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.