Sweaty Sweden. Well, it was for me at least. I had the little space heater cranked up, the sweatpants and the hoodie on. By Stage 5 I was sweating plenty. Weird, what with all the cold, icy snow stuff all over. The irritations and disruptions that we had with Eksdom and the power that can’t be throughout the two weeks caused a lot of drivers to struggle to find enough time to practice and to put together strong rally stages. And the results show a few surprises, and perhaps the closest times I’ve seen for a place on the podium.
Some high speed sections make car control paramount as the road weaves through the trees. Then the track surfaces get all degraded and generally just kak. And then you crash at the one lone “left 2, tightens” and lose 15 seconds. Anyway. It’s done. We’re at the halfway point of the season with 6 done and 6 to go.
Nine drivers started the Varmland event. Four each opting for either the Pug 306 Maxi or the Golf Kitcar. I was the only one seated in the Seat pumping the Ibiza deep house tunes through the trees. At the end of Stage 12, the long and fast Harma stage, there were seven who crossed the line with four wheels generally pointing in the same direction.
Another comfortable win for 
@Boogey - looks like he was the only one who didn’t struggle at all. Perrennial P2 racer, 
@Aldyr had a couple (for him at least) of poor stages leaving him 3m40s shy of the leader.
And then, trailing the winner by a little under 4m30s came 
@LazyDemoni who captured the third step on the podium by the insanely small margin of just 0.051 seconds ahead of @The9Avenger9! Their total rally times were 55:58.037 and 55:58.088 respectively. If I could split the points for P3 and P4 equally I would. Amazing driving gents!
The top 4 were in a league of their own again. In the junior class, I made the Top 5 for the first time, over 3 minutes behind, with @Beo a further 2m30s down the road in P6, and @WarRack101 adding another 4m25s to the rally clock to finish P7.
Classified P8 after Stage 11 (don’t know why Stage 12 didn’t register?) was @Dragonic, and @jaydogg86 was the last driver classified after he wasn’t able to return to continue the event from Stage 5.
Points for all the finishers then has the Championship Standings looking like this:
@Boogey and @Aldyr still close enough at the top for neither to relax too much yet. They’re followed - fittingly on equal points - by @the9avenger9 and @LazyDemoni. Warrack is in a little lonely P5, while @Dragonic, @Beo, and @Munage are also all three on an equal 17 points.
Just one point behind the three of them, (and poised to leapfrog the lot!) is yours truly. Mr Consistency (at least until this last round) @murfle slots into the Championship Top Ten. @TheeAlekai, @czc, @oltman, @jaydogg86, and @Deadlypinecone all stay on the board with points scored in the first half of the season.
Round number 7 is upon us already. The dusty gravel tracks with their hairpin after hairpin after hairpin, and the high speed tarmac stages through the little towns of the Ribadelles region in Spain await.
Also have to get my excuses in, Quest is giving problems again. So driving on a monitor like a Neanderthal.
Worth a try maybe? If you feel yourself unraveling.
kinda bummed now. Will see if I can pick up the will to complete it before Saturday.