Centenary year for Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo.
The 79th Monte Carlo Rally takes place in the New Year, from Wednesday 19th to Saturday 23rd January. Once again it's the opening event of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), but 2011 is also a special year, as it marks the centenary of the Rally.
The automobile event was first held on 21st January 1911, and was conceived to provide a boost to Monaco's growing tourist industry. Prince Albert I commissioned the president of the automobile sporting club, Alexandre Noghes to organise a large event. Competitors departed from different cities across Europe and converged, or rallied, on Monte Carlo. The January dates were chosen to demonstrate Monaco's mild climate, and the Societe des Bains de Mer financed the operation. Just 26 competitors registered for the first rally, but by the following year the number had quadrupled, and the rest, as they say, is history.
To mark the centenary in 2011, the Monte Carlo Rally's route and stages are revisiting famous landmarks from history, with a new distribution of stages, starting in the Ardeche, moving on to the Drome, and finishing on the mountain roads behind Monaco and Nice. There'll be a total of 13 special stages, some run twice, covering 1,340 km, and a particular invitation next year for amateur drivers.
