The first car run for 2025 took place on the 1 February 2025 and was called the Almond
Blossom Car Rally. It is a tradition to hold a rally at the end of January to celebrate the
flowering of almond blossom on trees that are on the route of the rally. It is also a tradition
for Jean Pierre Allemann to stage this rally but due to unforeseen circumstances he was
unable to complete it. He has completed 17 years of uninterrupted almond blossom rallies,
so it was a sad that he was not able to organise this rally.

Stan Hunter and Pam Gardner stepped in to organise the event and decided to keep the
theme of the car rally as an almond blossom rally and designed a route that was in the
central and east part of the island. The car rally started at El Cruce restaurant, just off the
Ma-15 and finished at the Terragust Restaurant, again just off the Ma-15.

It was forecast to rain, and everyone was expecting this to be a wet car run. However, it was
a pleasant surprise to see blue skies and sunshine at the El Cruce meeting point, though it
wasn’t particularly warm. This was a well-attended car rally, with 58 people signed up and
30 cars in attendance. We had 8 guest members attending and 5 new members as well.

There were many classic cars in attendance, despite the forecast of rain, the most notable
being a Ghia 450 SS, and we also had two Triumph TR 6, a TR 2, a Renault Alpine 110 SX
as well as several Jaguars, Porsches and Mercedes cars. Some members took the decision
to bring their open top classics along as well, which was brave, but it paid off, because the
rain that was forecast did not arrive until around 4pm. We did discover that virtually every
other part of Mallorca had a deluge of rain in the morning, yet we didn’t experience a single
drop of rain.

The rally itself started at El Cruce and went to Petra and from their north on the Ma-3330.
The route then took the Ma-3321, a very narrow but picturesque road that was thought to be
the trickiest section of the route but ended up being the most pleasurable! The route then
went east along the Ma-15, then the Ma-4030, the Ma-4040 and then south on the Ma-4032
arriving at the Son Severa Golf club for a coffee break. The route then went south all the
way to Porto Cristo and then west on the Ma-4020 up to Manacor and from there back to the Ma-15, still heading west to the Terragust restaurant. There were picture questions to
answer based on numbered signs along the route, which was made more difficult by a
couple of errors, but this did not cause too much concern!

We had a delicious three course lunch in the Terragust restaurant and just before the
dessert, the prize winners were announced. In first place was Michael and Angela Dawson,
in second place was William and Emma Morris and in third place was Andy and Sadie
Sutherland. Congratulations to all the winners. A big thank you to Stan and Pam for
organising such an enjoyable car rally.