Photo Special: Historic Monte Carlo Rally 2018 – Paisley hosts a party to send off cars and crew

ByStaff Reporter

Feb 1, 2018

A party atmosphere in the centre of Paisley gave a big send-off to the cars and crews in this year’s start of the 2018 historic rally run to Monte Carlo.

A total of 70 cars left the start ramp – the largest number of entries so far – with the first 24 of them now on the 1500-mile trip to the South of France.

But for 10-year-old Emilia Kozlowska, of St John Ogilvie Primary School in Paisley, it was a really special occasion.

She won a Renfrewshire-wide competition for a pupil to design the flag to be used to wave off the drivers and she joined Renfrewshire Provost Lorraine Cameron on the start ramp with her flag to send the cars on their way.

David Glen and Andrew Sturgess from Glasgow are a well-established crew who are competing in their 5th Monte. Their car is a rare 1978 Escort RS 2000 with equally rare X pack modifications. David and Andrew managed to finish the rally last year despite having a ‘coming together’ with an Alfa Romeo en route, but it is now back to its original condition and they are feeling confident.

The cars are due to arrive in Monte Carlo on Saturday evening.

It was a slightly closer-to-home start for the three-man Angus-based crew of David Tindal, Alan Falconer and Stephen Woods who decided only recently they’d like to do the event. Fortunately David’s 18-year-old son just happened to have a 1956 Ford Prefect which he was working on in his garage. They rushed to complete the job and are competing in the Classique group under the team name ‘Kilts to Carlo’ to raise funds for Prostate Scotland.

James Mann from Eastbourne is taking part in his second Rallye Monte Carlo Classique in his Lagonda M45 tourer which was first bought by his grandfather in 1934 and has been in the family ever since. This time his co-driver is his partner Tracey Miklaucich in her first Monte.

The car however is more experienced than both of them having competed originally in the 1936 Monte Carlo Rally, starting from John O’Groats. The car is affectionately known as ‘Josephine’ and the grand old lady has done more than 425,000 miles.

Growing up in Ireland, Stephen Latta heard stories of the greats of motorsport, such as Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn competing in the 1955 Dundord Tourist Trophy. He dreamed of owning a 1955 Mercedes and competing in the Monte, Mille Miglia and Dundord. After searching far and wide he found his 1955 Mercedes 220a on the other side of the world in Tasmania, negotiated the deal and three months later the car arrived in Northern Ireland. The run to Monte Carlo is its first outing.

You can view all the photos snapped by David Cameron here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmaccnAC.