Tuesday, May 10, 2011

RSI: Ouninpohja

The famous Ouninpohja jump, ever heard about it?

Of course you have.

Here it is in video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9szJtcYLrsk&feature=related

looks like it's just a simple jump, huh?

It's a bit more than that.



You can't see it on the video, but there is a yellow house to the driver's left just before and therefore it's known as the yellow house jump.

The road leading to the jump is a typical wide Finnish stage with good grip, all the time 5th and 6th gear.  Some of you may have seen the accident that Sebastian Lindholm had back in 2004 with his 307 WRC?  He had the crash a few 100's of meters back, in a rather slow corner combination, where there is a forest opening which allows the spectators to mass.  From the point where he had his crash onwards, it's basically full throttle until the jump.  The stage winds slightly as you go up in the gears and build up the speed.

I don't know exactly how fast it goes up to but I would guess not far from 180kph when you approach the jump.  The difficulty lies just before it.  There is a crest and a right bend where you need to guide the car with millimeter precision on the correct racing line and line up so it jumps ABSOLUTELY straight and in the dead center of the road. 

The speed is such that you have very little time to do this while not upsetting the rear wheels as you take this last flat out corner just before it.  It may not seem like that on the video but this last little corner is tough.  Once lined up for the jump, as a driver, the next thing you see is a very steep climb and the blue sky. 

You know the road continues straight immediately after, but at 180kph and about to launch, it is very difficult not to lift or brake.  I did this jump probably a half dozen times.  I tried it really fast once only, just for the fun of it and recorded 47 meters, landed on the nose, on the right edge of the road.  There is a reason why local guys usually  take it easy on this one, it's potentially very dangerous if you don't lift.

As a matter of fact the long jumps are pretty much always recorded on the first pass, when your ego is still nicely inflated.  On the second pass it's usually one or two steps down on the speed. 

Would gladly like to know who to credit for this pic.

1 comment:

  1. Markko Märtin haves the record of Yellow House Jump from 2003 year, 173km/h and 57meters. From that corner where Lindholm crashed, his cousin Marcus Grönholm was flat out for 46seconds, average speed in that section was 171km/h.

    There is a video of Grönholm's attack--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04P2CWRI_Qs&playnext=1&list=PL602EE9F2F10101D7

    And a few pics of you:
    http://www.ilkansivu.net/Neste_Rally_Finland_2005/slides_fi/NRF05_0752_SS14_Ouninpohja_West_2_Antony_Warmbold_and_Michael_Orr_Ford_Focus_RS_WRC_04.html

    http://ralli.verkkonen.net/kuvat/matti/2005-8-neste/photos/015-52.html

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