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And then its all over, but what a result: after several attempts our sympathetic Dutch racing driver Gijs van Lennep wins The Trial. With British co-driver-navigator Iain Tullie the team took top honors with a minute to spare after 6 days of intense rallying in their 356 C, owned by the State of Art collection. I spoke to Gijs several times before this event and his concerns that another technical problem would strand him in sight of the finish line were countered by rigorous preparation of his car. Engine and gearbox were rebuilt and Gijs felt the car ran wonderfully this time around.

The combination Van Lennep/Tullie was new to the event, but Iain had won the event several years ago with the late Malcolm Pickering, so he knew what he was up against. I asked him after the event how he had prepared and whether he was studying Google Earth for weeks to identify difficult intersections, like so many navigators seem to do these days. However, Iain relies on different maps of the same areas to compare situations during the rally, as he just doesn’t have time, next to his work, to spend on this type of extensive investigation. Gijs was amazed at Iain’s multi-tasking skills in the car and had felt the team worked together very well.

Team TwinSpark never recovered from the upset on the second day of the rally when our distributor cap shook loose on an extremely bumpy road taken at speed. However we managed to finish 15 and 16 out of 60 Club participants on two occasions, which made us feel we were getting things right.

There are always lessons to be drawn from tough events like these and they make you want to do better next time. I enjoyed the snowy conditions very much, as they were even better than last year, when we had less fresh snow and more tests on normal asphalt. I’m determined to spend some time at a snow-camp with Silverado in the near future, to hone my skills further. Although that’s not really required for a winter trial like this one, it is just such a kick to slalom your car on a snowy surface.

On the last regularity on the last day of the rally we were surprised by a hidden test. We had no maps for this leg in the roadbook and were trying to figure out what the organisers would be able to pull out of their hat with so few options between start and finish locations indicated. Never underestimate these guys though. We were handed a tulip table which had some of the shortest stretches in the whole rally, like 20 meters to the next turn. And they were in part repetitive! That section turned out to be big field on a hill side with a snow track laid out in a combination of a few figures of 8. What a blast that was. In the confusion we forgot to switch the faithful iPhone camera on, so we’ll have to wait until the Winter Trial movie comes out to show you more of that last test.

After the prize giving ceremonies in the evening we departed back from near Salzburg to Amsterdam in a massive snow shower and that type of weather continued all the way to Holland. A proper send off from this wonderfully entertaining event.

On behalf of Joost, my co-driver I’d like to thank Fer, Gerard, Hugo, Michiel, Cooper, Rene, Dick and Aloysius for their company and friendship during the event. Not only at the bar, but also on the road we all helped each other finish and that, in the end, is the purpose of a tough rally like this!

I have added some of the photo’s taken by Italian photographer Rene of www.photocollectionitaly.com

Out of the Starting Gate on Day 1

On our way through Austria on Day 1

Pressing on during Regularity on Day 2