Tag: Road Trip

We just arrived at our hotel in Weimar after a day with 170 km of highways to get to the East, mixed with three tests at Twente Airport and four 15km regularity section. A good day to get back into the rythm, because the regularity sections were set on icy, snowy side-roads. Lethal conditions as even one of the Irish competitors, Frank Fennell, who does nothing but rallying, drilled himself into a ditch a few minutes ahead of us. Not something we could fix, but definitely a nice job for the rescue crew with a 4×4!

Our test this morning consisted of three sections and included icy, snowy and asphalt sections and it was a hoot as usual. We had two small misses, which cost us a few seconds, but where last year we had many offs due to abundant risks being taken, this year [...]

We’re about to take you on another rally adventure into Eastern Europe. Winter Trial 2013 is kicking off tonight with the welcome dinner near Hengelo in the east of the Netherlands. As you can see our cockpit is a mish-mash of wires and instruments, as the organisers use a GPS logger device to track the competition. I’d say the mechanics of the logger-company are not much aware of safety aspects…. They tie-wrapped the logger to the fire extinguisher!

Special new feature in our cockpit is a red-light system for interior lighting. Ideal for night vision of course, but I worry about being chased off the side of the road in Czech Republic by the local fuzz, when they see this new system in operation. On the other hand they might ask “how much”….

The gang’s [...]

With our first races behind us it’s time to start focussing on the BergMeister Tour 2012. It’s hard to describe what the BergMeister is all about, but I’ll try.

I have regularly spent time in the South of France, visiting my sister, who lives and works there and I became enamored with the landscape of the Alpes Maritimes. During day trips my wife and I would criss cross the landscape in rental cars, looking for vantage points for photo’s, and at some stage I decided we needed to take the R Gruppe down here.

I gauged the interest among friends in the USA and at R Gruppe Treffen in 2009 the BergMeister Tour was born. TwinSpark partner John Glynn was there and the pals of Zuffenhaus and Steven Harris. Although in the end out of that group onlyJohn and Steven joined us on the first Tour [...]