Woolworths Store 740 Does "The Job"
The Italian Job - What is it??
The modern day equivalent to the 1969 classic Michael Caine movie, which lends it's name and basic plot to the exploits of a group of fundraising Mini driving enthusiasts affectionately known as "Jobbers". It is a Job requiring as much daring and dedication as Mr Caine's merry band of reprobates, as the new Self Preservation Society endeavours to relieve the Italian region of Emilia Romagna with as much gold of the liquid variety - the local wine - as possible.
The event started in 1990 (as a one-off) attracts teams from all over the world including Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Spain and USA. The Job is open to any type of car featured in the film. So far the hundreds of Minis have been joined by Lamborghini Miura, Aston Martin DB4, Jaguar E Type, Alfa Guilia have completed the job, with strong rumours of a coach competing next year.
A condition of entry to the run is to raise money for childrens charities (The NSPCC and Society Of Stars - celebrity support for children with cerebal palsy), a minimum of £1500 per car. The Job is currently trying to achieve the sum of £1,000,000 by the millennium. With Italian Job wine available from Victoria Wine shops, and prospective Jobbers lining up to take part, this looks to be within grasp.
Together with thousands of Mini enthusiasts around the world, the Italian Job is proud to have the following patrons: Sir Harry Secombe, John Cooper, Michael Caine, Sandi Toksvig and Robert Powell.
So Who Did Store 740 Sponsor??
Team 30, Anna and Neil that's who! Who? Ok, I'll explain. Anna is an enthusiast from the Wirral (yep, the bit of town on the other side of the Mersey to Liverpool). She owns the 1996 Mini Cooper 35 in which the Job was completed this year. Anna completed her first Job in 1996, co-driving in a 1989 998cc Mini Mayfair from Whistable in Kent, got hooked and returned in 1997 with her 1275cc Cooper.
Neil is a Mini enthusiast from Hatfield, Herts. also completed his first Job in 1996, using his 1988 998cc Red Hot. Hooked on the job he was frustrated to put thoughts of continental madness to one side in order to start racing a 1992 Cooper in the Mighty Mini Championship. Spending the 1997 job in the garage building a racing car, he rang Anna in late September to offer support on this years Job, to be told Anna was still lacking a co-driver. With the Mighty Mini Best Novice award under his belt, and a few days of holiday left, he could not resist and ended up on the Job again.
What did Woolworths do, and what will they get from it??
When Assistant Manager Martin Tudor discovered that Neil was on the Job again, he swung into action and organised a bulging bag full of goodies to be donated to the orphanage supported on this years event. In return the pictured sticker will be displayed on the car at many shows around the country for the next year - oh, and a bottle of Italian wine is to be raffled/auctioned at the Managers Christmas do. Hopefully the car will also be pictured in one of the national motoring magazines.
So what happened??
In 10 days, Anna, Neil and the little green Mini travelled over 2500 miles through 6 different countries. Progress as follows:
Day 0 - Wednesday 21st October - evening
Anna and Neil join fellow Jobbers Steve and Miggie for night near ferry, in Whistable.
Day 1 - Thursday 22nd October
After a rather choppy ferry crossing (if you ask Steve), the two Mini convoy set off across France. Due to settling a route which avoided the dreaded toll motorways, the first 100 miles took 5 hours The plan of the first nights stop at Lyon fell through and Troyes (about half the proposed distance) was chosen for the overnight stop - not a good start!
Day 2 - Friday 23rd October
With time to find it was an early morning and toll roads, however we made good time and even though we made a slight diversion along a mountain pass, a lap of Monaco GP circuit was made, madly chasing a Bentley and avoiding the late night staggerings of party-goers and Casino punters. The first meeting with another team of Jobbers was made here too. What the team from Lucent Technologies thought when four people jumped out in front of them whilst they were driving around the Monte-Carlo harbour. They soon relaxed when they realised we were all Jobbers and retired to their Monte hotel, whilst we sought out the local Etap Hotel in Menton (these things are great - you swipe your credit card through the door and they let you get sleep, even at silly times of the morning - they are cheap too).
Day 3 - Saturday 24th October
Registration and scrutineering of the event was being held at 3pm in Imola. With a good few hundred miles to go along a less than perfect route, we knew that time was still slipping away - so another early start and more motorways. Later in the day, we decided to take to the more direct 'A' road. This turned out to contain more wiggly bits that you could shake a jelly snake at, which gave much relief to aching ankles, although gave Anna something to worry about as Neil was driving her Cooper at this point and knew that time had to be made up. Things were made a little more interesting when every Italian cyclist decided it was a pretty funky road to cycle on too! Finally into Imola with half an hour to spare the team gradually collected Minis whilst getting lost around Imola trying to find the correct Hotel. Which was done, in time.
Day 4 - Sunday 25th October
After a late night at the welcome dinner, followed by a charity auction, and then the meeting of friends old and new at the bar (including a high member of the Bedfordshire Police), the first day of the navigational rally started in earnest. Early starts now the norm our bleary-eyed team headed off into the hills to visit Castel Del Rio (a fantastic walled town) and Dozza. Along the route was a fantastic bridge that pointed everything skywards on the way up, and filled the windscreen with a view of cobbles on the way down. We won't mention that Anna managed to stall a few meters from the top of this first-gear accent! The afternoon concluded with a foot treasure hunt and police convoy back to the hotel. Of the three routes, the team ended up with the hardest, which made them, together with team 34 late for the convoy. Returning to the main piazza that was once full of Minis (see photo) they were faced with a piazza with two Minis and an incomprehensible route. A few plaintive wimperings and display of route book to the local Police, and we ended up with our own Police escort which resulted in even more looks from the amazed locals, and some comments from the other teams!
