Mini Monte 2

Having enjoyed the original running of this event in 1996, I took the plunge and entered again. Various changes in personnel at the Classic Rally Association and the Peking to Paris event prevented the event from being run in 1997.

My wife, Annette opted not to come as navigator, just in case our son, Michael thought he should come as well. Finding someone to replace Annette was going to prove difficult! But I spoke with John, our next door neighbour, he came to the rescue, seeming to relish the challenge.

No major changes have been made to the Mini since the Ireland run last year apart from the fitting of an updated Brantz trip meter giving total distance, intermediate distance, miles per hour and average speed.

When paying the balance of the entry fee, I actually dropped the cheque off at the Classic Rally Association office, speaking to Philip Young, the man behind the organisation, said that the event was going to be tougher this year, he was not wrong. Despite the promotional material saying it was the original fun run to the sun!

The overnight stops were the same as the previous event; Reims followed by Aix-les-Bains, Gap and then Eze, just down the road from Monte Carlo. The route from Reims to Monte Carlo was in the most part completely different. The route had again been devised by Paul Easter, long time navigator for Timo Makinen.

The entry consisted of Mini's of varying ages from ex works replicas, Mini clubmans, various models of Cooper from a Mark1 998 to the latest Rover Cooper. In fact there were two which had been hired for the event! A few of the competitors where like us, coming back for a second attempt. There was a couple on their honeymoon. Also invited to take part were Tony Fall and Mike Wood, who had competed on the Monte back in the heyday of the Mini, they were in one of the hire cars. Other personalities involved where Basil Wales former Head of Special Tuning and Brian Moylan who had spent a good many years as a mechanic for BMC and BLMC. He had just published an excellent book on his experiences. There were several crews from the Mini Cooper Register - apart from us there was Robert and Alison Hobbs, Roger Wall with John Matthews, Geoff Marriott (who had competed in the Monte Carlo Challenge a couple of months earlier) with Dave Panting. There was a crew from Canada in another hire car! Also taking part were Rich Williamson and Dave Kelly from Mini World Magazine.

Shortly before the event the road book and rally plates arrived, and it was down to plotting the route onto the Michelin Atlas of France inevitably we had a few queries on the route.

So onto the event -

Day 0 - Dockenfield to Ashford

We had arranged to stay down in Ashford, with the other crews, on the night before the actual start. I went to get the car out of the garage to start loading, but I hadn't counted on it having a flat battery! I put it on fast charge; at least we had a couple of hours before we were due to leave. We left at about 5pm, waved off by our families. Driving along the M25 we remembered we hadn't brought an alarm clock with us, and one morning we had a very early start. Stopping at the Clackett Lane service we brought an alarm for £5. The rest of the journey was uneventful. On arriving at the hotel we were told we had missed the briefing, despite the road book had saying it was an informal get together with the organisers!

The route was displayed, and we checked the queries we had. Paul Easter who had devised the route was there and we chatted to him about the route and the previous event.

Day 1 - Ashford - Calais - Reims

It was up at 7.00 to leave the hotel by 8.00 and drive the rest of the way to Dover to catch the 9.15 ferry. We were put in a queue with other cars, being the first to arrive. When the organisers arrived we were pulled out of the queue to start another queue just for minis. Eventually more than 30 minis had arrived. In a few minutes we were loaded onto the ferry. Being first in the queue meant we were first off the ferry to drive round to the starting area. What a responsibility leading some 30 cars round to the right place! We were given a quick briefing and we would be starting at minute intervals from 12:31, our off time was 12:38 as we were car 8.

The run down to our late lunch stop at Roupy, near St Quentin, was uneventful, covering much the same roads as we had in the first event. This was the first of the days Passage controls and the owner stamped our route cards. Appetites satiated it was on to Reims, collecting more route checks on the way. South of Laon was the second Passage Control, we had to get our time card stamped in the Bar behind a Petrol station - all the locals were out. John and I had a conversation with someone who spoke English who translated what we said to the local journalist who had seen better days and must have spent most of the day in the Bar! Just outside Reims we had our first regularity, though only 6 1/2 miles we managed to miss a turn and had to retrace our steps. Consequently this threw out our calculations and then relied too much on the average speed display on the trip meter. At the end we dropped 26 seconds. It was only a short distance to the Hotel. We stopped to fill up with petrol, we were aware that the next day time was going to be tight. The final sting in the day was an autotest in the hotel car park and to make matters more difficult it had started to rain. I managed to do the test in 58 seconds, not the fastest not the slowest. We finished the day in joint 5th place having dropped a total of 1 minute 24 seconds.

