RtG Ypres-Istanbul Daily Dispatch - complete - web - Flipbook - Page 3
Pre start & scrutineering: Ypres town centre, 13 June 2022
Design: K-Design
and it includes 80 competitive sections over the twenty days
for them to get their teeth into.
Once the excitement of scrutineering was over the
rest of the day was free and, after an easy afternoon of
visiting coffee shops and some fine chocolatiers, an early
evening drivers briefing was held. Mark Appleton and Fred
Gallagher welcomed the crews to the event and allowed
any novices or newcomers to get more of a handle on what
they were about to embark on.
Pre-dinner drinks were served in the courtyard of
the Yperley restaurant ahead of a late dinner. Fred has
considerable personal history with the Ypres Rally,
founded by Frans Thévelin in 1965, with his score sheet
Text & photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
listing two wins alongside Tony Pond in 1978 and 1980.
And, after seeing the cars lined up in the town square he
finished by raising a glass to Alain Penasse, our local fixer /
rally supremo and to the town itself saying “thanks Ypres,
you’ve done us proud”.
The 48 hour car crew missed all this however, Dick
Appleton and Chris Mills were already ploughing their
lonely furrow eastwards ready to send back valuable
intelligence on the state of the roads.
Finally, it was lovely to be joined this evening by two
gatecrashers, our old friends from the Carrera España, Dirk
Van Lerberghe and Hilde Vanhove, who popped in to re-live
a little of the pre-rally excitement.
www.rallytheglobe.com