This is the final instalment! (gasp).
This and many other excuses and hypothetical fantasies were rehearsed and
polished at the party which continued into the early hours of Saturday.
A more sober perspective reminded us that the overall victory in the Classic
category had gone to a car which had lost just seven minutes and two seconds,
the Hendrik Touw/Jan Berkhof Porsche 356B. Even more astonishing was that the
event's main prize - for Fifties and Historic machines - went to a car which
had dropped a mere two seconds, the very pretty 1959 Alfa Romeo Sprint of Bert
Dolk and Rob Van der Valk.
They received a three minute bonus by virtue of having drum brakes all round,
but the Dutchmen's victory was clear; second place was taken by the 1962 Volvo
PV544 of Frank Fennell and Kevin Savage, with 3m 6sec of penalties. Meanwhile,
the Vintageant category, which followed a slightly different route, was won by
the 1927 Chrysler 77 of Vincent Fairclough and Bill Ainscough, who lost just
22min 51sec and were followed home by a brace of 4.5 litre Bentleys.
The Against All Odds award was won by Roger King and Seffton Samuels for their
inspired visit to a cobbler in Aix-les-Bains, who hand-crafted a new
distributor drive for their stricken Triumph 2000, out of solid brass.
Another result worthy of mention was that of Dick Baines and John Pocklington,
on their first ever classic car rally in a Ford Zephyr. They had won nothing,
but across the square, the world's most famous casino beckoned. Unwilling to
return home without losing some more money, John walked up the casino steps,
and fed three 50 franc chips into a slot machine, gambling almost 15 GBP on
one pull of the handle.
Walking away, he heard a shower of chips spilling out behind him. He collected
them all up, handed them in, and was told he couldn't cash in his winnings
without a passport. He had won 8,000 GBP.
In truth, everybody who was a part of this marvellous event deserves a
mention, not least the organisers who put their reputation on the line; Philip
Young, the man who first put historic rallying on the map a decade ago, and
his very able assistant Heidi Winterbourne, who on Friday night tried to
persuade me that the Triumph would be better suited to the fast roads of
September's Classic Marathon.
I might already have downed several pints at that point. But the decision was
easy.
And on Sunday, as Tony and I sped through the night on the new Blue Train from
Nice to Calais, I was already thinking about those wonderful Tarmac tyres I
had left somewhere out on the route...
Entries for the Millennium Monte Carlo Challenge open on June 1st 1999.
For more details and plenty of useful advice, contact the Classic Rally
Association,
Ashbrook Mews, Westbrook Street, Blewbury, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 9QA, England.
or visit the website at <A HREF="www.carnet.co.uk/rallyoffice">Classic Rally
Association</A>
The CRA's next event is the 11th Classic Marathon, taking in circuit tests at
Le Mans, hillclimbs in Andorra and regularities in the Pyrenees, but over 100
places are already taken. The London to Peking Trial, running alongside the
Around the World in
80 Days Motor Challenge, takes off from Tower Bridge on May 1st 2000.
The film of the 10th Monte Carlo Challenge will be premiered at the Royal
Geographical Society in London at 7.30pm on March 17th 1999; everybody is
welcome.
The end.
L
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