Day 2 - Reims - Aix-Le-Bains

This was going to a long day; we were not due into Aix until six in the evening and the first test was on the old Reims Grand Prix circuit from 7.00am! To make matters worse our cheap alarm didn't go off we awoke at twenty to seven. It meant a quick shower, an even quicker breakfast and then we had to queue to check out of the Hotel. Still we managed to get there by about 7.15. For the test we had to park the car and go back to a cone. We were timed from running from the cone getting in the car starting it up and driving a few yards to another cone. This I did in 18 seconds. I did make the mistake of not leaving the car in gear, it sometimes is difficult to get into first and of course that happened today. The route then took us round the remainder of the Grand Prix circuit and into Reims and of course everyone was also trying to get to work!

At Conde-s-Marne the route book said go straight on and shortly turn left. We managed to turn left - on discovering our mistake we stopped and had a quick look at the map and decided if we turned right we could cut across to the main road. Having found the road, and started driving along, John said, "any ideas as to what do dotted lines mean on either side of the road", "no idea", we soon found out as we turned a corner the made road ran out! So we made our way for about 2 miles on this "road" between potholes and lakes. Joining the right route we continued our journey south mainly on D roads. Some 80 miles into the day in the village of Amance there was supposed to be a route check. In the road book there what a photograph of a sign on a building, driving through the village several times we still couldn’t see it, up to that point the route checks had been easy to find. Having a sort of conversation with a local it turned out the building was no longer there! Several miles on we saw a similar sign and took our answer from that! We continued the drive south on deserted roads and rarely saw another car let alone another mini. We had made good time down to Dijon, we by passed Dijon on the ring road, it had been raining when we left the Hotel and was still raining now, even harder. The visibility was terrible, so much spray, fortunately we got the right turning off, despite the road book giving the wrong road number!

The lunch halt and Time Control was south of Dijon at Saulon-la-Rue, 190 miles into the days journey. A small village I had actually stayed in when I was a small boy.

Two hundred miles is about the maximum I can get from a tankfull of petrol, still according to the route book petrol was available in the next town about 20 miles on, indeed it was but the station was closed - not surprising as it was a lunchtime and it was Monday! We decided to press on, having a spare can in the boot. (The next modification to the Mini has to be another tank!) We managed another 12 miles before we encountered not one but two open petrol stations. It was onto Lons le Sauntier and Clairvaux and here we started to climb, and it was attempting to snow. So onto St Claude, St Claude was well known on the Monte and the Tulip Rallies, on the road south from here is Bellydoux and one corner on the descent claimed 20 cars on the 1964 Monte.

The only Passage Control of the day was at Echallon, where we also took a quick coffee break in a very smoky bar. Leaving Echallon, we descended only to climb again over the Col de Berentiand then over the Col de la Biche, It was still attempting to snow over both the Col’s we were above the snow line, all very spectacular. On the descent from the Col de la Biche the is a view point over the Rhone Valley, nothing could be seen as we were amongst the low clouds and mist. All that was left to do today was the final 20 or so miles into Aix with the last 10 miles alongside the Lac du Bourget, Aix-Les-Bains is situated alongside the lake. We located the Hotel and parked in its underground car park, and handed in our time card. Only a handful of crews had already arrived. Although the results were not posted on a daily basis we had only dropped 18 seconds. If you missed a route check you lost 10 minutes, missing a passage control was 15 minutes.

So far we had dropped 1 minute 42 seconds and were in 4th place.

Day 3 - Aix-Les-Bains - Gap

This was going to be an eventful day, mind you, we didn’t know that at the time.

On leaving Aix, we again filled up with petrol, and headed towards Chambery and it was still raining. We left Chambery on a minor road, the organisers had included in the road book a town plan with the route marked on it, despite this a number of crews went wrong. Just outside the town as we climbed the Col du Grainer there was a regularity just short of 5 miles to the summit of the Col. Here we only dropped 3 seconds. It was then over the Col du Cucheron and through the Gorges du Guiers Mort and the over the Col de la Placette. We then arrived in Voreppe, the road book said "CARE! Easy to miss small Junction..." we found that alright, and managed to mess up the next! Instead of going straight on we turned right onto a dual carriageway on the map a roundabout was shown so we opted to use that to turn round. On this road we came across a scrap yard which had a mini body shell up a 10 foot high post obviously a photo opportunity!

Having got just got ourselves back on the right route, we were supposed to go over the Col de Autrans. On the recce for the route the road was closed due to a landslide and it was still closed. We needed to use the alternative route which was in the road book. Back on the route proper we ended up in a queue of cars waiting for some workers to cut down and remove some trees! Further on from here there were signs saying the route we wanted was blocked because of road works. The organisers had been running along the route ahead of us and had put an arrow out advising to take another route. Looking at the map and talking with other competitors we all decided to take the original route! Only to find a couple of miles down the road in the next village the road was actually blocked. The locals pointed us in the direction of a little road which would take us onto the alternative route. To get us back on the right route we had to at least two sides of a triangle! On this extra route we went over the Col du Carri and the Col de la Machine. We eventually arrived at St Jean en Royans for lunch, to discover again only a handful of cars had arrived. The village of St Jean has been used as start of stages on both the Monte and Alpine rallies. Out of St Jean it was over the Col de la Rochette, Col de la Croix, Col de Lachau and the Col de Rousset. The view down from top of the Rousset was breath taking, it was bitterly cold and still attempting to snow. Descending from the Rousset we dropped down into Die and a relatively long section on a main road which took us over the Col de Cabre and eventually down into Veynes. Just outside the village was the start of another regularity, this time some twenty five miles. It would take us over 4 Col’s the Espreaux, de la Beaume, Foureyssasse and Villar a distance of some 34kms from La Madeleine to Pellautier. The majority of this was single track and the early part was unfenced, or with very rusty iron railings which looked as though they would collapse with the slightest touch! The time for this stage in 1964 was some 33 mins 53secs. Before this there was a test for the navigators, plot a six figure map reference, John set the fastest time of nine seconds. So it was off on the regularity, at the start of the event the organisers had given us a set of speed and distance tables, these helped a lot with John telling me each mile how much time over (usually) or under our average speed we were. Generally with regularities you don’t know where the end of the section is, the road book said where it would be, but some four miles before the end the organisers where there and we clocked in early dropping 4 minutes 4 seconds. We did pick up the route checks on the route. It was a simple drive down into Gap from there. Stopping for the odd photographic opportunity which presented itself as the weather had improved somewhat. We arrived at the hotel only to find a number of us had been relocated to another hotel, apparently very basic and some people objected to the standard and an hour and half stalemate with the manager of the hotel we were expecting stay in was resolved. We would be staying in the Gapotel just round the corner. Finally we could sit down, be only briefly, so we could go out and have something to eat. The results at the end of the day put us in 3rd position, the afternoon regularity being cancelled (fortunately for us!) because crews were started off into the section, but the finish crew had packed up and gone! So today we only dropped 12 seconds.

Day 4 - Gap - Eze (Monte Carlo)

The last day dawned sunny and bright. Within five minutes of leaving the hotel we were in a queue of Mini’s waiting to start the first regularity of the day over the Col de la Sentinelle. In fact we were the last but one on the road, we’re not sure how we managed this! The views over the valley were glorious. So much so we almost missed the route check! We finished the regularity dropping 7 seconds.

