1973 Australian Rally Championship

Table of Contents

Series Regulations
Events
Pointscores

It was another year of dominance by the Holden Dealer Team with their XU-1 Toranas The championship was a close tussle between their two drivers, the reigning champion Colin Bond and the young Canberra hotshot, Peter Lang, who had shown some form the previous year with Victorion all-rounder, Warwick Smith, as navigator. Previous HDT driver Frank Kilfoyle had moved to Datsun. The closest challengers to the HDT Torana was another Torana from South Australians, Stewart McLeod and Adrian Mortimer. Bond/Shepheard and Lang/Smith were equal on points going into the final round but Bond’s Torana had gearbox failure, and Lang and Smith placed third outright and first ARC to claim the championship.

Tom Snooks has provided the full story here.

To see other years of the Australian Rally Championship go to the ARC series page.

Series Regulations

Events were run under the National Rally Code. Several of the event had difficult navigation, most obviously South Australia where locals took the top two places.

Vehicle eligibility was CAMS Group C – Australian Touring Cars, with additional requirements as per the NRC and state addenda. CAMS had changed the Group C regulations in 1972 a growing number of vehicles were finding themselves ineligible for the ARC. In particular, cars imported for the Southern Cross in FIA Group 2, including Lancers and Datsuns, were deemed ineligible. This was the start of a period when some event winners were not scoring ARC points, as was the case this year with the Alpine Rally.

Points were awarded down to sixth: 9-6-4-3-2-1, maybe with the best five out of six results to count.

A Manufacturers Award continued.

Events

The series had six rounds again, but the Classic returned for a final time at the expense of the Akademos, and the Snowy Mountains Rally was renamed the Bega Valley Rally.

Southern 500 Rally (SA)
Classic Rally (Vic)
Bunbury Curran Rally (NSW)
Bega Valley Rally (NSW)
Warana Rally (Qld)
Alpine Rally (Vic)

Pointscores

Drivers Pointscores

Place	Driver	State	SA	Classic	Bun/Cur	Bega	Warana	Alpine	Total
1	Peter Lang	ACT		6	9	9	3	9	36
2	Colin Bond	NSW	3	9		6	9	2	29
3	Stewart McLeod	SA	9	2	5	3		6	25
4	Ed Mulligan	NSW		3		4	6	3	16
5	Tony Roberts	Vic	4	4	3	2			13
6	Bruce Hodgson	NSW		1	2			4	7
7=	Dean Rainsford	SA	6						6
7=	Frank Kilfoyle	Vic	1		5				6
9	John Shera	Qld					4		4
10=	Bob Holden	NSW	2						2
10=	Roy Denny	NSW				1		1	2
10=	Brian Evans	NSW					2		2
13=	Wal Glass	NSW			1				1
13=	Jim Reddiex	Qld					1		1

Navigators Pointscores

Place	Navigator	State	SA	Classic	Bun/Cur	Bega	Warana	Alpine	Total
1	Warwick Smith	Vic		6	9	9	3	9	36
2	George Shepheard	NSW	3	9		6	9	2	29
3	Adrian Mortimer	SA	9	2	5	3		6	25
4	Mike Batten	NSW		3		4	6	3	16
5	Jeff Beaumont	Vic	4	4	3	2			13
6	Fred Gocentas	ACT		1	2			4	7
7=	Graham West	SA	6						6
7=	Mike Osborne	Vic	1		5				6
9	Lloyd Meller	Qld					4		4
10=	Roger Bonhomme	Vic	2						2
10=	Richard Denny	NSW				1		1	2
10=	Barry Lake	NSW					2		2
13=	R. Smith	NSW			1				1
13=	Moss Pollack	Qld					1		1