The middle stage of the middle loop of Saturday, day 2 of the 37th GTC Rally, a 2nd pass on SS Rucphen-Klappenberg. We visited this high speed gravel section which ends with a small bend onto a paved road and then asphalt.
In the first round there have been 3 spins, as can be seen at the tracks in the grass next to the asphalt. One competitor got really lucky seemingly, since there is a very big ditch to the right under the trees.
On this pass, some cars went a little wide but nobody spun on the slippery asphalt covered in mud. There was one mistake:
16:14 Mike Melse (52, BMW 130i E87) comes in a little fast and did not enter the correct line, then locked up and slid off the road. Nothing was hit and he could continue. (compare his speed with the same car before at 15:49, Robin Ecker (53, BMW 130i E87) who was a little more cautious :-)) The corner was doable at the speed of Melse I think, he should have steered in just a little bit earlier!
At 03:53 we see Richard Pex (6) immediately followed by Roger Hodenius (8), both in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Hodenius should have been the 2nd car to come through but he went off and lost 3 minutes earlier on this stage (we heard him approach in the distance, and then not anymore). There was little damage to the side of the car, he was pushing to take the lead in the rally but lost the car in a braking zone.
Thumbnail: 05:20 Willem Wouter Overbeek (12, Renault Clio Rally3). Leader of the Clio Rally Trophy after the crash of Ceriel Klein Kromhof (11, Renault Clio Rally3) earlier on this stage (who was3 rd overall after day 1!). Klein Kromhof should have been the 3rd car to come through. We first thought he must have stopped to check on Hodenius, since we also heard him approach and then heard turning off the engine, but apparently it was not related and he crashed onto a tree.
There were 2 pauses during the stage, probably for other cars that went off. Apparently this stage hasn't been driven anymore in round 3 "due to circumstances", possibly it was found to dangerous in this weather and also the gravel roads have deteriorated quite much. Much of the gravel sections were taken out of the rally, only a few including this one remained.
For the final round and final stage, we also went to a gravel section. It stopped raining actually so we ended the weekend with some sun!
Enjoy the video!
00:00 Course cars
02:54 Rally
22:52 Historic rally
28:12 Stage finished
29:01 Traces of mistakes in the previous corner
