RtG Ypres-Istanbul Daily Dispatch - complete - web - Flipbook - Page 25
Day 11: Pécs to Arad, 24 June 2022
First to impress the Arad crowds were Enrico Paggi and Federica Mascetti
with the 1971 Fiat 124 Spider BS1
Design: K-Design
Roy Stephenson and Mark Bramall, 1965 Ford Mustang
Last on the closed-road city section, shown here earlier in the day, Joe
and Kate Hayes, 1973 Porsche 911
www.rallytheglobe.com
Text & photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
We were heading to Romania today and a special date
in Arad city centre, but there was plenty to do along the
way. The first Regularity was through Erdomecske, a
hunting estate with some great roads. Once again we were
the warm up act for the big rally coming through later in
the day. Dozens of impromptu campsites had been set
up in the woods by hard-core Hungarian rally fans and
we offered something of a welcome diversion. The early
morning coffee drinkers cheered and clapped as the Ypres
to Istanbul Challenge rolled through.
The Time Control in the Duna Wellness Hotel, Baja, sat
right on the Duna River, the local name for the Danube.
In the busy town square the mercury hit 32°C and the
crews took on whatever refreshment they could before
hitting the road again. We made a beeline for the fields of
emerging sunflowers, arriving at a Passage Control deep in
the vineyards.
An off-road navigational section followed, nicknamed
Serbside as it lay almost within sight of the Serbian border.
4km of sandy singletrack took the crews past dozens
of remote farm buildings and simple dwellings. Those
finding their way back to the tarmac were rewarded with a
fantastic three course lunch at the Time Control in Makó at
the Autós Panzió restaurant.
The Romanian border was only 7km up the road, a simple
10 minute affair. A quick check of the car’s paperwork, a
stamp in the passport, and we sped on to Arad and two
closed road Tests that had been long in the planning.
After playing second fiddle to the FIA rally this morning,
this evening we found ourselves top of the bill for a city
centre circuit, echoing the urban sprint we enjoyed on day
two back in Belgium. Clearly the crews were impressed
and, once the streets had been secured, the trams had
been stopped, and the mobile crane had removed the odd
vehicle defying the no parking order, the fun began. As
the first car off the line, it was down to Enrico Paggi and
Federica Mascetti’s Fiat to set the tone for the evening with
a bravura display of squealing, screeching, sliding and
howling. And the crowd loved it.
Two laps of the asphalt, cobble and tram track course
gave the crews plenty of opportunity to show what they
could do and gave the crowds plenty to savour. It seemed
that half the city had turned out and we were expertly
marshalled by dozens of Jandarmeria, local police, city
officials and the Rally the Globe team.
As the sun dipped and the daylight began to fade, Joe
and Kate Hayes’ Porsche 911 brought the curtain down
on a great evening and the crews made their way to the
Continental Hotel for a few cooling drinks and dinner.
Special thanks must go to Consuela Avram who worked
closely with Fred Gallagher, Gill and John Cotton and Mark
Appleton to get this particular show on the road.