the ultimate banger rally experience!
After a night of celebrations, it was time for everyone heading onto Prague to say farewell to their newfound friends on the Venice rally. For the Prague teams the scenery and roads change significantly as we head into Eastern Europe. There were some blurry-eyed faces at the morning briefing (especially the Horsemeat Smugglers team!), but everyone attended eager to see what the day had in store! With just a couple of days left on the rally, some cars were starting to show the strain a bit, but everyone was in high spirits for today’s journey.
Today we were travelling from Venice to Sopron in Hungary, which is approximately 345 miles, but it gives teams the chance to drive on another amazing pass, by going through the Triglav national park in Slovenia, tackling the amazing Vršič Pass. Each year we tell people that in our opinion it is better than the Stelvio Pass, and each and everyone who takes on the pass agrees! It is an absolutely brilliant driving experience, the scenery in the national park is beautiful and the road leading up to the pass has sweeping bends that really do engage car and driver! It is the highest mountain pass in Slovenia, with a series of 48 hairpin bends, all of which are numbered. You can expect to pass through cliff like faces and see magnificent waterfalls, definitely something people remember! Jez & Jo from the Burbage Boozers got this amazing photo of their red MGB Roadster at the top of the Pass!
Whilst driving through Slovenia many teams took the opportunity to visit Bled, situated on the edge of the same national park. It has to be one of the most beautiful tourist spots in Europe. The small town of Bled sits on an idyllic lake surrounded by some absolutely stunning scenery. Ed and Simon from Missing Lincs took the opportunity to grab some fantastic photos of the lake in the sunshine.
It was the last day for challenges on the rally, and with A Bear Attacking You with only a Sausage, Hazardous Wasters, Dr Rally Team and V Rally fighting it out for the top spot, the teams were taking the challenges very seriously! The teams headed into Sopron to do the challenges that had a real Motoscape twist! Paul, Andrew and Brian from Dr Rally Team said it was just like Challenge Anika (our younger readers might no be old enough to remember that!), each armed with a camera running round Sopron trying to locate monuments all before the 7pm deadline! It definitely met the definition of the word CHALLENGE, a great effort from all the teams.
You might be wondering who was the daily challenge winner? Well you will have to wait and see, as this will be announced at the final nights presentation tomorrow!
Sopron lies only a few miles from the Austrian border, and sitting at the foot of the eastern Alps means it is set in beautiful countryside. It is regarded as one of the most important tourist towns of Hungary, famous for it’s wine and cheap dentistry. It is rich in culture with some wonderfully preserved old buildings making it one of Hungary’s most charming medieval cities. With its abundance of gothic and baroque buildings, it is like a mini Prague and a must of a visit.
Onto car breakdowns and today was actually a good news day, as we had no major casualties, woo hoo! The teams had to give the cars a bit of TLC at the hotel with the regular checks, but it looks like everyone should make to Prague, we’ll keep our fingers crossed!
Sometimes the main challenge on a banger rally is just for the car to make it all the way, so if you are thinking about doing a rally in the future, buy smart and make sure you use the car for a few weeks before setting off to iron out any potential problems.
A few other titbits from today, and it seems the famous (or infamous) Tank has been featured in the German news! The Cunning Stunts boys certainly made an impression in Germany, and while the rally didn’t turn out how they expected, their adventure will be something they never forget!
A special mention in the blog has to go to John and James from the team Horsemeat Smugglers. A few weeks before the rally the Motoscape Team were contact by Mark, a solo American citizen 
travelling through Europe who had seen the rally online and really wanted to take part, but obviously had no car or team! He asked if any teams would let him join them and spilt the costs. John and James got in touch with him on Facebook and he joined the Horsemeat Smugglers! We have to take our hats to you both for to giving Mark the chance to experience the rally and just shows how far the spirit of the rally can go! Great effort lads, and they’ve had a fantastic week together.
On to the evening in Sopron and the Motoscape Team arranged a magnificent buffet meal at the hotel. Teams then either had a few beers in the hotel or in the town, others chose to have an early night to recover from 6 days driving. Some teams also chose to relax in the hotel pool, sauna, jacuzzi and gymnasium ready for the final night in Prague tomorrow!
Hungary was quite a big change from Italy, cheep beer and free Wi-Fi puts a smile on everyone’s faces! There were still the usual suspects up to their tricks of not knowing when to go to bed, but as long as everyone is having fun that’s fine with us!
Day 6 offered a driving route most people would have never considered and Slovenia and the Vršič Pass is definitely a route people will remember.
Day 7 see’s the teams head to Prague (Czech Republic), which needs no introduction and all the remaining entrants are excited for a great day on the road and night out in the beautiful city of Prague. Find out how everyone gets on tomorrow!
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