CRX89B - Pt 6 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique

Alastair Vines' Mini - CRX89B Austin Mini Cooper S 1964 on the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique.

Alastair Vines and Peter Moss with the help of their service team of Nigel Chetwynd and Simon Wheatcroft tackle the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. They are competing as part of a five car team of British Minis - Equipe Mini. They have sponsorship from Mini Spares Ltd (www.minispares.com), and the support of Roelands Race and Rally (Mini Prep) (roelandsracerally.com), Auto-BMC (www.auto-bmc.com)  in France, and Southam Mini and Metro Centre, Warwickshire. (+44 1926 815681).

In Part 6 the team go really well over the long 34Km Burzet stage, a Monte Carlo favourite. The stage starts in the village of Burzet, it is cold but dry, and the road is relatively free of snow and ice. As the road climbs up toward the village of La Champ-Raphael at the top this quickly changes, and once more the crews are battling against very slippery  conditions. The scenery is fantastic- a winter wonderland!

The CRX89B team get one of their best results of the rally here, by passing over the stage in 11th place, lifting their overall position to 55th.

The film follows the car through the highlights of ZR6 to the St Agreve service point, where their car is attended to by the service crew in minus 9 degrees and falling snow.

This marks about the half way point in the competitive elements of the rally. Sala in a Porsche 911 is leading, with Raimondo in an Innocenti Cooper 1300 doing brilliantly well again in 2nd. Other Mini placings are:

- 29th - Repoux - Innocenti Cooper

- 42nd - Burnier - Innocenti Cooper

- 55th - Vines - Austin Cooper S

- 125th - De la Hoye - Austin Mini Cooper

- 166th - Richards - Morris Mini Cooper S

- 171st - Barker - Austin Mini

- 178th - Tsikas - Innocenti Cooper

END

CRX89B - Pt 5 2012 RMCH - Common Leg

Alastair Vines' Mini - CRX89B Austin Mini Cooper S 1964 on the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique.

Alastair Vines and Peter Moss with the help of their service team of Nigel Chetwynd and Simon Wheatcroft tackle the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. They are competing as part of a five car team of British Minis - Equipe Mini. They have sponsorship from Mini Spares Ltd (www.minispares.com), and the support of Roelands Race and Rally (Mini Prep) (roelandsracerally.com), Auto-BMC (www.auto-bmc.com)  in France, and Southam Mini and Metro Centre, Warwickshire. (+44 1926 815681).

In Part 5 we see the start of the two day Common Leg, with the first day competing in the mountains around and about the town of Valence over a distance of about 320Km. This part covers the dash up the mountain to ZR6 St Pierreville - Antraiges with its icy hairpins part way through provides plenty of challenges to our intrepid crew.

We did well here - 15th through the stage and lifted our game to 66th overall.   END

CRX89B - 2012 RMCH Part 1 - Preparation, Departure, Tyre testing and scrutineering in Reims

Alastair Vines' Mini - CRX89B Austin Mini Cooper S 1964, on the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique.

Alastair Vines and Peter Moss with the help of their service team of Nigel Chetwynd and Simon Wheatcroft tackle the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. They are competing as part of a five car team of British Minis - Equipe Mini. They have sponsorship from Mini Spares Ltd (www.minispares.com), and have the support of Roelands Race and Rally (Mini Prep) (roelandsracerally.com), Auto-BMC (www.auto-bmc.com)  in France, and Southam Mini and Metro Centre (+44 1926 815681)

In Part 1 you see a little of the pre-event preparation, the run down to the start in Reims, with Halda calibration to the different tyre sets we are taking on the way. There are views inside the scrutineering building at Parc des Expositions in Reims, plus short commentaries from other Mini drivers. END

CRX89B 2012 RMCH Video Pt 4 - Classification Leg Cont'd

Alastair Vines' mini CRX89B - Austin Mini Cooper S 1964 on the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique.

