On Saturday my driver Paul and I started off the 1100 km drive from Hilversum to Annecy, France, below Geneva. We made it to Dijon where we had an excellent dinner in l'Escargot, a lovely restaurant with lots of regional French dishes (snails). In Dijon we spotted some other Tulip Rally competitors (a few British teams who have a fetish for small, underpowered cars (such as an Austin A40) that nevertheless sound great albeit that they look a little puny).
On Sunday we continued on to Annecy, arriving around 12:00. We checked in for the rally, into the hotel, and then went for an excellent lunch at a restaurant at the lake. Sunday night there was a cocktail reception... followed by bed, as the next day we would start quite early.
On Monday the rally immediately required hard riving. Little mountain roads got us high up in the alps, to 1800 meters, where there was still snow and a lot of fog impeding progress. You had to drive seriously fast, and not make any navigation mistakes to arrive at each checkpoint (there's about 8 each day) in time, as both early and late arrival are penalised. Paul drove very fast, and we missed some route controls (letters on the side of the road, and, as we would later discover, hidden in particular places), but we ended up with a reasonable score and only a couple of minutes penalty for lateness.
That night we discovered that most of our competitors had really had difficulty making the times, and ended up with many, many penalty points (some in the thousands). We learned that night that the maps they provided us with each morning just before the rally were 10 year old geographical maps in a scale of 1:10000, meaning each millimeter equates to a 100 meters. In the mean time, in the interest of road safety, the French have smoothed out many of these roads.
The regulations of the rally state however that you attempt to drive roads on the map, not in real life. So that means that if I see a left hook (90 degrees) in 700 meters, and my driver spots a clean curve left starting at 650 meters, we need to be aware... frequently there's a bit of old road just after the start of the curve, or a path, or a parking place. Thats where they would hide a route control (a letter)... Not only that, but frequently they photoshop out roads from the map to make keeping track of where you are even more difficult.
On these maps you plot your route by plotting the shortest distance from Time control 1 to Time control 2 via points, or arrows drawn on the map.
So the navigator (that's me) sits there, plotting, measuring (with a magnifying glass) and using a precise odometer to check where I'm at. The driver needs to keep the car whole, drive fast, make sure he does not shake me about too much and check for control letters.
After the first day we ended up 6th, which was pretty good as the field in our class consisted of 55 cars and we were the highest newcomers. The second day we did well too, and consolidated our 6th position but could not figure out whey we kept missing so many hidden route controls... turned out the organisation has many more tricks than the one described above up it's sleeve.
The third day was disastrous. After a circuit test in which we needed to drive within the second around a track twice, which Paul did very well with only 1 second penalty each lap, we ended up on a map which had been photoshopped so badly that we lost 27 minutes figuring out where we were. And if you report more than 30 minutes late at any time check, you get maximum penalties as if you had not reported in. So it was essential we reduced our delay as it would be too close for comfort. Spirited driving by Paul and better navigation by me made sure that by the end of the day we had eliminated our delays... but we felt bad because we would be hit with many penalty points. And we did... for both 27 minutes lateness, and again some 5 missed route controls.
We were very surprised to learn Thursday morning that we had actually climbed to 5th place overall... so everyone else must have had even worse problems. However because we kept missing so many RC's I got very suspicious about them, expecting them in every nook and cranny. However, the terrain we were driving through had changed tremendously... no longer Alpine mountains, but sweeping roads, and the rally organisers pulled a whole other set of tricks out of their repertoire to mess me up. So whilst other crews were able to improve, we were not and dropped back to 6th. And even worse, on Friday we dropped back to 8th... and were overtaken by one other crew who did the rally for the first time.
The teams that finished 1st to 6th place were all experienced crews, with this being their second rally, but for some even 4th or more... So being the second best newcomer was not too bad. Regrettably only the first 6 finishers received a tulip award and got on stage... Must do better next year.
On this rally the Pagoda's did really well. One finished 5th in the Touring class, but the others drove well too. In the mountains they are a little heavy but on the roads going north after the second day they came into their own... and they're a bit more comfortable for the navigator than the little Alfa Romeo spider I was in.
Enclosed in this post, and the next one, some photographs for your enjoyment.
Peter
Photographs:
1. 300SL driven in Expert class to an impressive 3rd place... and believe me, that takes some doing when the competition is in an orginal Works prepared Big Austin Healey...
2. Little Porsche accident showing that the first day mountain roads were really not a walk in the park!
3. Pagoda with recent SLK seats... note the clever colour coordination
4. Pagoda father and daughter team ended up 10th in Sport Class... they were last year's Tour class winners
