10CR2005 day 1 (as published in Club Triumph's magazine)

Day 1 Thursday September 8^th

The car had been loaded the night before so 7am saw me head off to pick up Kevin. By 7.28 Kevin and his various bits and pieces were in the car and we were off!

Kevin and I have done two Round Britain Runs and a continental rally together so we knew we would get on fine, that’s rather important when you are going to spend 5 days thrashing a car all round Europe.

Of course, as we live “up north” near Burnley in Lancashire we had quite an early start to our 10CR. We took a route across to Wetherby on the A1 and pointed the TR south, meeting up with my brother in his Spitfire and my sister and brother in law in their Stag at Grantham. They had already had a torrid time with being held up in traffic near Lowdham and were a little hot and bothered.

Still, all of us made the Plough although the fuel stop at South Mimms wasn’t easy – who designed the road layout there? Are they related to those that designed Turin’s road network and amazingly poor road signs? More of this on day 3!

I have to say that, as the organiser of the event, it was a wonderful sight to see the car park at the Plough full of cars with expectant crews. After signing in and then giving the talk at the driver/crew briefing we set off for the great adventure at 1.30PM.

The trip down to Dover was uneventful and it was a tremendous sight as all the cars lined up at the ferry, complete with “Club Triumph” banner against my TR7 to make sure everyone knew just who we were. I remember walking up and down the lines of cars enjoying the chat and atmosphere and also collecting my 10CR2005 polo shirt – well done Andy MacDonald for organising these.

Then onto the ferry to start the invasion of Europe by Club Triumph. First halt was Steenvoorde services which was the Continental start. Roger Hoogmans and Theo Boonen in their super TR7 Sprint signed on here and received their stickers but the Irish crew of Colm McLoughlin and Damien Leahy reported in that they were delayed.

As organiser I then spoke to them over the phone and arranged to meet at a picnic site south of Cambrai so off we went, advising everyone else not to “faff about” but to get on with the run. Kevin and I were now no longer on either of the routes in the map books – a good start! Upon reaching the picnic site there was no GT6, Colm and Damien were at a service station on a different road. This was only about 10 miles away but there seemed no way of easily meeting up so we agreed to meet south of Reims about midnight. This is the kind of mad adventure that makes the event for me but we didn’t actually catch up with our Irish friends until Saturday morning in Ventimiglia!

Interesting drive from there though as we aimed to get back on route whilst noting the various smells of northern France! Midnight saw us on time, going past the Shell and BP stations south of Reims and waving to the other crews fuelling up. So, all in all, a good start and the event was well underway – see the next Club Torque for day 2 including some fantastic driving in company with the “Yellow Missile” although we sadly missed the incident with the local wildlife!