Yesterday on a bright but chilly morning, the Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team set off for France. The early part of the week was spent on last minute preparations and attending to a million and one organisational details. Then it was time to go. Unlike previous years the Channel crossing was uneventful although PRX 720B attracted numerous admirers as usual. The team arrived at their hotel in Reims around 5.00pm and enjoyed a relaxed dinner together and savoured the last few hours of relative calm before turning in early. There will be little sleep for the next few days and sustenance will be mostly ham and cheese sandwiches eaten on the fly.

At the time of writing (early Friday morning) the team are getting ready for technical and administrative scrutineering later in the morning. After this process is complete they will prepare for the evening start. The first car will depart from the podium at Reims town square at 7.00pm and our car, number 328, will leave about an hour and half later. After heading south on the nearly 24 hour “Concentration Run” they will hit their first service point at around midnight. Then they face the long drive to Monaco. The Concentration Run is unusually long run this year and goes all the way to Monaco and has a nasty sting in its tail: before the exhausted get to the Principality they will have to tackle a special regularity stage over the much dreaded Col de Turini.

Now, after it’s nearly time to see how the months of planning will pay off. Tomorrow we will cover the progress made.

To be continued…

The Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team comprises:

Bill Richards: Driver
John Morrow: Co-Driver
John Griffin: Service Support and much abused Team Manager
Adam Cooke: Service Support