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WHAT is the Monte?

MONTE CARLO rally

canoe kayak

With the crowds lining the route ahead of us we watched the flag held over our bonnet and waited for our 5,4,3,2,1, countdown. It was a magical moment... but was short lived.  Turin proved to be a very tricky city to navigate our way out of and I got us lost almost immediately!  We weren’t alone though and soon had other cars following us, obviously presuming we knew the way!  But we were undeterred and were soon back on track and feeling quite pleased with ourselves. 

As darkness fell we left Italy behind and crossed into France, heading higher and higher up into the Alps.  At first seeing snow on the verge seemed like a bit of a novelty but soon we were in blizzard conditions with inches of snow covering the road.  It got to the point where we were having to use the thin poles marking the edge of the road to feel our way forwards as everything else was in total white out.  It was at this point we reached the twisty hairpin beds as we raced up and down the mountains towards the next checkpoint. 

I was in absolute awe at A-L’s driving.  I knew she was good but her ability to control the car as we skidded in the deep snow was remarkable.  If I had been driving I’m pretty sure we would have been upside-down in a ditch after the first bend.  Sometimes the car was skidding sideways across both lanes and yet every time she calmly steered it back round, all the time keeping her foot to the floor so that we didn’t loose too much speed.  It was totally exhilarating and yet I felt no nervousness at all, such was the faith I had in A-L’s ability to handle the conditions.

As we drove through the night our rally appeared to be nothing short of eventful!  The highs and lows came thick and fast.  One minute we thought we were disqualified for getting to a check point too late.  Then we were back in the race and off again only to break down half way up a mountain at 3am.  Having freewheeled back down the mountain amazingly we found a garage and pushed it to the pumps.  It turned out the information we had been give about how many kilometres to a tank of fuel the Alfa would do was out by 100km and we had just run out of fuel.  So, yet again, problem solved and we were off.  The learning curve was steeper than anything I have done before!

I was worried about sickness and tiredness but neither were an issue.  There’s just wasn’t even time to think about it as we raced on through the night and headed towards our first ‘Special Stage’ on Day2.The Special Stage (timed section where an average speed must be maintained with points deducted for being over or under time) was a real highlight.  It was at this point in the Rally that I really felt the synergy between driver and navigator and just knew we were going to do well.  Passing the hidden speed camera while we were on the button with our average speed was extremely encouraging.  But as we raced down into Monaco the cloud of white smoke spewing out the back of the car was depressing. I held out hope that our brilliant mechanic Kirt would be able to sort the problem and naively presumed it would all be fixed and fine by the morning.  It was hard to get too down about it all when you are faced with such a spectacle as seeing all of the competitors together for the first time, lined up around the edge of the marina in Monaco next to millions of pounds worth of luxury yachts.

Having missed a night’s sleep we were spoilt rotten by Jason and checked into a fabulous hotel.  But my head was still on the next stage and after a great team dinner I was glad to get back into the room so that I could spread the maps all over the floor to study the route in minute detail.  I pushed on into the early hours but need not have as shortly after getting to the car in the morning Kirt informed us that our rally was over due to a blown head gasket.  A-L and I were distraught. 

Having the chance to race in the Monte Carlo Rally was an absolute privilege.  I made a lot of mistakes and I learnt so so much.  There is no doubt in my mind that A-L and I have the capacity to win the Ladies Cup.  As a team I have the feeling that one day we will be a force to be reckoned with! 

Please check out the photos in the gallery and the movie on the right.

©2010 Shoal Projects Ltd. All rights reserved

At 98 years old, the Monte Carlo Rally Historique is legendary and very eccentric!  The 1969 Peter Cook and Dudley Moore comedy ‘Monte Carlo of Bust’ captured this brilliantly, hilariously following eccentric competitors lying, cheating and bumbling their way across Europe. Perhaps eccentricity is necessary; after all it is dangerous and adventurous in the old-fashioned sense of the word.  It’s not about hi-tech gadgets or v8 engines.  It’s about historic cars with no heating, icy mountain roads, hitting snow banks, flying around hairpin descents to avoid time penalties, navigating with paper maps and not falling asleep at the wheel after days without sleep.  

Co-driver to Anna-Louise Felstead (aka A-L), Debra and A-L met when they completed a World Record crossing of the English Channel by Dragon Boat together in 2007 and became firm friends.  A-L, a professional artist, started out painting beautiful artworks of classic cars but was encouraged behind the wheel by Jason Stuart, a passionate classic car racer and owner, in 2007 and she is now an experienced racing driver.  Without the enormous generosity of Jason Stuart the girls would never have been able to afford to enter such a prestigious rally in such a fantastic old car.

Debra’s goal was to utilise the years of experience she had gain while navigating on expeditions around the world to achieve a podium finish in the Ladies Cup of the 2010 rally.  But sadly this goal has had to be put on hold for a future edition of the Monte as the girls 2010 entry came to an abrupt  head gasket blowing end after just 24 hours on the road. 

Here’s the story from Debra:

“It was so exciting to finally be there (Turin, Italy) and to see all the other cars lined up.  I would never class myself as a petrol head but I was certainly quite taken by the way that many of the old cars had been beautifully maintained and the bizarre range of shapes and sizes some of the early cars came in.  It was a breathtaking and exhilarating sight.

As we lined up to take our turn on the starting ramp I felt a big jumble of nervous excitement and a  real apprehension about navigating us out of the city.  The organisers had changed the route at the last moment and I was only handed a badly photocopied map of the new route as we lined up before the ramp.