The 1966 Begonia Trial, organised by the Ballarat Light Car Club, was held on March 12.
VTC Round 1 – 1966 BLCC Begonia Trial
Tony Roberts and Peter Haas in a Holden HD set the tone for the 1966 season by winning the opening round of the Victorian Trials Championship. This was in the previous season’s Holden HD, privately entered, but they beat the might of the Ford factory team with Kilfoyle’s Falcon second and Firth’s Cortina fourth. Roberts and Haas would go on to win three more rounds and convincingly tale the championship.
The Begonia was a long and rugged event conducted mostly to the west of Ballarat, with much of the route in the Grampians. The other Holdens were not so fortunate with Watson/McAuliffe finishing seventh after donating their clutch pipe to the winning car, while Lunn/Thomas severely damaged a front wheel but managed to finish in fifth.
