The North Eastern was held on 26 October.
VTC Round 6 – 1969 NECC North Eastern Rally
Jeff Beaumont tells the story…
Unusually, the trio of Colin Bond, Brian Hope and Roger Bonhomme, all up in the Holden Dealer Team Monaro took out the North Eastern Rally, which was directed by Gordon Henderson on behalf of the North Eastern Car Club.
Monaros took the top two positions followed by two Renault 16TSs of McPherson and Watson. The Porsche of Tony Roberts / Mike Osborne finished in 5th place.
The start was at the Caltex Garage in Wangaratta, followed by the first competitive section to Glenrowan via an unmapped road. This was followed by some confusion of control locations, which resulted in a few section cancellations.
The next stage took crews through the dust and into the grid country via Londrigan and Tarrawingee, then to roads north of Chiltern.
Peter Janson surrended his lead by missing a check point, then finally retired, whilst Watson / McAuliffe clipped a bank then fell into a ditch,swallowing their Renault. Colin Wilson’s Renault suffered mechanical issues and was forced to jump controls in order to stay within his late running time.
The final Division out of Wangaratta led west into the Warby Ranges with a quick loop, followed by a ten mile route chart, then some difficult navigation.
The route kept jumping from map to map around Thoona to Chesney, where most crews did a little exploring.
Then finally on to the finish in Wangaratta, via Glenrowan.