Recently we were invited by our friend Stefan Davis to go down to the Monte Carlo Rally to make the ice notes for him and P-WRC driver and BWRDC member Louise Cook. We kept a behind-the-scenes blog on facebook and here is the full report. 

Monte Carlo Rally - Part 1 Day 1: Monday 16 January

It’s the first leg of our trip down to Valence to help Louise Cook and her co-driver Stefan Davis with their ice notes for the WRC Monte Carlo rally. It’s Louise’s first WRC event and our first time making ice notes so it’s a steep learning curve for all of us. Louise and Stefan are out in France already and have been recceing the route. The rally starts Wednesday, and we are setting off tonight aiming for an overnight halt just south of Amiens, so we can get there at a reasonable time tomorrow to go over the notes and the route and find out what the team expect from us.

As usual we are cutting it a little fine with the ferry. We have three hours to get to Dover, which will be fine providing we don’t encounter any delays. Naturally the first thing we come across is a 50 limit for roadworks on the M1. However Andy is driving and I have every faith in him and my lovely Alfa GT (Cat – I spoke too soon as you will see!)

Monte Carlo - Part 2 Day 1: Monday 16 January

Crossed the QEII bridge at 19:45 so making quite good time, despite sundry policemen and roadworks and a brief stop to figure out why the Alfa is making a hissing noise (we don’t know). No comments please Mr Stringer! (Cat – Steve has been plenty rude about my Alfa). Hopefully when we get to Dover (just under 40 miles away) DFDS will recognise the car and let us board the ferry.  (Cat – we didn’t have a reservation number as communication with the rally crew had been a bit sketchy over the preceding weekend.)

The gritters have obviously been out as pieces of grit are flicking up and rattling on the windscreen. The ice warning light is on and the temp gauge is down to 2 degrees C and dropping. Checking the weather in Valence I see it’s -2. I am not sure what to expect from the weather as a long range forecast last night showed rain and warmer temperatures towards the end of the week, but Andrew Coley told me earlier that there are 5km of snow reported in SS2.

We don’t know if there is handy WiFi over there to keep updating you with our adventures but I will be keeping a log and can always update the story when we get back. In the meantime there’s a boat to catch!

(From Twitter) 13 minutes early for check-in at Dover. The Alfa looks pretty anywhere. http://lockerz.com/s/175123407

Monte Carlo - Part 3 Day 2: Tuesday 17 January

(from Twitter) 03:00 arrival last night  at hotel  means a slightly later start… About to embark on the last leg of the trip down, but first, croissants.

We’re finally here in Valence – well just outside it at a terrific Gite that Louise and Stefan have booked for the week. It’s been a long trip down but we arrived to a warm welcome from Andrew, Steve and Gary. (Cat – the service crew)

The ferry last night was great, the first time we’d travelled via DFDS, and we both managed to get some kip before driving a couple of hours inland to St Quentin where we stayed overnight. The first part of the trip was eerily familiar as we were driving from Dunkerque down the Ypres road which we’ve done many times in the past. It was nice to see the sign that said “Vous etes en Flandres” and knowing we were not too far away from our Belgian friends, especially comforting as the Alfa’s hissing noise was now accompanied by black smoke. We were able to ignore this by looking at the incredible moon which looked like a giant plastic orange banana.

We found the Premiere Classe at St Quentin quite easily about 03:00 and were grateful to hit the sack. We set off about 10:00 after a good sleep and another look at the Alfa to see if we could spot the hidden snake. Leaving a huge trail of black smoke behind us (to confuse the enemy) we decided to see if we could find a garage at the first opportunity so pulled off at Reims, where a nice man from a handy controle technique place took us round to the local Alfa garage…. which was shut. You have to love a country that has two hour lunch breaks!

In the end we decided rather than wait we’d keep going and head for the next big town, Troyes. The smoking was getting worse and with it, a loss of power, so we were starting to get really worried. After a lot of messing about in Troyes we eventually found an Alfa main dealer…. and what a pleasant experience, the technician found the problem immediately and fixed it for us there and then. It turned out that the intercooler hose had split and needed to be replaced, a really simple fix.

By now we were about four hours later than intended, and 200 euros lighter, but the Alfa was going like a train and I was driving, so we were making up time but were still only due to arrive at 21:00. Eventually we got to Chatillon and had to call for directions as the town is a proper maze.

We have a whole load of roadbooks, passes and stickers for tomorrow and Louise and Stefan have just returned from Valence so we had better get down to business.

Monte Carlo- Part 4·Day 3: Wednesday 18 January – Day 1 of the rally

Got to bed at 01:30 after our late arrival in Valence…. The alarm went off at 04:15 ready for a 05:00 departure! There were reports of packed snow/ice on SS2 overnight so checking the stages was going to be doubly important.

The run out to the first stage seemed to go on forever, it was below zero most of the way but when we got to the stage it was clear most of the way apart from a couple of icy patches. Nearly 37km of twisting mountain road in the dark! We are using Stefan’s 1.2 Clio to make the ice notes and we were glad it was on winter tyres. We could have done with some spotlights as well though!

Obviously we are going through the stages a lot slower than the rally cars and a lot slower than some of the other note cars too (Evo10′s for example) so we had to add a bit (lot) of extra on to the time allowed the rally crews to get through the stages, plus you must go through at least 1h10mins before the first car, hence the very early start for us of 06:50 at SS1.

SS2 started with dry Tarmac but as we climbed through the stage we came across the packed ice and snow which went on for several km and then cleared as we descended. The last 4-5km of the stage was frosty and greasy rather than icy. We texted the ice notes through to the crew and waited at the end of SS2 to see if they made it through. While we were waiting we checked out the top twenty crews and had a skeg at the times on the board at the SS finish. We also saw poor Bouffier come out of stage with the left rear wheel toeing out about 25 degrees! The car certainly didn’t look able to complete a long road section.

Louise & Stefan finished the leg in one piece but looking shaken – they’d started the event on slicks as they hadn’t had time to switch tyres before the start, so had found it very tricky. Stefan also suffered from mal de Nav and was looking a bit green. They went off to Valence – a 92km trip back for a 20 min service! – and we prepared to go and check it all again, this time looking for gravel.·(Cat – This section was Le Moulinon – Antraigues and Burzet – St Martial repeated twice.)

Monte Carlo - Part 5 Day 4: Thursday 19 January – Day 2 of the rally

We have been a bit bleary-eyed today. Three stages run twice, with a 65km run to the stage start, plus the 25km we are outside Valence. It has been a lot warmer today, just 0 degrees as we set off and we have seen +9 today.

We liked today’s stages especially SS7/10 which would suit our style of rallying very well. Andy likes nadgery stages and I like fast bits so we would have enjoyed that one I think. There is a spectacular cut to avoid a right – left kink straight over a gravel parking area which everyone must have been taking, right up our street and must have been fun to watch. As far as we know as I write Louise & Stefan are safely through that stage and on their way to service. We are in McD’s drinking coffee in order to scam free WiFi! (only because we could not get a signal from outside!)

My phone is nearly dead and so will have to end this here. We are really enjoying ourselves although tired and I have to keep pinching myself hard as I have always wanted to do the Monte and this is the nearest I will get! If Louise is in the top 60 tomorrow then we continue to Monaco on Saturday and Sunday. Fingers crossed we don’t make idiots of ourselves in the snow on the top of the Col de Turini

(from Twitter) Two long days so far making the ice notes for Louise & Stefan, v. early starts both days. Stages lots of fun wish the Evo was here!

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