Porsche Win In Rally

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 15

Porsche Win In Rally

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

MONTE CARLO.

V. Elf ord (Britain), driving a German Porsche, won the 1968 Monte Carlo motor rally subject to official confirmation of his speed test times and verification of his machine.

P. Toivonen (Finland) in another Porsche was second and R. Aaltonen (Finland) in a Mini-Cooper third, both subject to confirmation.

Alpines, however, all left the starting point with racing tyres to get all the speed they could out of their cars.

The leader half-way through the night was G. Larrbuse (France) in a Renault-Alpine, and he was still in front when he went off the road, striking a mound of snow thrown on the route by a gang of youths. One of the early arrivals was the Lancia, driven by B. Soderstrom, and G. Palm (Sweden), who had been erroneously reported out early last night. Palm said that his co-driver had recovered well from a stomach complaint and they shared the driving. The first back was the Finn, R. Aaltonen, in his little red Mini-Cooper. “There was not enough ice and snow in the mountains for me,” he said. “Though I was doing well over 100 m.p.h. at times I should have liked to have had even more power to go faster.” The only non-starter among the 60 qualifiers was S. Zasada (Poland), who was eighth in the intermediate placings but had to return to Warsaw because of the death of his father. His absence was a bitter blow to the Porsche team, as it eliminated it from the nominated team competition. In spite of weather forecasts suggesting - dry roads throughout, many teams started the final stage with studded snow tyres. The leading drivers in the Lancias, Porsches, Minis, and