Rallies

Jean-Francois Helias has contributed a huge quantity of quality material to LPMCC.net, but they were just practice; Francois was preparing to write his heart and soul into a rally that isn't just a well researched delve into the past, it was part of the history that he and his club, MC Dragons, wrote across the French motorcycle scene under the capable leadership of his hero, Kiki Blanchot. The Vercingétorix wasn't merely a rally, it was an opening shot in a revolution.

The result of their effort reverberates down the years. Kiki Blanchot will be delighted that their cry for freedom is forever remembered, and now given a new audience through our pages, thanks to Francois' memory and Gilles Gaudechoux's carefully preserved photos. Their industry will continue soon with an account of MC Dragons' winter rally and the second Vercingétorix.

Adding the Vercingétorix badge forced our hand in releasing an update to the V Rally Badges. They now stretch from Vache Blanche to Vultures with 517 badges for 225 rallies, including a medal from Vercingétorix, linked to the report.

Keeping to our normal lazy schedule, we also added another 20 S Rally Badges. There are now 1300 from Saarlouis to Sylt covering 386 rally series.

While we were still gorging on chocolate Easter Eggs, Hans Veenendaal was working hard to bring the number of events on his Rally Listing back up to the level it touched before we pruned off the March events.

The rally season is moving firmly from its winter survival phase into spring. Over the next couple of weeks there are 36 rallies, six of them in the UK.

We take a stab at locating rallies on the map; not the precision targets that are going on in the Middle East, but we just about hit the right countries. The locations of some events are withheld. With all of them, withheld or guessed...
CONTACT THE ORGANISERS!

Speed

The pre-ramble of John Ellis's Speed series opened what will grow to be his full and honest confession over the next few weeks.

Although themed on John's youthful experiences learning to go faster than he should on assorted motorcycles, the series is in the Activities section where it joins Tony Sheppard's Chrome series.

Cloth Badges

The twenty-six Cloth Badges from Francois and Hans Mondorf that we added does not make any dent in our backlog.

There are now 2320 badges, variously subdivided, on that page. They are outweighed by more than 3000 awaiting further processing. Thankfully Francois does a splendid job of cookie-cutting the backgrounds out of the badges that he sends.

Statistics

I hope that you were out on your motorcycle during March. That would be an acceptable reason for our visitor numbers and page views to dip from the unbelievable levels they reached over winter months. Have a look at our Statistics page that show overall figures for LPMCC.net but begins by tracing how much time you spend rolling round our pages. (We don't see those numbers, they are only on your computer/tablet or phone.)

Virtual Club Night

Next Virtual Club Night is on Wednesday, 8 April. You need to join us on-line because the Leicester Phoenix MCC has sprung into nomadic mode for the duration. They also hide at different cafés on Tuesday mornings, so getting hold of them is a job ICE would adore.

Embers

It may be that keeping up with the Embers (their location, not their speed) will become a lottery over the next few months. We typically begin our rides further from home as the year progresses towards summer. The cost and availability of fuel may make us change our published plans. Keep watch on our programme, but last minute changes may not reach the website in time. If you intend to join our jolly band (yes you do!) contact me directly to be added to our message group.

We have made a good start to April and on Thursday, 9th we are still close to home with a start from Syston.

The following Thursday we planned to meet at East Carlton Park. All bets are off!

Police pulled over a car on the highway...

Officer: "Sir, I noticed you’re wearing your seatbelt. We don’t just punish violations — we also reward safe drivers. Today, you’re the lucky winner of one thousand dollars. What do you plan to do with the money?"

Driver: "Well, now that I’ve got the cash, I guess I’ll finally go get a driver’s licence."

The woman in the passenger seat blurted out: "Don’t listen to him! When he’s drunk, he says stuff like that all the time!"

The guy in the back seat added: "I knew it... we were never going to get far in a stolen car."

Then a voice came from the trunk: "Did we make it across the border yet?"