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We´ve no time to update the site. Will update the week beginning 24th September when we return.

Today Monza race track and blast through Switzerland and France to Saarbrücken near the Nurburgring in Germany.

We´ve no time to update the site. Will update the week beginning 24th September when we return.

Today Imola, Maranello, Ferrari museum, bodyshop, factory and Fiorano test track.

Last day of the rally today and we ended up the last to leave even though we were on time. It seems everyone else had an idea of the tribulations ahead.

We got our challenge sheet and went on to get the first two challenges easily in Cortina, then the rest involved finding stuff in Venice, but more of that in a bit.

The journey out of Cortina and down through the mountains was relatively sedate amongst the traffic so we couldn’t save any time along the way, but before long the rain set in.

TORRENTIAL didn’t do it justice, the roads were actually flooding and we were hydroplaning into the tunnels, which was interesting. Then the lightning and thunder started, and carried on for about an hour straight, at this point we had joined a very slow moving convey with Team Rado and whilst sat in the traffic for another hour, decided it was a lost cause trying to get into a flooded Venice. So of on a different route we headed to Ferrara, where we spent a couple of hours in the blazing sunshine having lunch and admiring the local sites.

The rest of the journey back into Rimini was pretty uneventfull, until we reached the finish line. The chequered flag was being waved and music playing and all the other entrants who had already finished were cheering us in to the car park, we had made it!

After Kieron being reunited with his wife Jo and son Alexander who was very keen to drive the rally car, lol, we hit the bar for a few well earned beers and a catch up with the other Scally Rallyers.
Then it was time for the final Wrap Party.

Well needless to say we were very, very, drunk.

Today we did the journey from Como to Cortina, we weren’t expecting the amazing roads we encountered after driving the Grimmsel, Furka and Stelvio passes yesterday, but WOW! After taking a wrong turn and following the scenic route we found our way along the Dolomite Mountain Range and the Pordoi pass, exhilarating and spectacular would have been a good choice of description but all we could manage was “wow” and more stunned silence, the journey was made even more impressive when we drove through the clouds, around hair pin bends with shear drops at the side and no barriers. The kind donation from Protyre really helped out here.

As we neared Cortina we pulled in for some fuel to find “Team Geek” struggling with the automated pumps, and after several interesting experiences of our own with these, were able to lend a hand and convoyed down out of the mountains.

Finding the hotel was easy as Kieron went in and asked a local, who then guided us in behind his scooter. Keeping up was the fun bit as he blatted through the town with us close behind exhaust roaring, sorry people of Cortina. lol.

After the interesting route to the hotel on day 1 which saw us drive into the train station and onto a platform to everyones amazement, the start of the second leg wasn’t much better.

We headed out from the foyer of the Hilton Hotel in Basel, and followed the especially closed off road around the hotel and end up back at the hotel, a good start which we made even more interesting by leaving the city in the wrong direction.

Eventually on route we headed through the many tunnels, and onto the more scenic roads of Switzerland and past the lakes Thuner See and Brinner See where the views were stunning.

One of the challenges set to run the whole length of the rally was to photograph a team member using various forms of transport, from a skateboard to a parachute, thirty in all….

As we headed into the mountains the driving became more and more demanding and spectacular, with the Grimmsel pass and the Furka pass.

Half way up the Grimmsel we came out of a tunnel to see a few Scally cars pulled over, so we pulled in to help them. This is when we discovered that the secondary fan on our car was squished up against the radiator and didn’t work with steam comming out of the over flow pipe under the bonnet. Both the Bar stool lads from Ireland and the Surf bus lads from Wales helped us out with wire, tools, gaffer tape and a switch so that we could hard wire the fan into the dash via the battery and get us on our way. Big Thanks to you guys and beer on us.

The rally starts at 9am from Cite De Europe car park. Any entrants from last years rally go first then this years newbies leave 15 minutes later in a game of cat and mouse all the way to Basel with the Newbies being the cats. We assumed any legends would turn off the motorway or hide in the picnic area as gaining 15 minutes over a days driving would be a doddle. However we found none after 5 hours so decided to throw caution to the wind with the unknown oil problem and bury the throttle for an hour. After 50 minutes at a constant ***km/h we caught up with the tail enders blasting past…… then the blue lights appeared in the rear view mirror followed by the explaining in pigeon French what we were doing and why the engine bay was pumping out loads of burning oil smoke. “Le feu!!!!! Le feu!!!!! Le feu!!!!!” the gendames screamed. “L’huile… dacor, tre bien” we said back. A short telling off and a 90 euro fine we were off again…

After checking the oil we thankfully realised though there is a little bit coming out through the rocker cover gasket its not that much and the smoking is only the odd drop on the hot turbo. So fingers crossed we should be ok.

We managed to secure sponsorship for our tyres through Micheldever Tyres who are part of the Protyre group. A big thanks to Richard Sawney and Kieron’s wife Jo who made it possible plus thanks to Neil Potter and Lawrence at Micheldever who got the stickers and tyres sorted at short notice. At 12:30 the tyres were fitted and we head off to catch the 16:30 ferry.

At Dover we spotted a couple of Scally Rally entrants. Mark and Ken in their great surf bus and the Kombat Krishnas in their cammo Audi GT.

After a very calm crossing we arrive in Calais and head to the Etap at Cite De Europe complex. The car park is full of Scally cars.

Time to head to the evenings meeting point and register for the rally!