‘The Monte’ firmly remains the jewel in the World Rally Championship’s crown
When it comes to distinguishing rallying from the more commonly publicized discipline of track racing, motorsport fans know that the image of a car flying through dirt filled stages comes to mind first. And yet when it comes to the subject of rallying’s most famous event, nothing really trumps the tarmac and snow of the Monte Carlo Rally.
Maybe that’s a function of the tiny principality south of France being associated with F1’s headline grabbing event, but there’s enough history for ‘the Monte’ to stand on its own.
Dating back to 1911, the event was regarded as a test of a car’s reliability given its course through the twisting roads of the French Alps, concluding in Monaco. It was in these early days of rallying that the concept of a Time Speed Distance (TSD) event was established that limited competitors to a pre-determined average speed over a section of public road.
A format widely used in events held in India, including through specific categories that run alongside the main entry list.
As the automotive industry grew, however, the machines they produced got more refined and a LOT faster.
Suddenly running to a predetermined speed didn’t quite do the trick as far as excitement was concerned and the cars were let off the leash.
Well before the creation of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 1973, the Monte rubbed off its magic on a three pretty famous automotive marques. Between 1962 and 1970, Saab’s 96 British Motor Corporation’s Mini Cooper and the Porsche 911 were driven to victories a total of six times.
Behind the wheel were names that have been firmly enshrined in rallying history. Erik Calrsson, ‘Flying Finn’ Timo Makkinen, ‘Rally professor’ Rauno Aaltonen, Vic Elord and Bjorn Waldegard.
With the rally’s image of an ultimate proving ground for man and machine firmly established and the fame of its competitors ensured, the event became the opener for the first edition of the WRC in 1973.
There it remained till 2008, before it was briefly stolen away by the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) from 2009 to 2011. To put it into perspective, imagine the Monaco Grand Prix leaving the F1 calendar and being held only in Formula 3 or GP2!
It’s welcome return saw continued dominance from WRC’s most successful driver ever; the irrepressible Sebastien Loeb.
His final, truncated, WRC campaign last year included a win at the Monte, the last for him as well as his Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.
A far more detailed look at the Monte’s legacy would require taking up a lot more pages than we were able to set aside in order to include tales of fire-breathing Audis and Lancias battling Peugeots for supremacy as rallying went beyond a simple test of close-to-road spec cars and into the realm of an arms race.
A baton picked now picked up by Volkswagen and Hyundai.
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