Tuesday 3rd February was the second part of the common leg. On this year’s event, this section of the rally comprised a straight run from Valence back to Monte Carlo interspersed with three regularity stages. Quite how we were going to accomplish this objective with the Mini stuck in first gear was anybody’s guess. And if that wasn’t bad enough the right rear suspension had collapsed with a broken knuckle joint. However the rally gods were smiling on us in a twisted kind of manner. Overnight the gearbox had again mysteriously freed itself. Bill diagnosed a broken selector mechanism on reverse and the trick to avoid problems was to not go backwards. However as soon as we left the Valence control yet another problem became apparent. Third gear was making a very nasty rattle. Bill very quickly came to the conclusion that we had lost a cog tooth and limited his driving to 1st , 2nd and 4th. We pushed on hard while nursing the gearbox and suspension.

It’s funny how striving against adversity can have positive effects. In six hours. Notably over the St. Nazaire and Montauban stages we turned in some of our best time of times of the rally and pulled ourselves up 80 places into the middle of the pack and 4th in class. The Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team was at last realising its potential. Eventually after a long hard road section from the village of Gilette through the outskirts of Nice we found ourselves on the finishing ramp on the Quai d’Albert at Monte Carlo. The atmosphere was fantastic. The crowds and press were out in force and a jazz band was playing in full swing. Bill and I posed and signed autographs. We must have been photographed a thousand times. Onlookers, rally fans and competitors pored over the car with some (rather worryingly) taking copious notes on our tyres and instrumentation. PRX 720B had performed magnificently but the little car was not due to get much rest: we had a four hour break before departing on the final set of stages over the dread Col de Turini.
To be continued…