RTG AlMex Daily Dispatch - FINAL - Flipbook - Page 53
day 30: La Paz to Cabo San Lucas, 26 September 2023
photos: Gerard Brown - gerardbrown.co.uk
Winners! Manuel and Irene Dubs, 1940 Ford Coupe
A first RtG Classic win for Ean and Alison Lewin, Ford Escort RS1600
game. After knocking on the door of the winner’s enclosure
more than once - and with an agonising near miss for
second place on the RtG Ypres to Istanbul Challenge - today,
they sealed the deal. This time there was no recourse to the
age of the car rule as happened in Istanbul and in a neat
symmetrical twist, it was Mike and lorna Harrison who had
to settle for third today. However, by way of compensation,
lorna took home the award for Best on regularities.
Both winners were obviously delighted and after soaking
the rest of the rally with a couple of bottles of bubbly,
began thinking of rearranging their trophy cabinets.
Manuel said that “consistency was the key to winning.
we tried to stay on the same level every day whether it was
a Test or a regularity and this approach paid off. I like to
drive difficult gravel roads through interesting scenery and
with Irene’s navigational skills we make a great team. we’re
delighted to win the pre-war category”.
“when we signed up as members of Rally the Globe they
asked me what I wanted to achieve and, I replied that I
wanted to be at least one second quicker than Graham
Goodwin, we have achieved that today and we’re very
pleased”.
ean and Alison couldn’t hide their delight either and
said that since they began their endurance rallying journey
with Rally the Globe way back on the Yorkshire Cloverleaf,
they’ve had an amazing time. “It’s nice to get this win
nailed down, we’ve done seven events now and we’ve been
close a few times. To win the post-war category of RtG’s
first Marathon event is absolutely awesome. This company
takes you to places that you’d never get into otherwise, and
fred’s black book gets us into some amazing venues”
As well as the overall awards there were some
discretionary prizes handed out. The Spirit of the rally went
to Tim eades for never giving up and eventually bringing
his son patrick to fill the spare seat. The Against All odds
trophy was scooped by Brian and Catherine Scowcroft for
getting their old Chevy to the end after an electrical fire,
brake failure and several steering issues.
fred Gallagher thanked everyone for being such good
sports - and the winners for their few short words - before
reeling off a few statistics for us.
“we’ve driven over 12,000km through three countries
and across 38° of latitude and have seen a low of 4°c with a
high of 44°c - this morning in Anchorage the temperature
was 1°c. natural disasters set a few traps for us in the buildup to the event, but luck was on our side and despite the
re-routes for the Canadian forest fires and the aftermath
of Hurricane Jova, we only lost a total of 300km of the
original route”.
finally, as Tony Brooks and Simon Spinks have birthdays
today we thought we’d organise a little get-together, a few
friends with some nice cars, tucked away in a little hotel
somewhere… many happy returns.
www.rallytheglobe.com
