Victoria 1968
Re-live the action from 1968
Year in review
Highlights
The Victorian Trials Championship was won by Bob Watson and Jim McAuliffe in their Holden HK V8 307ci.
Australian Rally Championship
1968 was the inaugural year for the Australian Rally Championship, which was won by Victorians Harry Firth and Graham Hoinville in their Lotus Cortina. Victoria hosted two rounds, the first and the last for the year, being the Classic Rally and the Alpine Rally. The Classic was won by Frank Kilfoyle and Doug Rutherford in a similar Cortina GT while the Alpine was won by Tony Roberts and Mike Osborne in the newly launched Holden Torana GTR (Vauxhall Viva).
Other major events
Major rallies held this year, other than ARC and VTC events, were three International status events: the BP Rally of South Eastern Australia in May, the Southern Cross Rally in October (Victoria and New South Wales) and part of the London to Sydney Marathon in December.
This year was the third and last time that the Southern Cross Rally visited Victoria, with a mid-event stopover in Melbourne. The route traversed eastern Victoria from Canberra but was severely impacted by a major weather event resulting in many stages being cancelled. From Melbourne the route traversed mostly traditional Victorian rally areas to a stopover in Albury before heading to the finish in Sydney. The winners were John Keran and Peter Mayer in their Volvo 142S.
At the end of the year the London to Sydney Marathon was conducted and passed through north-east Victoria on the final night of its mad dash across the continent from Perth. The route passed through Wangaratta, Bright, Omeo and Buchan.
Victorian Trials Championship
VTC events this year were the Derrick, Classic (also ARC), Akademos, Experts, Blue Ribbon, North Eastern and Cooper Memorial.
Outright champions: Bob Watson / Jim McAuliffe, Holden HK V8 307ci.
For more details, including event results and points tables, go to the 1968 VTC page.
Other Open Events
The calendar was now becoming quite crowded with limited opportunity for additional open events.
In addition to the Blue Ribbon Trial, The Victorian Sporting Car Club continued to run its Midnight Trial while the Western District Car Club ran its Otway Trial in addition to its VTC round, the Cooper Memorial.
The Huntingdale Auto Club again ran the Maroondah Rally as an open event.
The Presidents Trial was again run by the CCRMIT as an open event, now traditionally run at the end of the season.
Closed Events
With ever more car clubs, the number of closed events continued to grow, but we have few details.
The Melbourne University Car Club ran only two closed events, namely the Summer Trial in February, and the Winter Trial in August.
The Car Club of RMIT probably ran three closed events, which were a Novice Trial, the annual Autumn Midnight Trial and the Amateur Trial.
The Monash Sporting Car Club was now established and conducted three closed events, the Boomerang Rally, the Midyear Rally and the curiously named Bitchy Burn Trial.
The well established Huntingdale Auto Club conducted at least two closed events, the Winter Trial and the Invitation Trial.
A number of other club events are listed in the calendar below.
The Rally Calendar for this year:
By no means complete!
Date | Event | Club | Status |
---|---|---|---|
10 Feb | Summer Trial | MUCC | Club |
17 Feb | George Derrick Memorial Trial | CCRMIT | VTC-1 |
16 Mar | Commencement Rally | MUCC | Club |
31 Mar | Clubman’s Trial | LCCA | Restricted |
6 Apr | Classic Rally | GMHMC | ARC-1/VTC-2 |
20 Apr | Boomerang Rally | MSCC | Club |
11 May | Autumn Midnight Trial | CCRMIT | Club |
25 Apr | Gippsland Trial | GCCV | Open |
1-5 May | BP Rally of South Eastern Australia | LCCA | International |
1 Jun | Akademos Rally | MUCC | VTC-3 |
8 Jun | Maroondah Rally | HAC | Open |
15 Jun | Gemini Rally | VADC | Club |
22 Jun | Midnight Trial | VSCC | Open |
29 Jun | Midyear Rally | MSCC | Club |
6 Jul | Experts Trial | LCCA | VTC-4 |
13 Jul | Amateur Trial | CCRMIT | Club |
20 Jul | Otway Trial | WDCC | Open |
20 Jul | Winter Trial | MUCC | Club |
27 Jul | Bitchy Burn Trial | MSCC | Club |
4 Aug | Winter Trial | HAC | Club |
17 Aug | Two Day Trial | VADC | Open |
24 Aug | Invitation Trial | CRBCC | Club |
31 Aug | Blue Ribbon Trial | VSCC | VTC-5 |
21 Sep | BPAC Twilight Trial | A7CV | Club |
28 Sep | Invitation Trial | HAC | Club |
9-13 Oct | Southern Cross Rally | ASCC | International |
19 Oct | North Eastern Rally | NECC | VTC-6 |
9 Nov | Cooper Memorial Trial | WDCC | VTC-7 |
16 Nov | Presidents Trial | CRBCC | Club |
23 Nov | Alpine Rally | LCCA | ARC-6 |
14-17 Dec | London Sydney Marathon (from Perth) | N/A | International |