Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2007: Progress Report 4



The rally is now over and the results confirmed. I watched the ACM site avidly as the cars raced off to tackle the dreaded night loop on the mountains behind Monte Carlo. Many a competitor's hopes have been dashed on the infamous Col de Turini (memories of hitting That Wall in 2005 still make me shudder). There were three regularity stages. On the first two nothing much happened and with both the Barker/Cave and O'nion/Wilkinson Mini Coopers moving up through the field. And then on the final stage from Lantosque to the Col de Braus, chaos! Peter Barker and Willy Cave 13 places to finish 22nd overall but somehow lost the class position to a Renault 8 Gordini that had been running about 10 places behind. They were however, the first Mini over the line. A fitting performance on this the 40th anniversary of the last Mini victory in the original event. Geoff O'nion and David Wilkinson were less lucky. They had a torrid time on the last stage and they dropped 30 places to 99th overall but still finished 4th in class behind a Saab 96. I'm not sure what happened but weather is almost certainly to blame. The mountain roads behind Monaco are very, very tricky and when snow, ice and freezing fog are thrown into the equation anything can happen. The overall winners were the formidable Belgian team of Alain Lopes and Joseph Lambert. I've excerpeted the top 10 results from the Automobile Club de Monaco's site (sorry about the size but you can just about read them).
2007 MCH results

Oh, and for completeness I've posted the final episode of the 2004 event for your viewing pleasure.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2007: Progress Report 3



Today is the second part of the Common Leg and runs from Briancon to Monaco. I'll post the results as they come in (the most recent at the top of the page). I've also posted the Episode 5 movie clip of the 2004 event.

Results after the third regularity stage (Rouaine - St Pierre)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 51st overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 72nd overall, 4th in class (II/1)

Both Mini teams have been gradually moving through he field but overall most crews seem to be performing very consistently and I presume this is due to good weather. Furthermore the domination of the event by more powerful cars and the relatively few retirees (29) suggests that this is a "dry" year.

The next item on the agenda is a race around the casino at Monte Carlo after the cars arrive in the Principality this afternoon. Just like the days of yore. Finally it's the dreaded nightloop around the Col de Turini where in the past many a crew has literally become unstuck (including your humble narrator on the 2005 edition).
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Results after the second regularity stage (Ets Thermals - Norante)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 54th overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 75th overall, 4th in class (II/1)

A Saab 96 and a Renault Gordini still separate O'nion/Wilkinson from Barker/Cave in class II/1.

The highest placed Mini, the Innocenti Cooper S of Treves/Calegari is running 26th overall.
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Results after the first regularity stage of the day(St Clément sur Durance - St Sauveur d'Embrun)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 58th overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 79th overall, 4th in class (II/1)

Monday, January 29, 2007

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2007: Progress Report 2



Today in Part 1 of the Common Leg. I'm going to try some live reporting throughout the day; so here we go -the most recent result are first.

Results after the fourth regularity stage (Les Rambeaux - La Paute)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 59th overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 84th overall, 4th in class (II/1)

I have a suspicion that Geoff' O'nion's little 997cc Cooper is struggling in the mountains and gives away a lot of horsepower to the more much more powerful 1071cc engine of Peter Barker.
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Results after the third regularity stage (St Michel les Portes - Col des Deux St Guillaume)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 58th overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 84th overall, 4th in class (II/1)

A Saab 96 and a Renault Gordini are in between Peter Barker and Geoff O'nion in the II/1 class.

Former Cooper Car Co colleagues (but now Porsche 911-mounted, the buggers) Alain Lopes and Joseph Lambert are running 2nd overall.
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Results after the second regularity stage (Les Nonières - Mens)

Aghem, G/Cumino (Lancia Fulvia 1.6) 1st overall

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 59th overall, 1st in class (II/1)

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 85th overall, 4th in class (II/1)

It looks like weather conditions are now breaking up the field...
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Results after the first regularity stage (St Jean en Royans - Vassieux en Vercors -usually a tricky run with lots of snow):

Ortiz de Zarate/Gonzalez (Porsche 911): 1st overall

O'nion/Wilkinson (Mini Cooper): 69th overall, 2nd in class (II/1)

Barker/Cave (Mini Cooper): 74th overall, 3rd in class (II/1)

I'll update these results throughout the day.

A quick eyeball of the overall results after the first regularity suggests that the crews are being very consistent and I suspect there's not yet much snow. Hopefully I'll get some direct reports from the frontline soon. In the meantime I've linked another episode of the 2004 rally for your viewing pleasure.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Monte Carlo Historique Rally 2007: Progress Report 1



In true petrolhead fashion, I've been glued to the Automobile Club de Monaco's website as the results of the 10th Monte Carlo Historic Rallye are posted. Notes are as follows:

After the Concentration Run, a non-competetive but gruelling 800Km+ overnight slog from the various European start points to Saint Etienne in the Ardeche, 14 of the original 319 crews had abandoned the event.

Today is the first truly competitive day of rallying. Traditionally this is known as the Classification Run: the results of the first five regularity stages dictating the running order for the rest of the event.

At the end of the fifth and final regularity stage, BRR customer and former Cooper Car Co cronies, Geoff O'nion and co-driver David Wilkinson were running 65th overall and second in class in Geoff's fabulous 997cc Mini Cooper. Peter Barker and Willy Cave in the seemingly immortal 977 ARX Mini Cooper were running 81st overall and fourth in class behind the Mini Cooper S mounted crew of Castelein and Schamp. A Porsche 911 driven by the Spanish crew of Ortiz de Zarate and Gonzalez is in the overall lead. The highest placed Mini is in 39th place and driven by the Danish crew of Kristofferson and Arp although this is a more contemporary car than those of O'nion/Wilkinson and Barker/Cave and thus in a different class.


I'll post more result as the come in -in the meantime I've posted a clip (3 of 8) of the 2004 MCH.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Monte Carlo Historique Rallye 2007



I shouldn't really complain about the weather as it's perfect for rallying. And today is the start of the 10th Monte Carlo Historique. I'm hoping that the whole Mad Dog team will be at the start in 2008. There really is nothing else like it to stir the blood. a I've found a clip of the 2004 edition that gives a good feel of the event (it has some great historical footage of Minis racing around Monaco). Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Whining about Weather

108th St
South facing view of road outside MD kennels this morning; the incline turns it into a ski slope.

I'm so bloody cold I can't think.

In November we had the heaviest rainfall since records began...

In December we had record breaking gales that blew down trees everywhere in the state....

Now, in January, we've had snow on the ground for a weeks and it's frozen solid. More snow fell this morning. There's a burn ban in place so I can't have an open fire in the grate (but all the wood is sold out anyway). All I want to do is stay warm and eat huge amounts of comfort food.

I'm starting to hate winter...!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Vend it like Beckham

david beckham

The New Year has started with some remarkable developments in the world of sports. The number of column inches devoted to the England cricket team's annihilation by Australia and the subsequent loss of The Ashes has already been exceeded by the announcement of David Beckham's move to the USA. It was even the front lead story on today's New York Times. Now why anyone would pay $250,000 million for a 31 year old midfielder who was quite overated at his peak (c2002) is beyond me. I presume that marketing rather than football is the driving force in the deal and all this talk about "branding" and promoting the "David Beckham Image" is getting on my nerves. I won't rant on about deification of celebrities and such because my blood pressure won't take it. Unfortunately I'm just going to steel myself about the prospect of seeing pictures of Posh and Becks saturating the commercial media while hawking all kinds of consumer frippery. Oh well...I'm off to have a G&T and contemplate seeing a publicist about marketing the Mad Dog Image! LOL!