Round 1 of the IRC, Rally Monte-Carlo is held on January 19 to 22. This year’s Monte Carlo looks like having a warm and dry start. Currently the weather in the entire region for both parts of the rally is quite warm although frosty and icy in the evenings. The temperature during the day is ranging between 10 and 12�‹ as a result there is absolutely no snow on any sections. However overnight any water on the stages is freezing and it is often very difficult to predict the condition of the road on the cards will pass over.

However Monte Carlo is really as simple as this with regard to whether and is a strong weather front moving through France on Thursday and Friday and snow is very much expected. This means at least the last part of the rally above Monte Carlo on the famous Col de Turini sections may well be fully covered in snow. That makes the entire event totally unpredictable and given that our Subaru is probably one of the easiest cards to drive giving fantastic performance in difficult and slippery conditions we may yet expect a terrific result from one of the eight crews entered with Impreza’s this year.

G. Florian, who is regular Switzerland champion competes in this rally with SUBARU car as well as, S. Vojtech, who is powerful competitor in Czech Republic, French following drivers K. Herve, A. Jerome, T. Pierre, L. Eric, B. Pierre, and Z. Giovanni from San Marino.

This year’s Monte Carlo rally which will be memorable for 100th anniversary starts earlier in Valence, east-central France on Wednesday, Jan.19. 3days of all competitions will start here, Valence. The stage of the first day will be Ardeche crests and the plateau where is acclaimed to be most beautiful place in the European continent. Names like ‘St Bonnet le Froid’ and ‘Burzet’ usually bring shivers to those who have experienced these stages in early frosty mornings and early retirements from the rally due to frost catching them out. For the Spectator these stages simply represent the most tremendous viewing on high-speed sections often between narrow snowbanks of all unlikely this year at least on the first day.
The rally then moves slightly easterly for day two and again a series of classic names including the ‘St Jean en Royen’ section which last year hosted the prologue which determined the events seeding order.

The third day starts early Friday morning and arrives at Monaco six hours later having completed only one stage en route. The crews then get a four-hour rest and then embark on a classic night stages mentioned earlier above Monaco. The drivers who experienced four night-time stages in the night will finish in Monaco at one o’clock on Saturday morning.