I drove yesterday afternoon to Reims to watch the start of the 2009 Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. Sunny and cold day, good conditions for a start given at 7.00 PM from "la place de l'hôtel de ville" where a dedicated podium was installed.
I had a special attention to the many Belgian participating cars, and a very special one for the Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team : the team will campaign John Morrow’s 1965 1293cc Morris Cooper S. The car is a very close replica of the fabulously successful vehicles built by BMC Competitions Department in the 1960s and which won the Monte Carlo outright on three separate occasions. Richards, who runs a well-known engineering and A-series engine tuning business in Kent, UK, prepared the car. John, is based in Seattle (USA) and came especially over to run the rallye. Their car has N° 328 as you can see from below picture taken yesterday
you can see below the inside of the Mini, very well prepared and ready for a succesfull rallye, aiming for class win !
124 cars would leave Reims from this podium for a nigth drive to Monte-Carlo for the concentration. Several very nice cars were present, including a Jaguar XK 140, a Lancia Stratos, several Renault Alpine, Austin Healey's etc...
I had a special attention to the many Belgian participating cars, and a very special one for the Minispares-Mad Dog Rallying team : the team will campaign John Morrow’s 1965 1293cc Morris Cooper S. The car is a very close replica of the fabulously successful vehicles built by BMC Competitions Department in the 1960s and which won the Monte Carlo outright on three separate occasions. Richards, who runs a well-known engineering and A-series engine tuning business in Kent, UK, prepared the car. John, is based in Seattle (USA) and came especially over to run the rallye. Their car has N° 328 as you can see from below picture taken yesterday
you can see below the inside of the Mini, very well prepared and ready for a succesfull rallye, aiming for class win !
best wishes to John and Bill for the rallye !!
I made some more pictures yesterday that you can find here .
The N°328 Mini Cooper results can be followed on the websites of John Morrow (co-driver), Bill Richards(driver) or the Monte-Carlo rallye for overall results.
Philippe, It was great to meet you at Reims. I hope you enjoyed the atmosphere -it is always fantastic. We has a good rally although would have been better if we'd had fewer mechanical problems (in 6 MC rallys I've never had a serious issue with Bill's engines: they are famous for their reliability). Next year we'll win! LOL! Now I really must finish off my E type...
ReplyDeleteHello John, glad you made it to the end !
ReplyDeleteWhat a challenge and experience ! well done!
The atmosphere in Reims was very good , I assume it was even better around MC.
Look forward to see your E ready!