Day 80

18. July 2000, Laon to London Tower Bridge

TC 292: Laon OUT
6:
 00  
TC 293: Brands Hatch IN
12:
 00 323.25 km
TC 294: Brands Hatch OUT
13:
 40  
TC 295: London FINISH
14:
 40 36.60 km

Overall 2 hour 03 minutes penalty

The official results can be looked up on this website

Motorway in France

Arriving back in England: the white cliffs of Dover

Brands Hatch, a racing circuit, is booked today for a special Ford event : Chris, Paul, Sami and Karl are watching people speed by in their Ford Focus, Ford Ka and a Ferrari.

Decoration for the final drive: Irish flag, pirate flag and two clowns! each dedicated to one of the competing cars.

Mark finds new uses for the Mercedes Ponton

Getting ready for a final group photo

 

  

Christopher and Stephen, better known as Wallace and Gromit, in their Lagonda.

Motorway in the UK

Decoration for the final drive: Flowers

Decoration for the final drive: Winning car leaves no doubts about its origins.

Lining up for small-group-convoys back into London

Happy finishers of the first rally around the world and the longest rally ever. 40 out of 42 cars have made it. Congratulations!

Final challenge: Keeping a convoy in London traffic.

Final time-check: The Royal Mint. We get our last stamp in our time card booklet.

Team Busch have made it and they are happy.

Celebration in the evening: fireworks

 

  

Back where we started: London Tower Bridge

Team Busch celebrate with family and Peter from Busch UK (on the right)

Celebration in the evening: From right: Paul, Marie, their son, Michel and friend - the penguin car crew (37), in the background: Tower Bridge

Results: We have come fourth overall, but with all three cars faster than us newer than 1965 and ours 1956, we win the first prize in our category "Historic Saloon". The prize is handed to us by Dave. We also win the Tower Bridge award for being top novice, this award was handed to us by Stirling Moss. So overall we have been very successful and we are very happy with the results. But more importantly we never had any major problems with our car and with our health.