Sunday, January 29, 2006

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2006: Progress Report 1

Geoff O'nion
Goeff O'nion on the 2005 Monte Carlo Historique rally

Regular visitors to this site will have noted that I've been whining about not competing on the Monte Carlo Historique rally this year. So ever since the event started on Friday evening I've been living vicariously through the Automobile Club de Monaco's website. Notable results to date are:

The regularity first stage (St. Felicien) was won by Kurt Schimitzek and Michael Kronenberg in a Mini Cooper S (Yay!) who zeroed the stage with no penalty points. A nigh on impossible feat as the timing is measured to 1/100 of a second. A brilliant result.

Mad Dog pal and former Cooper Car Co team member, Geoff O'nion and crew member David Wilkinson in their 997cc Cooper drove consistently throughout all four stages of the Classification Run and finished the day in 46th place and second in class. Geoff's engine was built by Bill Richards so this result is not surprising.

Rally veterans Peter Barker and Willy Cave, also Cooper Car Co compatriots, made a good start but had a misadventure on the third regularity stage and incurred 3000 penalty points and are now in 257th place out of the 318 cars still running.

At the end of the Classification stages, Porsches (three 911s, a 914/6 and a 356c) occupy five of the top 10 places including 1st 2nd. Bugger! The highest placed Mini is running 14th (Treves and Calegari).

A quick survey of the prevailing weather in south east France looks like conditions are treacherous which should favour smaller, more nimble cars. I'll report again tomorrow when I have more information.

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