Events : London-Cape Town, day four

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 four
The Adriatic, Italy-Greece

Another 5.00am start, and the London-Cape Town teams are threading through the Cypress trees, and into another long and challenging day of rallying. The teams left Florence in dense fog skipping patches of black-ice – and it was onb one of these that Rachel Vestey and Suzy Harvey in their MG ZR had a moment which lost them their top 10 placing – they braked into a roundabout, and slid straight on, and clouted a concrete parapet.  This was sufficient to stuff the radiator and damage a lot of the front steering.

But having completed the Peking to Paris they know all about being resourceful and soon found Igor the Hammer, who began work sorting the damage. However, even Igor couldn’t fix the MG in sufficient time to catch the mid-day Superfast Ferry that carries us on over the Adriatic to Greece. The girls have missed the boat. However, they plan to catch another, sailing a few hours later, and reckon on catching up by mid-day tomorrow.

The girls in the MG Maestro are still doing well. ‘Today we have had some more super competition on gravel tracks in the mountains and are still maintaining fourth overall which we dropped to after the mountains yesterday.’

Top five overall

1 33 20m 19 1 B Owen Turner GB Matthew Fowle GB 2002 MG ZR 1589
2 14 27m 01 1 E Andy Actman GB Andy Elcomb GB 2010 Toyota Hilux 3000
3 23 31m 21 2 E Steve Blunt GB Bob Duck GB 2006 Subaru Impreza 1994
4 15 42m 22 2 B Jane Edgington GB Gillian Cotton GB 1986 MG Maestro 1598
5 17 42m 22 1 D Renger Guliker NL Pim ‘t Hart NL 1985 BMW M535I 3406

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Keith Adams

Editor and creator AROnline at AROnline

Created www.austin-rover.co.uk in 2001 and built it up to become the world's foremost reference source for all things BMC, Leyland and Rover Group, before renaming it AROnline in 2007.

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.

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