Alastair Vines and Peter Moss with the help of their service team of Nigel Chetwynd and Simon Wheatcroft tackle the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. They are competing as part of a five car team of British Minis - Equipe Mini. They have sponsorship from Mini Spares Ltd (www.minispares.com), and have the support of Roelands Race and Rally (Mini Prep) (roelandsracerally.com), Auto-BMC (www.auto-bmc.com)  in France, and Southam Mini and Metro Centre (+44 1926 815681)

In Part 4 we continue to enjoy the brilliant sunshine and fairy tale landscape created by the fresh covering of thick snow. We descend from the end ZR2 on a very snowy road pursuing a fellow competitor into Castellane, then have a blast up the Route Napoleon with an unseen new Mini Countryman 4wd, before tackling the fearsome Col d'Espreaux with its deep ditches on one side and unprotected flanks to the long drop on the other.

We end the day in Valence in 76th position overall to overnight before the commencement of the two day Common Leg the next morning.

In ZR2, Le Mas -  Les quatre Chemins (seen in Part 3), we finish 77th having gone well over the first part of the stage, but lost quite a bit toward the end (off camera), 50 seconds down at the last timing point.

In ZR3, Sigoyer - Col d'Espreaux, the subject of this video, we faired a little better coming out 75th over the stage. We are in good company, with Sala in a Porsche who would lead the rally for most of the event going over in 50th place, and Brianti in a Mini Cooper S who would retire later from 10th place overall, in 83rd position on this test. Our overall position rises to 49th.

For ZR4, Chichilianne - Les Nonnieres (not filmed), another very snowy stage taken as it was getting dark, we did better coming out in a creditable 40th place, and improve our overall position to 34th.

In ZR5, over the challenging Col de l'Echarasson (not filmed), in deep snow and thick fog we hit our first big set back. Many fortunes were thrown into oblivion here, and a Lancia driver was trying to recover his.  We arrived to find a big tow truck blocking the competitive stage in the process of deploying a crane arm and cable over the side of the mountain to recover a Lancia that had gone over the edge. We lost several minutes waiting for the road to clear, which we could never hope to catch back. 148th out of here, and crash back down to 76th overall - thats rallying! END.

CRX89B 2012 RCMH Pt3

CRX89B Austin Mini Cooper S 1964 on the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. Part 3 covers the early part of the Classification Leg, a 530Km jaunt up country from Monaco to Valence, encompassing 4 Regularity stages en route. In this video there is some great in car footage of the Monaco start, the climb up through the mountains, and the bulk of ZR2, the first Regularity stage of the day. The snow is fresh and deep in parts; the sun is shining; the roads are icy - it all makes for some great slippery entertainment. END

CRX89B 2012 RMCH Video Part 2 - Concentration Run

Here Part 2 of CRX89B on the 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. This part covers the start from Reims and follows snippets of the route down to Monte Carlo including the huge snow storm which engulfed the rally. END

Post Script - Thankyous, recommendations, and what happened to the British hopefulls

From front to back in the picture:

- Clandish / McCash - Morris Mini Cooper S - retired on Concentration Run

- "Last of the Summer Wine" team of Wheatley and Bywaters - Wolsey 1800. Retired on Concentration Run.

- Mustarde / Northmore - Alfa Romeo Giulietta TI - Retired Monaco - Valence, Col D'Echarasson.

- Barker / Cave - Austin Mini - 3rd in Class, 4th Brit, 154th oa

- Vines / Moss - Austin Mini Cooper S - 1st in Class, 1st Brit, 60th oa.

Rarely have we seen weather so bad for the rally. The whole rally was affected by it, causing major difficulties for the organisers during the morning of Tuesday 31st January and the cancellation of two Special Stages during the course if the rally. Of over 300 cars entered approximately a third of the field retired with 35 cars disappearing on the Concentration Run alone. It was a tough rally and will I am sure go down in the history books as "a vintage year" for the Monte Carlo Rallye Historique.

If the Monte Carlo rally means anything to you, then this is the rally to do, run by the Auto Club de Monaco in the same tradition as the golden years of the rally in the 1950s and 60s. It is challenging to both you and your car, stretching both for endurance and reliability, and hugely rewarding when you finally make it to the end. To do well is a bonus.

My thanks go to Justin Jeffries at Mini Spares Ltd for the support given to help us enter the Event and for the supply of a variety of spare parts. Thanks also to Paul Price for his help in preparing the car electrically, also to Colin and Rod Taylor at Southam Mini and Metro Centre who fettled the engine and transmission before we left.

The car CRX89B behaved faultlessly. It did everything we asked of it, and was an utter joy to drive. I would do it all again tomorrow, including the bad weather, if I could.

