Carlos Who...?

As Bill Richards and I raced around France recently on our rally recon we noticed the billboard above on one of the stages near St. Agreve. So it seems to me that the Automobile Club de Monaco is so slack that it can't be arsed to plot a different route for our rally and that bunch of overpaid boy racers from the WRC who are drivng ahead of us by a few days (you know, cars with huge exhaust pipes, wings and stuff driven by rockstar crews who are constantly pampered, have groupies tending to their every need and don't have to worry if they can afford to buy a third set of tyres). Anyway my interest was piqued and I went for a surf on the ACM's site. To my surprise they've made an announcement that no fewer than four former winners of the MC rally will be competing on the Historique event. First there is Bruno Saby and Jean-Francois Fauchille (winners, 1988) in a Fiat 500. Hah Hah and LMFAO! Then there's 1978 winner, Jean-Pierre Nicolas, driving his Gitanes Porsche 911. I expect he'll be too busy smoking cigarettes to care about driving. Next there's Vic Elford and David Stone at the wheel of their orange Porsche 911. I'm frankly a bit worried about this pair as they broke the dominance of the Mini Coopers back in 1968. They are quite familiar with regularity rallys if they're not too old to remember how to read speed tables and David Stone lives near Valence (the nexus point of the rally), apparently. You don't think they could have been practicing, do you....? Nah, I'm being paranoid! Finally there's some bloke called Sainz. Never heard of him. He's from Barcelona (or somewhere close). A quick internet search reveals that he likes to drive his car greasy side up. He's clearly rubbish!  Bring 'em on, I say.