The inaugural BP Rally, known as the BP All Victoria Rally, was organised by the Light Car Club of Australia, was held from March 13-16. The Director was Donald Thomson, assisted by John Pryce.
Ross Runnalls summarises the event …
Volkswagen on Top
The Clerk of the Course and Director of the Rally was Donald Thomson, National Secretary of CAMS at the time, and the Assistant Clerk of Course was John Pryce, Manager Motor Racing at BP.
Three “All-Victoria” car rallies had been conducted in 1953, 1954 and 1955 by Thomson and Maurie Monk, leading to this 1958 edition, the first of 16 consecutive annual rallies to be conducted by the Melbourne based Light Car Club of Australia under the exclusive sponsorship of BP.
This was the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship between BP, the LCCA, Broadbent’s Maps, the South Eastern Australian countryside and many keen competing crews.
While meant to provide a shorter version of the very long distance round Australia events common at the time, it was considered by some to be more difficult due to the intense navigation and diverse terrain available in Victoria.
The regulations for the event required a £10/10/- entry fee ($334 in basic CPI present day terms, or $2500 in economic terms), competitors had to use only BP fuel and lubricants, no four wheel drives were permitted, but given that Landrovers were probably the only option, why would you bother? A set of 12 excellent Broadbent’s maps had to be supplied by navigators. On the event, instructions were handed out a section at a time, and special tests were included, not to be scored as part of the event, but to be used as tie breakers.
As per practice with the Monte Carlo Rally, eight competitors started from Adelaide, six from Sydney, and 65 from appropriately, The Melbourne Zoo at 7.30 am on Thursday 13 March and traversed separate 480 mile Rally Stages to Deniliquin, where all joined up for the 1500 mile Trial Stage, commencing 6 am Friday morning on the Moomba Festival weekend. The entry list gave the home address of each entrant. Interestingly 25 of the 63 Victorian entrants came from outside the Melbourne metropolitan area. Competitors were promised at least 9 hours and at most 15 hours rest over the next three days. 30 minute rest and refuel breaks were provided at Ararat, Horsham (depart 7pm Friday), Ballarat (depart 5.30am Saturday), Wangaratta (depart 7.30pm Saturday), fuel only break in Omeo, Bairnsdale (depart 6 am Sunday), Heatherton, an eastern suburb of Melbourne (depart 1.30pm for Albert Park race circuit finish).
The first division down to Ararat included a bonus points section from Emu, entering Moyreisk from the east. Only Harry Firth, Vanguard and Jack Cox Zephyr earnt a ten points bonus by being 2 minutes early finding their way across the paddock to pick up the gate out. Another bonus section on the last division required navigators to report on foot to Mrs Esme Livingstone on the front verandah of “Tullaree” Homestead out of Fish Creek in South Gippsland. Four Volkswagen crews achieved the maximum ten points.
79 crews started and 53 finished. The winners were a novice crew of three 21 year old lads from Deniliquin; Bernie Taylor, Tom Smith and Ian McDonald in a Volkswagen losing only 2 points. As outright, class and novice winners, they pocketed £325, around $10,000 in basic CPI present day terms, or $80,000 in economic present day terms. Second was A.C. (Arthur) Withers in an FJ Holden together with his wife and navigator Roy Utting. Navigators did not generally get a mention in entry list or results! Bob Foreman and Eddie Perkins were third in a VW but a “Corrections to Results” suggests that David Calvert and Arthur Smith were third in a Porsche. Volkswagens were the most popular car in the event. 27 entered, but only 16 finished.
The director produced his standard comprehensive post event report, including statistical analysis, which is always interesting to compare with media reports at the time. Don noted that all sections were cleaned by at least one crew, and this became a record that he strove to keep in future BPs. He also acknowledged the many country based car clubs at the time that helped provide the 200 officials required.
It appears that right from this first BP, medallions were issued to official finishers, in a tradition that was maintained to the end.
