The last day began with some challenging regularities between Malemort and Castellane. Mostly we did pretty well with a few seconds here and there. A brief encounter with some sheep and Then on to Aiglun via the balcony road before the final blast from La Bollene up to the Col de Turini.
You can’t call yourself a rally driver until you’ve done this stage. It’s fast. It demands absolute concentration with a rock face one side and a sheer drop the other. 20 plus hairpins that are just wide enough to mean you can keep the power on through it.
Andrew called it perfectly giving me pace noted calls for each twist and turn. It makes a huge difference.
Four timing points before the final blast up the hill to slide to a halt astride the finish at 5,000 ft. I’ve done this 4 times previously and this was by some way my fastest time.
Then it was some lunch while we awaited the results. We finished 11th overall in a very good quality field. We got 2nd in class and also picked up a team prize!
All in all very satisfying. Big thanks to Andrew who called every turn – except one! He is definitely forgiven. It was a really excellent performance.
Another terrific and very competitive event fully deserving of its rating as one of the toughest on the calendar.
Monte Carlo the Hard Way 