1974 Southern Cross Rally Event Story

Day One

The first night took a heavy toll with many retirements. McLeod was the first with a fire under the bonnet of the 240Z. Then Kilfoyle flipped the Datsun 710 on the second competitive section in the Nerong Forest, a serious blow to the fancied Datsun team.The Watson/Beaumont Renault Alpine retired with electrical problems while fires beset the McLeod/Mortimer 260Z, the Hodgson/Gocentas Escort BDA and the Chivas/Faulker Lancer, the latter being a write-off. Thompson broke the gearbox in his Datsun while the Evans/Mitchell 120Y suffered mechanical problems. Other retirements included Bolitho (Subaru – rolled), Hilton (Alfetta – holed sump) and Moloney (P76 – alternator)

Many crews also became bogged for up to an hour on the treacherous middle part of the Barrington Tops section. Some even became bogged on the very first short competitive at Jewells Beach, including Ferguson. Singh and Riley both lost half an hour bogged, probably in the Barrington Tops section. Riley was assisted back onto the road by Shinozuka but later retired with broken steering. Later in the night the Leyraud BMW left the road and was assisted back onto the road by the Green/Denny P76. Stories emerged of crews banding together to help each other through boggy sections.

Meanwhile at the front, it was a hammer and tongs battle between Cowan and Kallstrom. Despite an early puncture, Hallstrom pulled out a 3 minute lead until the final stage where his rear tyres were shot and Cowan pegged back those 3 minutes. So at the end of the first night Cowan and Kallstrom were equal on 43 points down, followed by and impressive George Fury (Datsun 180B) on 50 points and Mitsubishi Team leader Stewart 64, marginally ahead of Kenjiro Shinozuka (Lancer) equal with Kanno (Lancer) on 67, Tatsuo Yaginuma (Toyota Toreno) on 68, Jackson (XU1) on 71 and Ferguson (Lancer) 72. Takoaka in the first Subaru rounded out the top ten on 76 followed by team mate Laing-Peach on 83. Singh was languishing in 12th on 85 after his winching exercise.

Day Two

Some 41 cars started the second night. Despite Kilfoyle’s retirement, Datsun were in a seemingly strong position with equal first and third, but Kallstrom/Bonhomme retired early the first competitive stage of the second might with suspension failure. Rain had turned some roads into quagmires. A tricky junction on the first section confused Fury and Suffern who dropped 12 minutes and later had a brief off road excursion costing another 10 minutes. Several crews took the wrong road and became bogged. Cowan was quickest dropping a massive 21 from Ishiguro on 22, highlighting the difficult conditions and the challenge of staying within late time.  Thick fog enroute to Armidale caused many crews to become lost and many ran out of late time in the treacherous conditions. Stewart, now second on the road behind Cowan, had alternator failure and lost 23 minutes on a transport as well as valuable road position.

Later in the night a very slippery hill in the Styx Forest caught many crews who then exceeded their late time.  Stewart/Johnson retired, stuck at the bottom of a hill down a wrong road that came up at the correct distance. They shared the hill with the Mecak/McQuirk Mazda RX3. Takaoka tore the steering out of the leading Subaru on an un-cautioned washaway. Many crews were forced to short-cut during the night, including eventual sixth placegetters, Jackson/Jackson in the XU-1 who had enjoyed a virtually trouble free run until stuck behind other crews in the Styx Forest.

Ferguson was best on the night and climbed from 9th on the first night to be second on 150, well behind Cowan on 122, who had eased off knowing that the event was his to lose. Fury was third on 155, Singh 176, Yaginuma 188 and Ishiguro on 226.

There were 33 crews that booked into Port Macquarie at the end of the division, and of those, only 6 had completed the entire course. However, many of those who checked in were deemed to be out of late time and excluded. One of these was apparently the Munro/Harris Datsun 1600. A protest was lodged and upheld on the basis that you could be up to 30 minutes outside your late time at division end, and many were reinstated. In the end only 16 cars started the third division.

Day Three

From the start of the third night another ‘star’ was made by the Southern Cross Rally. George Fury, with navigator Monty Suffern, fought tooth and nail to chase down Ferguson and he became the favourite of the rally followers and the media.  Cowan was nevertheless commanding, and won the first long stage around the Horseshoe Road a minute ahead of Fury. Although not competitive, the crossing of the Bellinger River at the Gordonville ford provided plenty of entertainment. Ferguson was lucky to have minimal damage when he tipped the Lancer onto its side exiting the ford, but spectators soon righted the car and off he went.  Yaginuma was also rescued by spectators when he had an off road excursion.

There were 6 retirements during the night, including Laing-Peach/Lake in the sole surviving Subaru, with a blown head gasket. The sole remaining New Zealander, Rod Millen, retired near Kempsey with a split rear axle on the RX3.

Fury/Suffern should have won the division but lost 8 minutes up a wrong road on a touring section. They only lost 2 minutes to Ferguson over the night and were a minute quicker than both Cowan and Singh despite the wrong slot. Overall Cowan was on 158 and had maintained his lead over Ferguson who was on 184, then Fury 190, Singh 212 and Yaginuma 326. The remaining 5 runners had missed controls – Shinozuka on 538, Kanno 994, Jackson 1291, Iwashita 1874 and Munro 2332.

Day Four

Ten starters fronted the final division and of these only seven survived. Kanno retired early in the night with a broken diff, Shinozuka fell just short of the 80% of controls and Ferguson had electrical failure on the last special stage. Fury sportingly towed the Lancer to the stage end where the service crew tried to get it started but it simply would not go. A frustrating end for Ferguson.

Fury was lucky to reach the finish after hitting a bank early in the night near Elands and having to skip controls to reach the finish. Later in the night electrical gremlins forced him to drive without driving lights. Jackson was also lucky to finish after first having an under bonnet fire and then getting stuck in a creek without a starter motor, losing almost an hour. Iwashita was stuck in the same creek and lost 22.

With all this drama, Cowan seemingly cruised to a magnificent victory, which was in no way diminished by the fact that the win was his for the taking from the moment that Kallstrom retired early on the second night. But if anyone thought he had backed off, it should be noted that he won the final division on 51 from Singh on 115. The other six finishers put in an amazing effort to complete what the media soon dubbed ‘the magnificent seven’.

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