From 1997 until 2007 I was very fortunate to be able to participate in a variety of challenging Historic / Classic rallies. They included several Monte Carlo / Winter Challenges, Classic Marathons to places as far afield as Marrakesh and Molde (Norway), plus Le Jog, the Ypres Historic stage rally, the Rally des Alps and the Horneland Rally which was a giant Dutch overnight ‘scatter’ rally for 180+ cars! This is my recollection of the 12th WINTER CHALLENGE [Monte Challenge] in January 2001.
I was keen to compete on this event again, so I was very pleased when Stephen Hall decided to do the event in ‘PRF’, his TR Enterprises prepared road rally Triumph TR4 that we had used successfully on Le Jog in 1999. The event attracted 180 cars starting from six locations around Europe and we were among the 80 crews entered on the more competitive ‘sporting route’. We chose to start from Ypres and the first day was a long and rather uneventful drive through Belgium and Eastern France to get to an overnight halt at Besancon.
Day 2 began with a 4am restart to get to the first common control of the event at Gerardmer by our due time of 8.16am. The route then took us through the Voges and Jura mountains with snow and ice on the higher sections and included several long regularity sections before finishing at Aix-Les-Bains. We had no problems finding the route but the Halda [a ‘period’ mechanical distance measuring device driven from the speedo cable] appeared to be sticking and as a result our regularity times were a little too fast which incurred penalties at the rate of 1 second per second. A long day, where we travelled 680 km, ended with a difficult night plot and bash regularity in the hills above Aix and it was here that I made a critical error. I missed a tiny road off to the left and went for over a mile before deciding to go back. We returned at speed and completed the rest of the very narrow and twisty route in spectacular style but still lost 1m 50secs. We were placed 24th at Aix where it was clear that other crews had incurred even more problems on this last section.
Day 3 was a loop from Aix back to Aix, finishing with a short driving test on the lakeside car park. We began badly with the Halda again sticking on the first section, which resulted in another 29 seconds penalty. However, the rest of the day was successful with only one brief overshoot losing us time and we gradually began to move up the order as others found trouble. The timed driving test was very quick once Steve had put the car in gear!
We started the final leg [Day 4/5] from Aix to Cannes in 16th place, now nearly 3 minutes behind the leaders, but knowing that the next 28 hours of motoring [960 km] with only a planned 3-hour break at Gap would be even more challenging than the rest of the event. We began our charge on the first ‘regularity’ that used a steep twisty and narrow road up to the Col de Granier, only dropping 2 seconds and passing two of the cars in front. As we started the next long section over the Col des Mouilles the snow began to fall and the pace tightened but we stayed on schedule, passing another crew who had skidded in the snow and parked their ‘ex Police’ MG saloon against a very large stone pillar.
The snow increased as we tackled a 40 km section up and over the Chamrousse and down a very very steep and narrow minor road to a control located along the main road in the valley below. Up was OK and the snow tyres provided plenty of traction. Down was a much bigger problem as the road was little wider than the car and very slippy. We were catching a 300SE Merc when he suddenly lost control and came to a halt on the outside edge of a right hand bend. There was not enough room on the inside between the car and rock face and there appeared to be a very large drop on the left. As Steve was trying to stop our sliding car, the driver of the Merc suddenly got grip and began to reverse. We shot into the space they had just vacated, and our speed took us all the way round on the outside! [The crew came to us later and said how impressed they were with Steve’s car control in such conditions; Steve and I knew the truth!]
Further on a Cooper S had tipped over the edge but as we joined the main road a queue of slow-moving traffic indicated a bigger problem. We arrived at a serious RTA involving the overnight rally leaders Frank Fennel & Kevin Savage. The road was eventually closed by the emergency services after we had passed, and this effectively split the event convoy into two sections.
Next was a couple of laps of the Ice Racing Circuit at the top of Alpe-D’Heuz, but that was largely uneventful because it was snowing so hard that a cautious approach was needed. The snow continued as we set off over the Col de Ornon where we came across another of the leaders who had retired after a collision with another crew who had cut a section of the route to get back on time. We continued our now rather lonely progress over the snowy summit and down the other side, getting into the next time control down in the River Drac valley with less than a minute to spare.
This was followed by a plot and bash regularity with 5 average speed changes, using a maze of very small minor roads that were not all shown on the Michelin maps. This time I made no mistakes finding the correct route, although there seemed to be cars going everywhere. To my surprise at the next time control in the small town of Mens we were only the 5th car to arrive! For the rest of the leg we continued to make very good progress in the snow without losing any more time on our way into Gap. We were the 3rd car to arrive at Gap but as there were no results, we had no idea of our actual position.
The snow and ice plus the accidents had caused disruption for the organisers who were trying to get the marshalling teams in place for the final night section. As a result the first section out of Gap was cancelled and after a two-hour delay we were re-grouped and went to the start of the 150km plot and bash night section. The route plotted quickly and Steve was able to keep well ahead of the pace as we again started to pass other competitors. However, after about 80 km, just before the Col de Perty which was apparently impassable due to ice, we were instructed to return to the main control, cutting out the rest of the route,
A 4am restart began another 150km section to the breakfast halt at Castellane. This route contained some of the most challenging roads on the event and again there were several route amendments due to the ice and snow. We continued to progress well and without penalty whilst other crews lost time with the route amendments or the fog, which now added to the weather mix.
After Castellane there was the final 200km of time controls and regularities along twisty minor roads to the finish at Cannes. The sun was out, the snow and ice had gone and the biggest challenge was finding the correct route which was not always easy, especially in some of the remote villages where narrow roads often end up in cul-de-sac’s. At one of the café controls an official who I knew said he had seen results showing us leading the rally at Gap. However, as we still had over 100km to go and more controls to find, I didn’t tell Steve because there was no point in both of us being stressed!
We were concerned that it was 10.30am when we were completing the final ‘competitive’ section on the public highway, but the timing gradually became more relaxed as we caught our first sight of the Mediterranean. The organisers had arranged a police escort to the final control on the harbour side in the centre of Cannes but even when we went over the finish ramp, I still had no idea of our final position and all I could say to Steve was that I thought we would be in the top 5. Since leaving Aix les Bains 28 hours earlier we had only dropped a total of 33 seconds, but there was a lot of confusion about possible penalties on other leading crews.
We finished at around midday, but the results were not finalised until 7.30pm in spite of the new computer chip system on the time cards. We needed a few hours sleep and a good meal and so it was 8pm before we finally saw the results. They showed us as second overall, just 1 min 17 secs behind the winners Jan Ebus / Lester Van de Zalm from Holland in an Alfa Romeo Giulia. I had considerable ‘discussion’ with the event organisers about why penalties at various controls (which we had cleaned) had been removed from the results, but eventually the results were declared final at 10pm.
The awards lunch for over 400 people was held at the Cannes Casino the following day, accompanied by the first showing of the event video. Unfortunately, this ended in a huge anti climax when it was announced that the awards had not been delivered from the UK and were still somewhere in France! 
Steve & I on the harbour side at Cannes with ‘PRF’ on the day after the event >>>>>
We had mixed feelings after the event. Second overall was a great result which we certainly did not anticipate, and the car never gave us a moment’s trouble. However, we also felt that if the penalties at various controls had not been scrubbed or if less of the competitive route had been cancelled, we would probably have emerged as the overall winners. Another ‘if only’ result.
Howard