Day 5 - Monday 26th October
Another late night discussing the days events, saw the crew trekking south early in the morning to find the navigational rally passing into San Marino for lunch. Were it not for the foggy haze (this also was on the photos and so had nothing to do with lack of sleep) the view would of been amazing, for San Marino is found atop a 750 meter high mount in the middle of relatively flat surroundings. From here the trail of Minis wound their way down the mount to Rimini, known as the clubbing capital of Italy, where we had afternoon tea and like true Brits paddled in the Adriatic - with our shoes on. This was also the scene of one of the may special tests. on the Navigational rally, you have to arrive at control points on 'your' second. A special test is similar, but timed to a tenth of a second. Most of them are fairly slow driving, drive from point 'A' to point 'B' in 8 seconds, 'B' to 'C' in 9 and finally 'C' to 'D' in 7 seconds. Sounds fairly straight forward until you try it. Well the special test at Rimini was just two time check points, A to B in 5 seconds, however there was a slalom in the middle. This meant that quite a few people were arriving at point 'B' late, by the matter of seconds. Neil did warn Anna that things were going to happen fairly fast, but she was not quite prepared for Mighty Mini racing mode. After about three seconds Neil stopped just before gate 'B' to try and see the stopwatch as Anna had decided against counting "1....2....3....4....5" and resorted to screaming "Agggghhhh!!" We think they managed to sort themselves out in time, but only the final results will tell.
Day 6 - Tuesday 27th October
The morning was spent fending off friendly accusations of 'nobbling' whilst other teams recovered from the party our team held in their hotel room. First stop was Imola GP circuit where everyone had the opportunity to drive around this famous circuit. The afternoon saw the rally end in Faenza, followed by the descent of sight-seeing Jobbers on the local towns and villages. The evening became very confusing as this was the first black-tie meal of the event. It is hard enough trying to remember 200 new faces as it is, but to transform from crumpled jobbers to James Bond/Miss Moneypenny wannabes is very confusing.
Day 7 - Wednesday 28th October
"Breakfast at Leisure" according to the program, that's OK if you don't mind missing the food at Munich, the problem is that the cars have to travel up through Italy, through Austria (more twisty bits) and into Germany, a total of almost 400 miles. After a food stop the team had a minor brush with the German Police. Things looked worrying for a mo when they took the passports, but a chat about the Minis and a moan about how cold the weather was and they handed them back and wished the Mini crew luck. Everyone was convinced they just wanted a chat about the cars as no checks were made on any documents. What better way to keep someones attention than to take their passport! Wandering around Munich that night the bad weather began to make itself apparent. It was very cold with an incredibly strong wind. It was only whilst watching the news the following morning that footage of mangled scaffolding, trees, etc in (of all places) Munich was seen... Hmmm...
Day 8 - Thursday 29th October
The morning was spent wandering around as guests of Italian Job enthusiasts, BMW. They were very good, not complaining at all when the majority of their umbrellas was blown inside-out. The Jobbers were split into two groups. Our team spent the first half of the visit drinking coffee in the museum, followed by a tour of the 3-series production line after lunch. The journey to Stuttgart, although only 150 miles was eventful to say the least. The best way to describe some of the weather was "Slush Puppy", when the team had recovered from this, they had more hotel directions to deal with, and no local Police to help. After finding the compass was reading due North no matter which way the car was pointing, and deciding that the picture was not map, but a Celtic design, saw a big fluorescent light was spotted proclaiming "Hotel".
Day 9 - Friday 30th October
Another of those "Breakfast at Leisure" days. After curing an oil pressure problem on car 34, the team toddled off on a mere 300 mile trek across France and through most of the areas dominating the European news reports. Luckily no flooding was encountered on the road, despite the clouds adding more and more water to the story. The Hotel in Rheims was found with no problems this time.
Day 10 - Saturday 31st October
The third GP circuit was to be bagged this fine morning, albeit an old one. The Rheims GP circuit was a road circuit in the countryside, and the buildings can still be found today, complete with period advertising from its last race in the 60's. The atmosphere in the pit area is fantastic, you can really imagine the like of Moss and Hopkirk flying down the straight. A photo shoot was held here for the three Cooper 35 anniversary models. Our teams and two others, one of which is owned by Mini World magazine. This last couple of hundred miles seemed easy, despite the continuing rain. This final night was the second black tie affair and provided a good formal end to the event.
Day 11 - Sunday 1st November
Although the Job was officially over, the antics had not yet finished, as all 81 Minis were booked on the same ferry. After all the goodbyes on the boat, most seemed to congregate at the BP garage where one team was awaiting an AA tow truck. After a near-miss between Jobbing Minis on the first roundabout out of Dover, all made their separate ways home. Anna made it back to the Wirral after every coffee opportunity on the M1 and M6, whilst Neil returned to Hatfield and promptly fell asleep in preparation for work the next day.
All in all the Mini covered the whole event without missing a beat. The drivers? Well an optimistic estimate puts sleep at 4 hours per night, with no sleeping during the day due to the navigational rally or just new scenery. A few Mini engines expired over the week, but most returned to run another job. Talking about another job...
The Job in 1999
Next year?? Yes, still catching up on sleep but already next year is being planned. 1999 is a big year for Minis, and even bigger for the Italian Job, as it is a triple celebration. The Mini is 40 years old in '99, the Italian Job film is 30 years old, and the run is 10 years old. The '99 job is also the last opportunity to get the fund up to the £1,000,000 raised for charity that we all wish for.