Winter Challenge

Chester to Monte Carlo

November 20 -25, 2011

The Classic Rally Association’s Winter Challenge from Chester to Monte Carlo was an FIA Regularity round held in bitter cold with the weather described by one entrant as, “the worst I have ever endured.”   The heart and soul of any Monte Carlo rally is, of course, heading through the mountains. As this was a rally whose route was chosen by the best in the business all the well-known Cols and names such as the Granier and the Grimone blurred by with their succession of hairpins. Those of a certain age may well have sat through those enthralling Shell or BP marketing films of events in the Sixties, such as the Monte or Alpine where cars are clinging to shelves, many thousands of metres up, on loose surfaces with no barrier marking the demarcation between the road and an awfully long way down whilst jolly light music is being played in the background and crews wave with beaming smiles at the cameramen. Winners Eamonn Byrne and Ian Tullie in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint lost only 5.01 seconds over 2000 kms and were only 0.37 seconds ahead of second place Paul Wignall in another Alfa Romeo. —Peter Collins