Having done my first rally in Japan, I wanted to know the rally world, so I went to watch the Mille Miglia in Italy — the finest of them all.
Seeing is worth any amount of hearing; what matters is seeing the real thing. And there I met a Japanese support crew living in Italy, whose help made my first rally abroad possible.
Driving an astonishing landscape in a hire car
My first rally abroad was in a hired TR2 — a car that later became the one we entered rallies abroad in.
No shared language, and still contact between people
I make friends quickly wherever I go. I speak no Italian and no English at all; the opening line was “oh, we match!”
In my world, words are not required. Meeting people made rallying more and more enjoyable. My role is not maintaining the car — perhaps it is creating the openings through which people come to enjoy a rally.
I ran into this person at all sorts of events afterwards, and we still call out to each other now. The people you meet are treasure.
What moved me on this rally was the tremendous run through Cortina.
In every direction, one extraordinary view after another. This was my first rally in an open car, and it drew me further into the appeal of rallying.
At this stage I had no interest whatever in the competition; I was simply captivated by the appeal of a drive rally — being handed a map called a rally, and driving through spectacular country.
Stopping to take photographs, essentially a tourist gawping at everything. But the appeal of a rally abroad really is the landscape you can never see in Japan.