3th Mini Europe Rally

The third MER was held from the 17^th of March till the 23^rd March 1996. We started at Houten during The British Car & lifestyle exhibition. I was well prepared this year, with a brand "new" Mini and a brand new co-driver Ton. Ton being a good friend who was hopefully more steady than I was. In the evening we stayed in a nice hotel in the centre of Valkenburg.

The next days led us to a race-track in Switzerland. This year's night tour in Chur ended because the local Authorities weren't so happy with the noise some mini's made.

The following days we didn't have this problem because we entered Italy, and Italians love mini's and racing. So we drove through the beautiful scenery of Northern Italy towards Laggo Maggiore. Again we were no competition for a top classification (except for the bar-bill) but we had a wonderful week, which ended at a top location in Italy. The winners of that year were Birgit Slawik & Heiko Schultz.

Even the long road back to Holland was amazing; we had a lot to talk about and were already making plans for 1997