Keith Adams
The European leg of the London to Cape Town World Cup Rally 2012 has gone swimmingly for the AROnline-supported Girls Across Africa team of MG Maestro, Jane Edgington and Gill Cotton.
Day five
Kamena Vourla, Greece
It was a rainy day for the teams, but a great challenge nevertheless. The route climbed 1000 metres in 100 kilometres, and found themselves hitting snow and ice, near Lake Plastiras. Syd Stelvio reckoned there was, ‘so much snow the road became something like The Monte, and it was a good move to get Paul Heal and Dick Appleton out here early as they were able to arrange a nifty re-route around a snow blockage for a timed to the second World Cup Rally section.’
Everyone dropped some time on this one, some more than others, but Andy Actman in the big Toyota sliced the best part of a minute off the rally leaders in their MG ZR, he was to prove best-performance of the day on two World Cup sections. The final test of the day was an Acropolis Rally goat-track and was to prove quite surprising – muddy, slushy, remains of snow and ice, it rose and fell over blind crests along a mountain ridge and then dropped steeply downhill.
Rachel Vestey and Suzy Harvey caught up after their previous day’s mishap in their MG ZR, although clearly, they will now have some serious catching up to do. As for the girls in the Maestro, ‘The day started with a hard drive in the Greek mountains through snow and ice to get to the first competitive sections, again made more exciting by the snowy conditions,’ Gill Cotton said.
‘Later in the day we did some testing gravel sections used on the Acropolis Rally. A few scary moments and one big navigational error lost us time today, fortunately many others including the leader made the same mistake which makes me feel a bit better! Jane continues to drive brilliantly, the car’s still going strong, and we live to fight another day in fifth place.’
Is the Editor of the Parkers website and price guide, formerly editor of Classic Car Weekly, and launch editor/creator of Modern Classics magazine. Has contributed to various motoring titles including Octane, Practical Classics, Evo, Honest John, CAR magazine, Autocar, Pistonheads, Diesel Car, Practical Performance Car, Performance French Car, Car Mechanics, Jaguar World Monthly, MG Enthusiast, Modern MINI, Practical Classics, Fifth Gear Website, Radio 4, and the the Motoring Independent...
Likes 'conditionally challenged' motors and taking them on unfeasible adventures all across Europe.
- Concepts and prototypes : Hyundai/Rover Oden (1992) - 9 November 2023
- Opinion : So, maybe the Montego was the best they could do… - 8 November 2023
- The cars : Austin Montego (LM11) development story - 7 November 2023
Be the first to comment