The 2012 Rallye Monte Carlo Historique has once again proved to be a fantastic event.

My thanks to my crew, Nigel Chetwynd and Simon Wheatcroft in the service car, who battled to be at each of our scheduled stops to keep the car and rally crew topped up with what ever they needed.

Finally thanks to my co-pilot Peter Moss who did a such marvellous job with the pre-event preparation, and worked so hard in the left hand seat to get us round on time to deliver our class win without any major dramas.

Recommendations are:

- Mini Spares for spare parts.
- Southam Mini And Metro Centre for engine and car preparation,
- Mini Prep Ltd for studded winter tyres.
- Auto-BMC in France for studded and non studded winter tyres

Preparation: If you want to do the event talk to some experienced competitors first, and in plenty of time as there is much you can do to make things easier for yourself. The big learning from this year is - organise and receive your tyres early. A well known tyre supplier in the UK seems to have let some British competitors down badly this year.

Pictured are the Austin Mini of Peter Barker and Willy Cave, and the Morris Cooper S of Andy Candlish and Chris McCash at Scrutineering in Reims. Also pictured is a reminder of the British hopefuls from an earlier post.


END

Final Result - Saturday 4th Feb 2012

The 15th Rallye Monte Carlo Historique Rallye has drawn to a close. Final positions are:

CRX89B Mini team:

- 1st in Class - 1962 - 1965 up to 1300cc.
- 1st British
- 2nd Mini
- 5th in Category
- 60th oa

Rally leader board:

1. Lareppe / Lambert (Belgium) - Opel Kadett GTE - 1978.
2. Coppola / Sussot (France) - Renault Alpine A110 - 1972
3. Karlan / Jensen (Norway) - Porsche 911 SC - 1978

Mini results:

41. Repoux / Lefort (France) - Innocenti Cooper 1300 - 1974
60. Vines / Moss (GB) - Austin Cooper S 1293 - 1964
70. Raimondo / Calegari (Monaco) - Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 - 1972.
100. Vahala / Hanke (Czech) - Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 - 1973
109. Picquier / Picquier ( France) - Morris Mini Cooper - 1969.
112. Burnier / Alibaux (France) - Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 - 1975.
117. Richards / Morrow (GB) - Morris Mini Cooper S - 1969.
144. De Le Hoye / Passebois (France)
Austin Mini Cooper - 1968
152. Garbarz - Obrocki (Poland) - Innocenti Mini Cooper - 1972.
154. Barker / Cave (GB) - Austin Mini - 1961.
162. Tzikas / Charpidis (Greece) - Innocenti Mini Cooper - 1967.


Mini retirements:

Candlish / McCash #77 (GB) - Concentration Run @ Annecy.

Arnal / Cestan #191 (France) - Concentration Run

Amato / Scarcella #254 (Italy) - Concentration Run

Ostle / Brack #298 (Germany) - Concentration Run - Engine mechanical.

Brianti / Chol #271 (Monaco / France) - ZR7 - Brakes

The Night Loop - Friday 3rd Feb 2012

The Col du Turini is one of those evergreen stages of the Monte Carlo Rally and is used each year. For participants their rally's are often won and lost on this mountain.

We knew that we had a great chance of winning the class, but our lead was slender, and it would not take much for it to slip away. We also knew from last year that we do well where the driving is challenging. We planned to go hard, pick up a few more places, establish ourselves in the top 50, close the gap on Repoux and be ready to overtake him should he falter. We also learned from our service crew that the leading Mini Raimondo had visited them with a head gasket problem. He might not make it through the night.

The Turini was challenging, icy and huge fun. We overtook a few cars here. We did well on the following ZR13, catching more time up on Repoux the 2nd Mini, and the DKW which we had to stay ahead of in our class.

The final stage ZR14 was incredibly challenging- an impossible time schedule, very tight, very twisty, a great opportunity to catch a lot of leading folks up. The first road section went well, but then they took us down a rutted horrible track, deep snow, with livestock wandering about. Great queues of rally cars developed with no hope of passing. Folks got stuck, positions were lost, tempers became frayed. We lost 10 positions in this section having become embroiled into a slow moving procession of a dozen or so cars. Not a great ending to one of the most challenging of Monte Carlo rallies.

We returned to the harbour, our final control for a well earned beer. The car was a little bruised after having nurfed a snow bank which hid an Armco barrier as we fought our way passed an extremely well driven Porsche 356.

