The Monte Carlo Rally didn't always used to start in France. Sometimes, it started in Glasgow!
While it’s called the Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the World Rally Championship actually gets away from the city of Valence, 400 kilometres away across the Alps. This makes for some long road sections as the crews descend on Monte Carlo, and – drivers being drivers – they naturally complain and whinge.
But these days they have it really easy. In the past the Monte Carlo Rally used to start from places like Minsk, Warsaw and Glasgow as part of the “Concentration Run” – somewhat inexactly named, as it didn’t require much concentration at all, just the mindless ability to pound out the miles in order to reach Monte Carlo and start the proper stages.
It’s all to do with the sport’s history, in the most fundamental way. The word ‘rally’ comes from the French word ‘rallier’ – to gather or congregate. Of course, ‘rally’ still means that, particularly in the context of angry skinheads carrying placards.
In the past, each team used to begin the Monte Carlo Rally from a different corner of Europe, reflecting the origins of the event, which started in 1911 as a test of endurance and reliability rather than outright speed (in fact, points were scored in various categories including ‘passenger comfort’ – an area where most modern WRC machines would fall down).
So when, in 1964, Paddy Hopkirk scored the first of three Monte wins for the original Mini, he started from Minsk – 2400 kilometres away. Their fellow competitors came from all over – Glasgow, Paris, Frankfurt, Athens, Warsaw and Lisbon – before meeting at Chambery in the Rhone-Alpes and heading down to Monaco. Only then did the event proper begin.
Until 1965, the Concentration Run maintained a scoring element, testing the navigational skills – not to mention the boredom threshold – of each competing crew.
But even though it counted for nothing post-1965, the Concentration Run actually remained in place until 1997 – albeit in truncated form, with teams such as Lancia getting to start in the ski resort of Sestriere in Italy, conveniently located just up the road from its headquarters near Turin. By this point, though, teams, drivers and the media all passionately hated the Concentration Run, seeing it as a time-consuming and costly irrelevance.
Common sense prevailed and from 1998 onwards, the rally officially started from Monaco. But with the need to take in more stages, from 2007 the start was moved further west to Valence, a place that isn’t likely to pick up any international awards for architecture or ambience. Still, neither is Minsk; the Belorussian city’s air is constantly monitored by the Republican Centre of Radioactive and Environmental Control, which is never a great sign.
And at least it means that a little taste of the old Concentration Run remains on the Monte Carlo Rally even today…