There was then some thirty miles to Sisteron a spectacular town on the Durance river. The road had a considerable number of road works and allegedly on or two people got caught by the local law for either speeding or crossing the white lines. Sisteron is on the Route Napoleon, a road built to commemorate Napoleon’s return from exile on Elba. Leaving Sisteron we climbed out on a minor road with great views back to the town. The next passage control was in a sort of a cafe situated in a sunny valley along side a fast running stream. It seemed difficult to leave here, we could have spent all day here, We left the crew from Mini World basking in the sun here. We arrived just outside the village of Thoard and encountered lots of minis got all sorts of the directions looking for a route check. The route book said "turn left on D3 SP Thoard" the problem was that there were several turnings left. Despite taking the right road we missed it. Fortunately for us we just retraced out route from a known point using the trip meter and found it. The route took us down into Digne, out again on a minor road over the Col de Corobin and into Barreme. Over the Col de Corobin there was another route check, in the road book there was a photograph of a grey box on a pole and the question was "What are the numbers shown ...." In fact the answer was a combination of letters and numbers! This route check caused a great deal of problems because of this. Because there was another grey box a little way away, but not the correct distance. (in fact we didn’t see it!)

There was another 25 mile drive a long a main road going through the Clue de Vergons and over the Col de Toutes Aures. Soon afterwards we turned off to go up a minor road through the Gorges de Daluis to head up to the next regularity. We caught up a number of minis here behind a four wheel drive, they weren’t going very quickly. John and I were aware of the time and the fact we still had a regularity to do and there was a Time Control at the lunch halt and we didn’t want to go OTL. We decided to get a move on and make sure we didn’t go OTL but lose more time on the regularity. We came round a corner nothing was coming with a clear view ahead we overtook the queue of five or six minis and the four wheel drive, also later getting past a lorry and coach. Later on speaking with the crew in the first car we passed, they said we wondered why we suddenly found a greater turn of speed, they too realised the timing implications and in fact followed us into the time control. We arrived at the start of the regularity which would take us up to Valberg. The scenery here was spectacular, the road twisted and turned through very red sandstone. Taking the decision to go as quick as we could, we dropped 2 minutes 36 seconds. The weather had now become overcast and as Valberg is a ski resort at over 4500 feet it was somewhat cold.

Having collected another two route checks, there was another Passage Control on the Col St Martin. It was then onto the Col de Turini and another passage control, again it was bleak and cold up here. On the descent from the Turini it again started to rain, and there were three more route checks to find. The first was a picture of a gate with a gargoyle on it. The road book said it could be found after 1.7 miles, it was certainly further than that and we had almost giving up hope of finding it but coming to a hairpin bend there it was. The next one said "name the bar on the left in Le Grave" could we find it? No. Did anyone else find it? No. Between the recce for the route being done and the event it had disappeared and turned into something else!

The final one was much easier to find - thank goodness as time was getting on, and fortunately it was only a short run into the Hotel at Eze. We handed our time card in and it was down to waiting for the results. For today we had dropped 2 minutes 43 seconds and most of that was on the second regularity. It was still raining and we opted to eat in the hotel with two other crews, we were almost the first into the restaurant and almost the last to leave!

Day 5 - Monte Carlo

The results were displayed on a notice board in the foyer of the hotel and it had declared us in 4th place having dropped a total of 4 minutes 37 seconds. Though there some disputes about the route check on the grey box, one crew were more affected by this than some of the others in that it cost them winning.

Having checked out of the hotel we made our way to Monte Carlo, parked up and had a wander round. Before going to the Cafe de Paris for the awards lunch. Here we had a buffet lunch and the award were presented. Everyone who finished got a Finisher’s Award.

The Final results were

The top five were close, 6th was on 12:41 and 7th on 17:25.

With all the awards presented, it was time to head off into Nice to put the car on the train back to Calais. We were back home, the next day by about 3p.m.

To conclude the roads used on the event were absolutely superb and it was this it more of challenge, which was to our liking. But the organisation left something to be desired in some places.

A couple of thank you’s - John for doing an excellent job on the navigation and getting the regularities under control. Our wives, Annette and Celia for letting us boys go out a play!

Pictures from the Awards Luncheon

Brian Moylan signing his book Works Rally Mechanic.

The Buffet.

The Winners Tony Fall and Mike Wood with Philip Young from the Classic Rally Association

Again Philip Young with the second placed crew of Geoff and Elspeth Humphries.

John and I with our finishers awards.

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