A sociable start for Tuesday with our departure time at 10.18 hours and heading for Grenoble. Passing through a small village we were suddenly face with a lorry unloading and there was no way that he was going to move until he had completed his delivery. Time was ticking by so I said to Derek to ask a guy walking along the pavement for alternative directions. Little did I realise that he was blind with a white cane. Another local came to the rescue and quickly gave us perfect instructions in English.

Grenoble can be a difficult place to navigate through subject to the time of day and careful planning is essential. Whilst entering the outskirts of the city and decending around winding bends we suddenly came across one of the rally cars ; which had apparently gone out of control, rolling onto two wheels then hitting head-on a car coming towards them. The navigator sustained a broken rib and had to be hospitalised. Ten cars did not make the forthcoming check point at Vif from Grenoble over a distance of 19.5 kilometres. That evening saw the rally stop at Valence our check-in time being 18.48 hours. Throughout the day we had only accumulated a further 4 minutes 04 seconds on the regularities. To break our points down: alternator 30, late start at Troyes 7, regularities 5.25, totaling 42.25minutes.

Our Valance departure was again late at 10.38 a.m. which meant that the latter end of the day would be driven in the dark. We were always in plenty of time for the Controls working on the philosophy that always keep in front of the time in case of breakdown, puncture or re-fueling. At Time Control 11 (CH 11m) we were given a map of the next regularity. Many teams miss slotted, we thought that we had taken the wrong route but realized that we were correct and had to re-trace our progress passing a Triumph TR4 that had driven off the road. We later found out that he had driven across the field to get back onto the track.. The reason for him going off was that his front tyres were worn out. As usual we were early at the next check point giving us time to have a drink and sample the apple cake that was on offer. On pulling away a metallic sound came from the engine for split second. We did not think anything of it and continued on our way to Buis-les-Barronies with no problem. As Navigator I made my way to the control in the bar des Passions; the proprioter being a motoring fanatic with Renault Alpine parts covering the walls, half a body on another wall and the beer pump passing through a cylinder head. The television was showing rallying and Formula 1 music was booming forth. An ideal control point. Meanwhile outside one of the Rover Discovery support vehicles had pulled up with Richard the driver asking Derek if he had lost anything from under the bonnet; hands behind his back! Derek discovered that one of the air filters was missing and as luck would have it Richard had found it just after the exit from the last control. With the bolts missing we just dropped it in the navigators footwell and progressed to the following controls without trouble, continuing for the remainder of the rally without the filter.