The Two Day was held on 30 August.
VTC Round 5 – 1969 VADC Escort Two Day Rally
Jeff Beaumont tells the story…
This 350 mile rally was one of the year’s best and relatively straight forward, however most of the favoured crews suffered a variety of mishaps. The exceptions were Tony Roberts with Mike Osborne in the Porsche 911 and Bob Watson with Jim McAuliffe in the Renault 16TS, both of whom finished in the top placings and continued their fight for this year’s Victorian Championship.
The Rally was sponsored by Escort Cigarettes and was well directed by David Forster and Tony Brown and started at Chadstone Shopping Centre.
As the field headed out to the actual start at Leonards Hill, Peter Janson had alternator failure which was fixed by his service crew with just a few minutes lost. However, electrical issues continued and he finally retired with no lights.
After a storming run up though the Daylesford forests, the big Monaro of Alexander / Bonhomme led at the first break near Maryborough, whilst McPherson / Sharpley’s normally reliable 16TS retired with transmission issues. Bob Watson’s Renault was consuming plenty of oil but he continued on at a careful pace, continually topping up.
More navigation challenged the crews in the Emu, Whela, Bealiba areas, and the Porsche took a wrong road and dropped a few minutes.
Then the wettest section of the rally near Dunluce caused major problems due to the mud. Graham Alexander’s Monaro aquaplaned across an expanse of muddy water and came to a sudden rest around a huge tree stump. Gil Davis / David Long lost their position and many crews could not make the Control from the required direction.
Next was a 30 minute run through the Mt Cole Forest, where patchy fog and slippery roads spread-eagled the field.
A long transport to Sulky was next, followed by a dash through a maze of tracks in the Creswick Forest. Roberts was still flying out in front, whilst Bob Watson was anxiously checking his oil level.
The final run was through Daylesford forest to the finish at Nolans Creek.