At precisely 8.54pm on Friday 30th January, PRX 720B, the Morris Mini Cooper S of the Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team roared off the podium in Reims town square and headed for Monaco. The build up to this moment had been simply amazing. Every year more and more spectators, press and rally fans turn out for this event. At scrutineering and later when we were parked in Reims city centre ready for the start it was sometimes difficult to move around the car for the crowds wanting photo opportunities.

As the Mini pressed through the town and out into the countryside we were cheered by thousands although as the night turned into the bitingly cold wee small hours the crowds thinned. After some initial nervy moments Bill and I settled into rhythm. We hit all our controls points without incident and the crew refueled us and provided much needed food and drink. At sunrise we started to feel the effects of being up for 24 hours and fought sleepiness with coffee. This is always a difficult time as concentration can slip and it’s easy to make elementary mistakes. However we managed to keep a clean sheet as we pushed south. Mid-morning changed to afternoon and we were back in the Alps; this year the Concentration Run went all the way to Monte Carlo. Make no mistake, this event is brutal for both man and machine.

Eventually we found ourselves at the tripmeter calibration section at Entrevaux. We carried out this essential task without incident. On previous events this has been the end of the day but this year we faced a nasty sting in the tail of this section – namely a special regularity stage over the infamous Col de Turini. The service crew (Adam elected to do the majority of the driving and deserves special mention) who had driven valiantly to keep up with us changed our tyres to studded snow covers and Bill and I raced for the stage. By the time we reached the start it was dark. We stormed up the mountain keeping very good time but were slowed a little by patches of dense fog at the summit. Bill kept us on the pace. Now it was time to head for Monte Carlo. After a jarring descent down some of the most difficult roads (cart tracks is a better description) in the Alps we raced into Monaco. There was a time control at a hotel before we reached the finish. As we picked our way through traffic misfortune struck and we found ourselves jammed in 4th gear. Somehow Bill managed to get us across town by slipping the clutch but we were late over the finishing podium on the Quai Albert we gained a time penalty. This was a disappointing development at the end of a fantastic drive and the team was feeling low. We had been up for 36 hours and were in desperate need of sleep. We decided to turn in and make a plan over breakfast

To be continued…