win. Lest we forget, if not for an uncharacteristically poor rally from Loeb, we would most likely be all praising Dani for his third place finish and how miraculous two podiums in a row were for such a young team.... Don't get me wrong, this fan wants them to win as badly as they do, but me fears some humble pie could be in the oven.....
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pm8qDk3SUM]RALLYSUPPORT.NL - WRC RALLY SPAIN 2011 SHAKEDOWN - YouTube[/ame]
Loeb has been a harsh critic of the running order rule which apparently forces him to go out first all the time (not sure why...because he's the points leader?) and clear the road, but this time it was an unexpected and significant advantage. SS1: Loeb flies in the Spanish dust (wrc.com)
Meeke took a 10 sec penalty on the opening stage for arriving a minute late to the starting time control station. MINI report that it was intentional. He apparently felt that with the heavy hanging dust, delaying his start a bit would be an advantage. Maybe it helped...he finished the stage 5th, 25.7 sec behind Loeb and was classified at 35.7 behind the leader due to the penalty but still 5th. Sordo finished SS1 8th, 43.2 sec behind Loeb.
They're going to add time to the start intervals on the gravel stages this afternoon -- up to 4 min -- to help in letting some of the hanging dust clear.