RTG Carrera Italia Daily Dispatch - All days - low res - Flipbook - Page 3
Pre start & scrutineering: Sanremo, 2 October 2021
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Royal Hotel, Sanremo
The Porsches prepare
At the front, Mike and Lorna Harrison’s Triumph TR3A and Adrian and
Christine Hodgson’s Austin A90 Westminster
saw this car was on the winners ramp of the Highland Thistle
Rally and the ever competitive crew are keen to make sure
everything is running as it should be for this, their latest test.
Mike Velasco, meanwhile, was busy with a roll of sticky
tape removing stray cat hairs from the roof of his beautiful
little Porsche 356. Mark Bramall also had a bit of tinkering to
do, fettling the mechanisms around the doors and windows.
His wife, and driver, Sally, looked on approvingly, she didn’t
think the gaffer tape temporary solution they’d rigged up
for the drive down was much of a long term bet.
Somewhat ironically, on a day as beautiful as this, John
and Nicole Whitelock’s windscreen wiper motor was giving
Jack Amies and Russ Smith a tough time. This seemingly
simple repair eventually saw them remove almost the
entire dashboard to get to the bottom of the problem.
Loren Price, rally medic Sarah Ormerod and Gill Cotton
were stationed inside the hotel, ensuring necessary
paperwork and protocols were correctly completed, before
neck danglers were assigned, rally gifts distributed and
road books issued. Soon afterwards knots of anxious
looking navigators were found in dark nooks and shady
crannies poring over the pages of instructions and notes
which make up a rally, and looking out for anything
which could trip them up later on! Gill also led her - by
now traditional - navigational training seminar just in case
And out front, Bruno Lang and Corina Lang-Mathis’s Porsche 356A
Speedster and Dieter and Hildegard Baumhaeckel’s Volvo PV544
there were any creases which needed ironing out.
As an extra measure of reassurance there was also a
drivers briefing and a welcome speech from Fred and Mark
who ran through some of the finer details pertaining to
this event. The crews were then released back to the safe
keeping of the hotel hospitality team, for their own prerally rituals (swimming, lounging, socialising, eating...
delete as appropriate) before reconvening for drinks on the
terrace and an excellent dinner ahead of an early night!
Sadly, the 48 hour car saw nothing of this, Dick Appleton
and Paul Heal have already set out on their lonely odyssey.
They’ll be sending back traffic and road reports as and
when they’re required and gentlemen, if you’re listening,
we’ll be hanging on your every word.
Gerardus Mercator, Dispatch reporter
www.rallytheglobe.com