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MONTE MAGIC WOWS THOUSANDS AT CLYDEBANK

West Dunbartonshire Provost Denis Agnew flagged the cars away on their 2000 mile epic to Monte Carlo which will take almost 30 hours of non-stop driving.

The first car over the ramp was a 1979 Fiat driven by Nicola Parolin, with Andrew McAlpine being the first UK driver in a Lancia Fulvia.
The 51 year old Director of the Sir Robert McAlpine building company worked at the John Brown shipyard in his twenties and admitted returning for the Monte was ‘emotional’. “It is fantastic to be back here and the turn-out has been amazing,” he said, reflecting on the huge crowds of families gathered in the shadow of the Titan Crane. “This is one of the few events in the world which is a true adventure. It is a personal challenge. You have something different at every corner. You have night and day, fog, ice and rain and more black ice.
Coming back here is really quite emotional for me. One hundred and thirty years ago, my great, great grandfather built the Singer sewing machine factory so my family have a lot of connections to the area.“My goal now is to finish the rally and reach Monte Carlo.

A total of 306 cars were competing in this year’s Monte Carlo Classic Rally, with the other start points being Barcelona, Oslo, Warsaw, Turin and Reims.The cars that set off yesterday from Clydebank will arrive in Calais this morning and will then head south and up over the snow-capped French Alps.Following the traditional concentration runs in the mountains, the cars will finally- if successful- reach the sunshine Principality of Monte Carlo on Tuesday.

West Dunbartonshire Provost Denis Agnew believes the Monte will have boosted the area’s potential for bringing major international events to the banks of the Clyde. “I would love to see this come back here. In fact, I would have it here every year if I could,” he said.
“Seeing these thousands of people and the great cars, this is what it is all about. I actually invited Sir Jackie Stewart and he phoned back my office and said he would definitely have been here, had he not been in America. He felt it was that important. So many people have worked on this and made it happen. Everyone should now share in the success of it.”