Flashback: Monte Carlo Rally has rarely looked — or smelt — better

The Monte Carlo Rally caught my imagination in 1956 when Ronnie Adams hefted a Jaguar Mark VII (manual, no overdrive or power steering) from Glasgow to Monaco, the textile manufacturer from Northern Ireland accompanied by two co-drivers. The fever really took hold in January 1964 when the Belfast Telegraph was plastered back and front with the story of Paddy Hopkirk’s magnificent victory in the Mini Cooper S. Two decades later, there was never any doubt about persuading my sports editor that we really needed to cover this motor sport classic.

The first trip, paid for by Austin Rover in 1986, came close to disaster when the Metro 6R4s of Tony Pond and Malcolm Wilson failed to reach Monte Carlo on the concentration run from Paris and a beleaguered bloke from AR threatened to send the British press posse home. A few of us stayed on thanks to the intervention of the astute Baroness Jean Denton, head of AR’s PR and a former competitor. Visits to the awesome Alpine stages ensured the Monte would become a permanent part of my winter itinerary.

As with the RAC Rally (see last month’s Flashback…), the secret was to travel with seasoned journalists who knew their way around. I was fortunate to fall in with Jerry Williams (Daily Mail) and the erudite and much-missed David Williams (aka ‘DKW’, to use his Motoring News acronym). DKW knew rallying inside out and Jerry was familiar with the best restaurants; a perfect combination – and a formidable one as I was to discover when nursing a hangover while heading off for a special stage at some unearthly hour the following morning.

The early start was essential to beat road closures and the threat of being stuck in traffic on the side of a mountain. It didn’t always work because there was never a means of avoiding a stroppy gendarme taking it upon himself to refuse access with an imperious “Non!” and an infuriating wave of an index finger. No amount of stabbing at a media road book would do the trick.

When it worked, however, we found our way to places such as this in 1992. Having stood a metre or so from the start line of Special Stage 14 to witness the Toyota Celicas and Lancia Deltas launch themselves into the 15km from Clumanc to Lambruisse, it was time to grab a welcome coffee, climb above the burger van in the foreground, pause for a moment and take in the magnificent scenery. Not a bad way to spend a Monday morning. I can smell the barbecue and coffee from here.