The 5th BP Rally, organised by the Light Car Club of Australia, was held from May 1 to 6. The Director was Donald Thomson, assisted by Graham Hoinville and John Pryce. Ross Runnalls summarises the event …
Fooled them again in Trial by Thomson
In response to a request from competitors after previous year’s events for no unmapped roads, DKT went looking for the most obscure mapped roads possible for the 1962 edition.
Crews rallied from four interstate locations to Echuca then to Bendigo for the start of the Trial Stage at 11 am Thursday 3 May. Seven divisions followed with approximately two hour breaks every five to six hours at Ballarat (depart 6.30 pm), Donald (depart 1.15 am Friday), Seymour (depart 8.30 am), Benalla (depart 3 pm) then overnight at Wangaratta (depart 8 am Saturday) via Wodonga and Omeo to Bright for a longer break (depart 6 am Sunday), via Matlock to Dandenong Division end before parade into the waiting 10,000 people at Chadstone Shopping Centre finish for the first time.
The first division out through the normally challenging Dunolly and Maryborough forests presented few problems for crews until they had to find their way from Korweinguboora to Barkstead, on the way into Ballarat.
The next challenge on the run from Donald to Seymour was finding the way out of the Wellsford forest into Longlea from the north just out of Bendigo. Kevin Lott had issues here, missing his 1960 winning navigator, Frank Kilfoyle, who had been snaffled by Harry Firth and the Ford team.
Just before Benalla, crews were required to enter Molyullah from the south with the warning:”about 1.5 mile very tricky going on most ancient road”.
After a night’s rest in Wangaratta, other than finding Springhurst from Eldorado, crews enjoyed a scenic drive into Wodonga along Huon Creek Rd, before an easy run down to Omeo. Two hours allowed to Bright looked plenty so many stayed to enjoy the delights of Omeo, then found as night and fog fell over Mt Hotham, every bit of those two hours would be needed. The snow poles were meant to always be on the right, but there were stories of passing them on the left in the fog!
Crews were more attentive to time on the Sunday route over the mountains from Jamieson via Matlock, Tanjil Bren and Neerim to Dandenong.
Harry Firth and Frank Kilfoyle in a Ford Anglia scraped home winners by a solitary point to Ken Tubman and Tony Denham in a Hillman. Third were J Batchelor/R Farmer /W Wallace from Tasmania in a Vanguard.
36 crews started and 24 finished.
The Director’s bronze medals were awarded to the crew of Arthur Ashford and Charlie Davis.
Pre-event article in Auto Sportsman
Report in Australian Motorsports and Automobiles
