Day 6 – Perugia – Rome
The rally arrived in Rome today with the traditional police motorcycle escort to ease the way through the usual almost grid locked Rome traffic. The finish Arch was taken just outside Rome near the shores of The Lago di Bracciano to avoid congestion in Rome and also have a nice lunch at the L Due Laghi in Relais.
The winners soon opened the bubbly. Under the finish arch are The Trial winners 
Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp in their Porsche 912 who moved up from third to first place today.
As predicted the final regularity did shake up the order as the Mercedes of Branko Brkovitch & Tony Davies got balked on the regularity on a narrow bridge by a big truck that would not give way. This gave them a big penalty that even when the joker was used saw them drop back to 3rd place.
In the Club category the winners were Nigel & Paula Broderick in their Derby Bentley
winners by a big margin, despite them insisting that they were doing the rally for a fun trip to Rome and not really competing.
Despite more rain today every one seems to have had a good time and are looking forward to the awards dinner tonight in the Hotel Exedra.
Trial Top 3 Final Result:
12:52 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
15:25 Nick Jarvis & Rob van den Berg, Triumph TR3
17:19 Branko Brkovitch & Tony Davies, Mercedes 300 SE
Club Top 3 Final Result:
16:53 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
1:03:53 Dave van Giffen & Renée van Giffen, Peugot 404
1:31:01 Geert & Loes van de Velde, Lagonda M45
And finally, a rather wet but happy crew wish everyone a safe trip home and hope to see you all again soon.
Day 5 – Bologna – Perugia
The rally was back in the hills again today with 6 regularities set with a mix of tulips and maps of various scales to help confuse the navigators. Also added to the mix was some gravel and broken tarmac with some smallish potholes. This usual “sting in the tail” of the rally caused a number of problems including errors from the 2 leading cars in the Trial route.
In the end this may not greatly alter the event as each crew is allowed 1 joker where they can exclude their worst score. We won’t know the full effect of this until the final results are published in Rome.
Navigation problems also befell Marzio Villa and Maria Christina Abello in their Alfa Giulietta Sprint. They got lost towards the end of regularity 6 when it switched from tulips to maps and then got a puncture while off rally route. Lucky for them the first car to find them were the police who stood around and watched, shortly followed by a marshal car taking a short cut to get back to the rally hotel in Perugia and finally by the mechanics team of Jan Altena and Henk Drentham. With all this help they were soon on their way to a garage to get the tire fixed.
The Austin Healey of Denis Duquenne and Stephanie Kauffman also got lost this morning (or so they claim). Perhaps something else happened as apparently they are on their Honeymoon.
Finally the Alvis driven by Rene Zahnler from our sponsor Hanhart had a lucky escape this morning. After loosing one rear fender yesterday he lost the other one today. This one came off at speed, flew up in the air and narrowly missed them when it came back down again.
Some stronger mountings are in order before their next rally.
And Finally, Bart announced at Dinner tonight that for tomorrows final regularity the penalties for every 1 second early or late at each timing point (and there are 6) will be increased from 1 to 10 seconds. This will make things very interesting tomorrow!!!!
Trial Leg 5 leaders:
17:19 Branko Brkovitch & Tony Davies, Mercedes 300 SE
18:34 Nick Jarvis & Rob van den Berg, Triumph TR3
21:18 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
Club Leg 5 Leaders:
16:53 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
63:53 Dave van Giffen & Renée van Giffen, Peugot 404
105:51 Geert & Loes van de Velde, Lagonda M45
Day 4 – Bormio – Bologna
As the rally left Bormio this morning to climb the Passo Gavia, there was one crew who had other ideas. John and Judith Rowe have been to Bormio on three previous occasions but each time the passo Stelvio was closed. Having missed it yesterday they were determined to see it today, so as the rally headed for the Gavia they left Bormio in their Mk II Jaguar in a different direction and went for the Stelvio, only to find thick mist and cloud on the way up. So this time they got to the top, but they still have not seen the Stelvio. What bad luck, perhaps they can try again on another rally, (or on their way back from Rome).
Our route today saw regularities on the Gavia, Foppa and Passo del Moniva plus a 4th 
north of Mura before continuing south to the shores of Lake Garda. This morning started cloudy after some overnight rain and continued with some Very heavy downpours with lightening that gave a number of crews (and marshals) a good soaking. Casualties included the Chevrolet Corvette that lost its wipers. This caused a complete loss of vision and the crew of Jan Storm and Aege Steensma had to abandon rally route and limp to the next hotel in Bologna.
Cars with no roof had a wet time like the Lagonda M45 of Geert and Loes van de Velde. But their main problem was self inflicted. They were having so much fun that they drove the Trial route by mistake and this included the Passo di Foppa, a particularly long, narrow and twisty route. This pushed them down the running order on the road by a long way. Despite this they still made it to Lunch inside their max time allowance. Problems continued after lunch with heavy rain but we are pleased to report that they are in Bolognia tonight, drying out.
The remainder of the route this afternoon was a crossing of the Po valley, very flat, and a lap consistency test at a new circuit in Modena. All the crews had to do was drive around the circuit at aprox 55 kph and do a sighting lap, a timed target lap, 3 more repeat laps at as close to the timed target lap as they could and an out lap. It is surprising how many people could not count up to 6. See the results page for details.
