STAGE 1

PRINCESSES IN THE COUNTRY

And they’re off! At 8.30 am precisely this morning the first car rolled off the podium at the Place Vendôme, in the heart of Paris. The 20th RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE got under way for 5 days of tarmac adventure across the splendid French countryside. 1,700 kilometres of pure pleasure, with a first stage made up of four regularity zones that were not so straight forward. Blazing sunshine and high temperatures came along to wish the competitors well. The first regularity zone was cut short due to a mountain bike race but that didn’t faze the competitors and they continued on past Orleans towards the famous castles of the Loire Valley. From there the Princesses climbed up into the chalk hills of Touraine. As the finish line of this first stage approached the thermometer at the night stop town of Beauval hit a heady 30 degrees in the shade.

THE FAVOURITES OUT IN FRONT

Smartphones and calculators. Once at the hotel, the competitors relived the first stage with a glass of champagne in hand. And there was plenty to talk about. Starting with the De Tomaso n°102 of RAOHMY HERAS and INGRID PEETERS that came to a grinding halt in ZR1 with a broken gearbox. Fortunately the Mexican / Belgian team will be able to restart tomorrow aboard an AC Cobra. ‘On fire’ at the start, INES ALARD and CAROLINE DE VILLAUCOURT’s Austin Healey n°32 literally caught fire in the ZR2. This evening in Beauval the rankings are extremely tight, with the first five crews within 14 points of each other, confirming that this 20th RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE is going to be fiercely contested! Starting mid-pack this morning from Place Vendôme, ADELINE PAQUIERS and HÉLÈNE EUVRARD (AC Cobra n°100) are currently in the lead with 33 points. The victors of the 2018 edition are leading by just 2 points, in front of the Italian / French duo of MARINA ORLANDI CONTUCCI and VALÉRIE DOT (Lancia Beta Montecarlo n°90). With 37 points at the end of the first day, CAROLE GRATZMULLER and ELISA NOEMIE LAURENT (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray n°56) and INÈS and BÉRÉNICE COHEN (Porsche 911 SC n°94) share the third place, ten points ahead of the Alfa Romeo Spider n°92 of AMÉLIE BOUGRIER and PATRICIA BOUTIER.

FLASHBACK: TWENTY YEARS AGO…

Hermine de Clermont-Tonnerre: “In a field, full of policemen!”

20 years ago, almost to the day, the first RALLYE DES PRINCESSES set off on their odyssey over France’s beautiful roads. With 18 cars on the start line, this atypical event blew away a load of stereotypes, allowing women to get behind the wheel, on an event designed for them, by them… Hermine de Clermont-Tonnerre, stylist, actress and author was one of the participants on that very first edition of the RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE. “I’d entered with Hélène de Yougoslavie in an Austin Healey. At the time the concept of a regularity rally was pretty vague for us. We didn’t even know we had to pay attention to the distances. We got completely lost on that first stage. We honestly had no idea where we were! Suddenly, in the middle of a field we saw some policemen who just caught some people who’d been robbing chickens. We were so desperate we drove into the middle of the field to ask them directions! Fortunately the Zanirolis answered the telephone to put us on the right road.”

TOMORROW: PACE AND DEEP GORGES!

Stage 2: Beauval-Audes-Vichy (325 km)

The RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD is essentially a sporting event. And tomorrow there’s going to be some sport! With barely enough time to grab a coffee, the competitors will need to find the right pace for a complicated dance with the road book and some demanding navigation. The countryside of central France will be showing off its charm and its chateaux on the way to a stylish lunch at the Chateau des Crêtes. Then the pilots will have to jump back in their cars to tackle the Puy-de-Dôme, the afternoon’s playground, with cherry on the cake, a last and never before used Regularity Zone and the Gorges de la Chouvigny, before reaching the calm of the spa town of Vichy.

INTERVIEWS

Caroline de Villaucourt (Fra/Austin Healey n°32): “At the start of the 2nd regularity zone I lost all my instruments. At the same time there was a strange smell and some smoke. We thought it was dust. A few kilometres further on the instruments started working again but the smoke got thicker and we realised we had a fire at the back of the car. We pulled over and saw flames coming out of the boot. It all happened very fast but fortunately we managed to put the fire out in a few seconds. I also have an Austin Healey which we will get sent here and we’ll be able to restart the rally tomorrow.”

Fanny Adam (Fra/Citroen Traction n°21): “We are very proud to be driving the oldest car in the rally, a Citroen Traction made in 1952, that is very nostalgic for many French people and the perfect way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the brand. Today was our first ever stage on a regularity rally and it was both very hard and a lot of fun. I think we finished 71st on the first regularity zone and 9th and the second so we’re definitely improving. My co-pilot Francoise is in the military, so she knows how to be serious about this kind of thing!”

Marie Mittou (Fra/Mercedes 190 SL n°15): “This is our first RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE, so there was a little bit of pressure this morning in Paris. The car was running a bit rough but the rally’s mechanics we were able to sort it out… But learning about regularity proved pretty hard work and by mid-day we were exhausted!”

Corinne Daire (Fra/MG B n°45): “The start from the Place Vendôme this morning was just amazing! We took a little bit of time to get going but, as we’d done our homework yesterday evening, we managed to get through the day without too many problems. We started to get used to using our instruments and in the end it was exactly how we imagined it would be.”

Valerie Jacob (Fra/Pontiac Superchief n°14): “Without doubt we have the biggest car on the rally, it’s a Pontiac from 1957 that I bought in the States – it was love at first sight. It’s is totally original, just as it left the factory, including the drum brakes. It isn’t however that well suited to regularity rallies. It has an automatic gearbox, the speedo is in miles rather than kilometres and if we come to a sharp bend we have to have two goes at it. With all those handicaps we probably aren’t going to win but we nevertheless have the ambition of being up at the front of the final results.”