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INTERNATIONAL |
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"Point To Arrow" through the Ardennes
After
almost one year of hard work the Mini Club of Belgium could proudly present "The
International Mini Tour"!
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On
saturday morning over a hundred Minis from B, NL, D, UK and even two cars from Slovakia
lined up on the parking area of the Kinepolis cinema complex. After a warm welcome from
the Mini Club of Belgium we got our roadbooks with the instructions.
The treasure hunt was a run in the "point to arrow style" with manned checkpoints
for time measurement.
Primary tasks:
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Queueing for start in front of the Kinepolis building in Hasselt. Last briefing from Jo Michiels (the man behind the IMT) at the starting line: "Don't drive too fast. Respect the traffic signs!" |
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"Point To Arrow"
This means You have to follow crazy signs in your roadbook. There are a few examples on the left side:
No. 24:
After 1200m the road leads under a bridge.
Next: And so on, 233 signs and 240km to the finish line. |
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On
the road in the Ardennes. Minis everywhere! But ... not always on the same road, or ...
heading in different directions! Someone must have been wrong!? We had no problems to find the right roads, until we reached a small town and missed a T-crossing. It took us two or three rounds in that town before we were back on course. All in all we were too fast! Although being one of the first cars at the finish line (Aywaille camp site) we must have missed a lot of the characters you have to collect during the ride. |
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During the afternoon more and more Minis reached the camp site. Nobody got lost! It took between four and five hours from the start in Hasselt to the finish at Aywaille. The saturday dinner took place in the sports hall, close to the camp site. A good occasion to talk about the treasure hunt. Because nobody knew the right sequence of the characters there was much discussion and speculation. |
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SUNDAY -
started with a breakfast in the sports hall. It took quite some time before the queues in front of the two (!) showers got shorter and all the people finally were ready for the day. There were two major events in the morning hours:
Up until now I had never taken part in a slalom race (see the report of the Slalom at the IMM 1996). But this time I did it! Sadly I was a little bit too nervous and so I missed the starting signal and forgot to release the hand brake immediately. But on the course I was the first driver with a handbrake U-turn. Not perfect at all, but not too bad for dry tarmac. |
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Besides
all the action on sunday there was enough time to chat with the other Mini owners
or to catch up new parts from one of the Mini stuff traders.
The event ended officially with the presentation of the winners. Unfortunately I didn't understand a word - so I can't report who got the cups. But - who cares anyway? It was a perfectly organized event and we had lots of fun! On the way back to Cologne on sunday afternoon we noticed the beautiful country side of the Ardennes for the first time. During the event we were too busy for sightseeing, but I'm sure that we'll be back for the next IMT in 1998! Maybe we shouldn't take it so seriously then. |
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The
last break before we left Belgium was a short visit of the racing circuit of Spa
Francochamps. It's much more impressive than on TV. It's really hard to imagine how
fast the F1 are driving here!
All in all it was a fantastic weekend. Now that we have our first "rally experience" we're planning to take part in Mini Europe Rally in 1998 - watch this space! |
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Comments welcome, please mail to: last updated: December 1997 - Copyright © 1997 |