Here the team tired but happy after completing a successful rally Monte Carlo Historique. The car shows its bruises, but not as badly as some. Finally driver Al Vines and co- pilot Peter Moss with well deserved silver ware for their class win in the 1962 - 1965 class for up to 1300cc vehicles. END.

Valence - Monaco- Friday 3rd Feb 2012

The day dawned grey ad very windy. The organisers gave us a slip of paper with an extra ZR to complete in order to make up for the one that was cancelled.

We did reasonably well on both. ZR ZR 10 was dry and not especially challenging. ZR 10a, the extra test, was very snowy, twisty and demanding. We were 40th through here. The last test ZR11 was cancelled due to a landslide.

We ended the day 50 th oa, still class leaders and 3rd mini.

Valence - Valence - Thursday 2nd Feb 2012

The dawned with light snow falling and very cold. There is less snow in this area, but the potential for more ice.

We chose to fit our 165.10 Mini Prep studded tyres to the front only, and keep the 145.10 on the back. This was partly to save service time in tyre changing but also meant we would save time to change back again if we got our choice wrong.

ZR 5 Antraigues was 55km long and mainly clear- we were 17th oa here. ZR 6 Burzet is a very famous Monte Carlo rally stage. We got 11th on this one. We went off the boil a bit on the next managing only to be in the 50s. On the last we were thoroughly frustrated as the local school bus turned onto the stage in front of us. We had to grind our way along behind for what seemed an eternity plunging us to a stage result of 154th.

Our service team of Nigel and Simon did a fine job supporting us and fettling the car in temperatures down to -9 degrees - bitter.

We closed the day in 52nd position overall, still Class leaders, now by 3 minutes. and top Brit.

Tomorrow is the run back to Monaco and the Twist in the Tail - the Mountain Circuit - an over night race around the Maritime Alps including the famous Col du Turini. END.

The Competition - Wednesday 1st. Feb 2012

On our way south into Annecy. the weather got worse and worse. In order to get over the Col du Granier we fitted our new Finnish tyres from Andy Roelands at Mini Prep. The Granier is very steep and in a prior year Minis had really struggled to get over the mountain. These tyres proved to be just the job turning our car into almost a 4WD - no problem. These tyres were key to our ability to get through. We plugged on to Barcilonette, over the Col du Larche, the Col du Tende and down into Sospel to get to the first competitive stage- it was cancelled. !

Wednesday morning brought bright sunshine. In the knowledge of there being deep snow on the stages we kept our 145.10 Mini Prep studded tyres on and headed out. ZR 2 was delayed for 50 minutes, but very snowy when we got in there. ZR 3 and 4 passed in blur, but as we went into the fearsome Col d'Echarasson stage we were 29th. The snow was very deep coupled with thick fog, so at times it was very difficult to work out where the track was at all. Our run was badly upset by the route being blocked by a recovery wagon trying to haul a crashed Lancia back onto the road after it had gone over the edge. We lost several minutes and finished the day on 76th place, but still top Brit and and Class leader, 9 seconds ahead of a DKW. END.

The Storm - Tuesday 31st. Jan 2012

We left Reims on Green Diamond Traction tyres - winter tyres with embedded crystals to act like studs - in dry conditions at 20.05 on Monday night. At Champagnole control it was snowing heavily. We fitted our studded tyres supplied by Auto-BMC in France and made rapid progress to Annecy le Vieux our next control. Conditions became extremely difficult with very heavy snow clogging up all roads. The morning rush hour brought chaos to the whole rally with many cars being stuck for three to five hours. Somehow we managed to escape and got in to Monaco only 1.5 hours late. END

Reims start

Mini Spares team members L-R : Peter Moss, Al Vines, Peter Barker, Willy Cave at the Mayor's reception before the start. Only in France - a glass of champagne before you leave sir? END

Scrutineering and the start - Monday 30th Jan 2012

The AC de Champagne put on a good dinner, and we were able to meet up with other competitors old and new.

Scrutineering at the Reims Place des Expositions passed uneventfully for us for us, although Candlish in car 77 had electrical gremlins. My service crew spent much of the morning helping to get them going.

We started from Reims Town Hall in cold but dry conditions with the forecast of snow further South in the night - and boy did it snow . End.