Day 1 Thursday (Weybridge-Dover then Calais-Montreux) 580 miles (ouch !)

A bit of an early start to the day, 7am was breakfast time and a few were nursing hangovers. Darryl was found wandering the hotel foyer, lost, confused and still in his clothes from the night before. Apparently he had spent the night in the disabled toilet after saying he could not find his room/cabin, as he thought he was on the ferry! What a loon!

So after all the cars had finished loading their bags, cameras, walkie-talkies, etc, and the last car to arrive checked in (Matt and Marcus) we were now ready for the off. Nick and Simon in the 360 Stragale Challenge upstaged their fellow rabbit runners with their very own pit crew girls. (I’m sure I have seen one of them before on one of Gary ’s dodgy films.) Anway, 8:15 and we were all en route for an 80-mile stint to Dover.

A great trip to Dover even though the last couple of miles were in heavy traffic. Rabbit Run 2008 was well and truly underway. All aboard the one and a half hour delayed ferry and time for a spot of lunch in the club lounge. The group split into their teams to fine tune their tactics in readiness for the fast-approaching Stage 1.

Sat in the cars, engines on and waiting for that all-important cue from the ferry man in the hi vis vest to disembark. Pulses racing, palms sweating and the long awaited French roads were soon to be scrolling underneath the amazing array of cars.

Team 1’s plan was fairly simple, discreetly disembark the ferry (as much as you can in a SLR, Tim and Ian) and take it easy for the first 30 miles and regroup at the first service station. The problem, was that the first services were packed with nearly all the 24 rabbit run cars, so the ones in Team 1 that really needed fuel stayed and those that had a few miles in the tank went on to the second services where we all successfully regrouped. We did a great job of staying together and the team was bonding. The team was also starting to take some kind of shape. Paul and Sarah in the Audi RS4 (always quicker when Sarah is at the wheel), well Sarah soon became the team mum, and you could tell when she was at the wheel as the airwaves were quiet. John and Jon in the Bentley Speed (winners of RR06 and RR07) were our tacticians, and generally my right-hand men. Martyn and Paul were ringing the neck of the RX8 to stay with the pack and I have to say there was one point in particular that I was pretty impressed with its top end. Every time I see an RX8 on the motorway now I can’t help but think “what range is left in the tank” - Mazda, put a bigger tank in for god’s sake!!

The rain came and we jointly made the tactical decision not to take the small direct roads to Lake Geneva but to stay on the motorways via Geneva itself. It was longer but could have been quicker. We all stopped for fuel, and as we pulled out of the filling station Nick and Simon’s Ferrari 360 Stragale Challenge (on track day tyres in this weather!!) seemed to have adopted a fault, massively down on power, struggling to get up big hills and a new top speed of 90 mph. Still in the pouring rain that was well fast enough. Newbie’s Jim and Darren in the M3 and James and Russell in their big brother car the M6 had settled in nicely.

The detour via Geneva proved to cost us time, but l was proud of the team. We travelled hundreds of miles together and all eight cars arrived at the hotel in Montreux within a 30 second time window - well done all.

After a good team talk the evening before, where Nigel (Red 430) took notes and Katy and Pete (997 cab) helped with the administration, spirits were high at the start of Rabbit Run 2008. Every member of Team 2 was excited in anticipation of the journey ahead (especially Paul my co driver). I knew we were in good shape. On paper we looked good too, with Pete and John’s Lamborghini Gallardo, 2 x Ferrari f 430’S (Red and Black) 2 x Porsche 997’s a Porsche Cayenne and of course 2 x BMW 335’s. Thanks to our Team motto, courtesy of Pete (Gallardo) “One Team One Dream”, we confidently made our way to Dover with the other Rabbit Runners.

Heading south to Dover from Surrey on day 1 with the excitement and anticipation of the days ahead, myself and Roy were like two little boys in a sweet shop. In all the excitement Roy had misplaced his passport and it seemed that all the anticipation and all the planning were to go out of the window when Customs would not allow us through. However, said passport was found under our car, it had dropped out of the boot when looking for the passport. Team 3 very nearly had no Team Leader !!

Due to a short delay with the ferry everybody had gathered in a line up awaiting to board the ferry, what a vision for all the other ferry passengers this was. Once aboard the ferry, Team 3 gathered together to cement their plans for the trip with all sights being on winning. Team 1 and Team 2 splintered off to discuss tactics.

Following our team talk, Team 3 took refreshments in The Club Lounge on the ferry. Alighting at Calais myself and Roy together with Darryl and Ian in the Red Audi RS4 and Adam and Kevin in the Porsche 996 Turbo took the wrong turn out of the terminal. The walkie-talkies were going frantic as Team 3 had immediately lost their leader and two other team cars. Fortunately within a few minutes Team 3 were back together and gunning down the French Autoroutes, destination Montreux, Lake Geneva.

After some 400 miles and several fuel stops it became apparent that Team 3 were now well in the lead, however darkness had descended and the rain was pouring which slowed us down somewhat and over the mountains through to Lake Geneva I was just about managing a steady 40 miles per hour. Crawling round the mountains at a snail’s pace news came through that Matt & Chaz in the Porsche 911 Turbo were driving without windscreen wipers. Unbelievably they passed us (!!!!!) and Roy was now shouting expletives at me and telling me how to get my foot down if Team 3 were going to arrive together, his name for me was now Doris. Having received the news about Matt & Chaz, further news came through that one of the Porsche Turbo’s had aquaplaned and slapped the back end of the Porker into the central reservation, puncturing the radiator, dislodging various bits of pipework, crushing some bodywork and filling their pants with the brown stuff!

Ed & Nick in the Porsche 911 4S were well ahead most of the day and kept great look-out for their team mates with regards to any lurking Gendarmes with speed guns and traps. After arriving in Montreux somewhat weary we learned that had it not been for the offroad antics of the Porsche, Team 3 would have secured a Day 1 victory. We had not really seen much of Tony & Ian in their Mercedes CLS AMG 63 on day one, the reason being Tony was way out in front of his team members trying to and I quote “Top Out This Bastard”, of which I believe he very nearly did (check out YouTube). On arriving at the hotel at Montreux we were greeted by Gary & Chris with the Mercedes SL55 AMG sat comfortably with wine in hand wondering where we had all been !!

 

 

 

A bit of a long day, but well done to the hotel’s kitchens for both keeping the kitchens open late and for serving up some top food. And well done to Chris and Gary (SL55 AMG) for arriving first.

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