Day 6 Borgo SanDalmazzo – San Remo
All the leaders have to do now is hold on to there places but they also know very well that a mistake is easy made on the final day. But both William/Yvo Nijs in the Healey as well as Emile / Marianne Ensink in the MGB come through without any blunders in the final halt at café dall Ava in Romolo and take this ever so badly wanted trophy. Yvo and William were also close to winning the 2011 version of this rally. Than they had to give up with an overheated cylinder head, this time they take it with pride.
Day 5 Chamonix – Borgo SanDalmazzo
The knifes are sharpened and the finish is not to far away it seems but day 5 is going to be the longest and toughest day of the event. Two tests, sounds simple. But there are three things you can do wrong on a circuit, 1 drive a lap to many or to few, 2 overshoot on the stop astride line and 3 round a cone on the wrong side. A very eager Mercedes nr 39 manages to take the wrong direction and so do another 4 cars and this mistakes cost heavy penalties. So gone are the hopes of a victory.
Great driving of the two Alfa Romeo’s of Jürgen Yvonne End and Martin and Peter Schmitt. Scoring no penalties here. On top of that Martin and Peter also win the day in the Trial Class.
The Club class victory goes to Ben and Pamela Fisher who do a very spectacular test, partly even on two wheels.
Day 4 Annecy – Chamonix The Coupe des Cols
The objective today is to climb 28.000 meters in order to win a Coupe des Cols where competitors have a choice of 34 cols to do it. The last Col has to be climbed before 16.00 hrs and one than has until 17.00 hrs to report back in the hotel.
So good planning is the name of the game. It turns out that Jaap and Hansje van de Broek have a great game plan. And they manage a considerable amount of meters, but the final Col is reached at 16.15 and than the run back to the headquarters takes them out completely, so they end up as a non finisher. The same happens to the Böhringer Mercedes driven by York Seifert and Frank Langbein. The winners of day 1 Martin and Angelique de Louw manage the most meters and come first again. Did the they for them run like clockwork? Not a all. just after 13.00 hours the gearlever broke of whilst in third gear and they had to climb and descent without being able to shift down or up. A great performance. Second are Jürgen and Yvonne End in the Alfa Romeo another great achievement.
The evening dinner and prize giving for this event in between an event was held in a Restaurant on the bottom of a glacier, for which one had to take the breathtaking climb 1000 meters higher by train to arrive at the Montenvers.
The real bad luck today was for the Corvette of Jan Storm. One rock on the wrong spot knocked him out of competiton. The boys are working on the car the whole night to see if they can get him going again. We will see.
Day 3 Jungholz – Annecy
The first test of the rally at a nice situated Kart track is a great challenge for the big Corvette. Now driven by the codriver Aege Steensma. He is careful at the stop astride line to make sure he does a full stop and stall the engine, which refuses to start again. In spite of some 10 seconds to get the car going again, he is still close to the fastest time of the Jaguar team Phill Garrett / Kieron Brown. We all know that strange things happen on events like this. The Böhringer Mercedes from York Seifert needs new brake pads as they are now metal on metal. Fortunately they carry a spare set and as they are trying to fit them at the lunch halt they appear to be of a different size.
The service crew offers to go out and search a set and stop at a small garage. The owner say he may have something and they search he dusty “wharehouse “ to find lots of pads from the sixties of al sorts of cars and yes the correct size is found. On that moment the Mercedes stops at the same garage to fill up with fuel, is than driven in the garage to have them fit. With only two minutes loss they manage the next time control, with steaming breaks of course.
Day winners in Trial Class are William and Ivo Nijs. They also take the lead.
Day 2 Nennig – Jungholz
The great scenery in the Vosges are higly appreciated by the paddock. Much to our surprise we have a great view of the snow covered top of the Mont Blanc from as far as the Balon d’Alsac. Yesterdays winners must be so under pressure that they cannot hold on to the leading positions.
Yvo Nijs is making up for the performance of yesterday and loses his overdrive in the process, while Judith Rowe forgets here lady hand bag in the lunch restaurant. So they have a hefty evening drive to go and get it. Arriving there she also finds Martin Emisson’s jacket (and purse) so applause and free drinks when she arrives back to the hotel.
Bennie Roetgerink is manning the start control of a regularity and after he started everybody he drives the route to pick up Keith Baud manning the finish control. Big surprise for Ivy Nijs who arrives as the finish at the same time wondering if he is at the start or the finish now he sees Bennie again. It is obvious that he lost some time on this regularity.
New leaders because the Trial Class is won today by Phill Garrat and Kieron Brown in the beautiful Jaguar E Type, The Club Class victory goes to Arnold and Patricia van Dobben.
Day 1 Vaals – Nennig.
Blue sky and Sunny weather was a warm welcome for the participants of the 3rd running of this epic event. Without a doubt the Böhringer Mercedes which won the event exactly 50 years ago is the car that takes all the attention.
Before the start there seems always to be one car which is causing trouble for the owner. This time it is the mint green Healey. The exhaust is loose, the manifold is leaking and just as the car should start the Altena service crew discovers that the cylinder head is loose. After a few hours of work the car is going, but at the lunch halt it is the radiator that is losing all the coolant fluid.
Luuk Hendriks is called and manages to find a radiator attached to a Healey racing at Franchorchamps and willing to hand it over. Much to the surprise of the organizers and all crews in the rally the Healey owner changes his mind and decides not to use it, because the radiator is not the same size as his one and prefers to go home. Thanks for the help Luuk.
More of a sporty spirit is the action of Bas Koijk. His Mustang looses the function of the dynamo. He finds one in Tilburg some 150 K away. Drives up there to have it fixed and joins the rally late in the evening. Bonus points for the feared pissing in the wind trophee.
Very sad that we lose already two cars even before we start. Both Nigel Broderick and Michael Feichtingers co driver Kurt Schimitzek have to have a knee operation. We wish them well.
A great performance by Martien and Angelique de Louw who win the first day in the Trial class and see l of favourites gain lots of penalties. Geof Cook and Vincent Hoar do the same in the Club Class in the mint Triumph TR 3.
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