The annual Felanitx car rally up to the top of the Sant Salvador mountain took place yesterday as part of this year’s Festes de Sant Agustí. The setting, of course, is fantastic. The road up to the Sant Salvador monastery is full of serpentine bends and quite a challenge to the average motorists on any day of the year but, with the speed of rally cars racing against the clock and competing with 30-odd friendly enemies, the challenge is even more complex. In the end, the surprise winner was Mario Hekke from Portocolom on his Bango BRC 05, whilst Andrés Barceló came second on a SpeedCar and Rafael Binimelis, third with his Renault Clio Sport.

I cannot hide from you the fact that I was flabbergasted by the absence of crash barriers or other meaningful accident preventive measures or crowd protection but, there you go; this is Spain. Luckily, no accidents occurred yesterday as far as I am aware of. You may remember that there was a ghastly accident at last year’s rally up to the Puig Major with one onlooker returning home in a coffin and a number of bystanders being injured.

This year’s Pujada al Puig Major will be staged over two days on September 4th and 5th, sponsored by the Ajuntament de Sóller.

The photo was taken near Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: August 21st, 2010. The time was 11:14:12.