Trial Leg 4 leaders:
09:58 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
11:06 Nick Jarvis & Rob van den Berg, Triumph TR3
19:33 Juergen End & Yvonne End, Alfa Romeo Giulia S
Club Leg 4 Leaders:
0:20:53 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
1:01:23 Dave van Giffen & Renée van Giffen, Peugot 404
1:01:31 Claude & Oliver Planchon, Austin Healey
Day 3 – Flueli-Ranft – Bormio
Day 3 started well with the Grimselpass, a Go Kart track test, then the Nufenenpass, the San Gottardpass and the Oberalppass all completed before the midday Lunch halt on top of the Oberalp with its great views. As always the Gottard pass was a highlight with no traffic, except for the occasional biker, on the old cobble stone road.
Today it was driven on the San Gottard by the crew of Nick Jarvis and Rob van den Berg.
All was going well after lunch until the course opening car was stopped by a landslide on the Ofenpass that caused a reroute of the rally via Livigno to Bormio so sadly the rally missed the Stelvio.
The owner of Bultman, one of the rallies sponsors, has provided a large van for the rally to use for baggage and rally equipment transport. Well, his navigator woke up early on day 2 in the Dorint Hotel in Baden Baden, packed his bags and left them in the lobby. From there an efficient hotel porter locked them in their baggage room and thats where they still are now. Needless to say the Rally staff have been buying deodarant, shaving cream, clean underwear etc to keep their sponsor in good trim.
Trial Leg 3 leaders:
9:20 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
10:35 Nick Jarvis & Rob van den Berg, Triumph TR3
10:39 Branko Brkovitch & Tony Davies, Mercedes 300 SE
Club Leg 3 Leaders:
14:40 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
32:10 Geert & Loes van de Velde, Lagonda M45
42:24 Claude & Oliver Planchon, Austin Healey
Day 2 – Baden Baden – Flueli-Ranft
Another hot and sunny day with plenty of action on the 5 regularities and 1 test as the rally covered 360 kms to the overnight halt at the beautifully situated Paxmontana Hotel in Flueli-Ranft in Switzerland. However the mishaps are still in abundance. After finally getting a working trip into the car, Richard Worts’ MGC is now having a wheel bearing problem. To fix the offending wheel bearing he has detoured to the garage of Pitt Lindner who attended the dinner last night in Barden Barden, he hopes to be back in the rally tomorrow morning.
Joe Reynolds’ BMW 1600 is also handicapped with a failing diff. Tonight the diff has been out, cleaned and re oiled. He needs to get over the San Gottard and Stelvio passes tomorrow to meet up with a new diff tomorrow night. The story goes, he ordered a new diff from a supplier in Dusseldorf, but they would not accept his credit card as payment. So resourceful Joe phoned a friend, who is now flying out from Ireland with the appropriate cash in hand, he will then collect the diff and meet Joe in Bormio.
Trial Leg 2 leaders:
7:11 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
8:00 Nick Jarvis & Rob van den Berg, Triumph TR3
9:50 Branko Brkovitch & Tony Davies, Mercedes 300 SE
Club Leg 2 Leaders:
11:43 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
27:40 Geert & Loes van de Velde, Lagonda M45
42:24 Dave & Renee van Giffen, Peugeot 404
Day 1 – Franchorchamps – Baden Baden
This year the rally started from the Village of Francorchamps just meters from the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The action started almost immediately with a Driving Test in the Ardennes woods just north of the circuit followed by a regularity that crossed the Belgium German boarder near Manderfield and a run into the morning coffee halt near Kopp.
The rest of the day saw 3 more regularities as the rally passed through Mulheim an der Mosel and covered the 430 kms to the first night halt in Baden Baden.
By the end of the day a number of novice crrews were beginning to get the hang of things and finding the controls despite dropping time on the way.
Even at this early stage in the event there are a number of competitors stacking up points for the “Pissing in the Wind Award”. Onno de Boer had already replaced the rear axel in his Jaguar XK 150 on his way to the event, still managing to arrive late on scruitinering day during the kick off dinner.
Next comes Martin Schmitt, co driver of the Maserati 3500T, who broke his foot last night at the rally hotel. He has lasted all day and only visited a Hospital for an Xray on arriving in Baden Baden this evening.
Finally, a number of Halda and electronic trip meter failures have caused grief as crews try to find their way around with irattic trips. Lets hope that they can be fixed by tomorrow.
Despite these problems the weather has been excellent with good sunshine all day, this has resulted in lots of happy faces despite some of them being a bit pink and hot in their sometimes warm classic cars.
Trial Leg 1 leaders:
3:06 Jaap & Hansje van den Broek, Citroen DS 19
3:11 Juergen & Yvonne End, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint G
3:15 Robert Kieffer & Andreas Kopp, Porsche 912
Club Leg 1 Leaders:
3:10 Nigel & Paula Broderick, Derby Bentley
4:39 Geert & Loes van de Velde, Lagonda M45
27:03 Claude & Olivier Planchon, Austin Healey
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