A very, very sad day for Team 60. After our
late return from San Marino the previous day, we decided to get some
petrol before the day's rallying started. On the way out of the
hotel car park, Binky was hit by another car.
We cannot express our thanks enough to
everybody on the Italian Job whose caring concern and offers of help were
overwhelming.
Special thanks go to:
The Italian Job organisers, especially
Freddie and Giulia St. George, for all their assistance in dealing
with the Police and all the necessary paperwork that resulted.
Our travelling companions, Karen and
Christian, who missed the morning's rallying because of it.
Rich and Andy who together with Karen
and Christian put up with us travelling three up in their Minis for
the rest of the Job.
The Service Team - Doctor Flange and
Doctor Love - aka Tim and Mark, who were so helpful dealing with Binky
after the accident, and carried most of our baggage back through
Europe afterwards.
The rest of our club, Mini Bandits, who
were in constant touch with us after the accident, keeping our spirits
up, and offering any help we needed on our return.
Once the initial shock was over, we decided
to continue with the Job. We could have gone straight home, or had a
hire car, but we were not going to let it spoil the holiday we'd looked
forward to for so long, and after working so hard to achieve and beat our
sponsorship target. We gratefully accepted our travelling
companions' offer of giving us lifts for the rest of the Job.
We decided to meet up with the rest of the
Jobbers for lunch rather than just sitting around moping in the hotel, so
with four of us in Sputnik we headed for Ferrara. We arrived to find
that there had been other problems that morning. The Minis were
supposed to cross a river by ferry, but the boat wasn't there for some
reason - apparently it had been foggy. So several people had got
lost trying to get back on track according to the route book. We
actually arrived in Ferrara before the time Sputnik was due to cross the
timecheck line, so he was able to do his special stage and finish on time.
Above - The Mini Doctors - Mark and Tim
After a packed lunch, we had time for sightseeing in
Ferrara. Some of the Jobbers also took part in an optional cycling
tour of the town.
On our return to the hotel, most of the time was taken
up in contacting Binky's insurance company and arranging with the RAC for
him to travel home.
