The Cooper Memorial Trial was held on October 4.
VCS Round 7 – 1975 WDCC Cooper Memorial Trial
Jeff Beaumont’s account….
This year’s Cooper Memorial Trial was directed by Mick Brasier for the Western District Car Club, and was considered to be a challenging event for both drivers and navigators, in an unequalled manner.
Doug Irish and Ian Ellis had already won the Victorian Clubman series and did not start.
The total distance of 444 kilometres included 256 km of competitive, the longest event in the year’s series.
A central control was located at Scarsdale, with the first Division fully route charted.
This division ran from Dereel Swamp to Berringa and Staffordshire Reef. A route chart then took crews through newly-made, unmapped roads around Italian Gully, followed by Cherry Tree Plantation, then back to central Control.
Fancied runners Kevin Mills and Barry Burt banged into a tree, with the only damage being a smashed Super Oscar.
The second Division was a contrast to the previous, with a mixture of very tight map reading, combined with a bunch of very close grid references. It contained one passage control which only half of the field found from the right direction
The final Division sent cars through Cherry Creek Plantation and Linton Forest, then on to the Happy Valley / Piggoreet abandoned gold mine area. It contained a “champagne” section for the drivers, then a similar “champagne” section for the navigators.
Finally a route charted breather back towards Scarsdale via a steep and rough descent named “Down The Hatch”.
Garry Spence and Noel Kelly finally won the challenging event from the newly built, orange Escort 2000 of Sinclair / Kershaw.
Finishing very well were Jean Jones / Hugh McMenamin who came seventh after stopping to help a fellow competitor, which ultimately cost them a place.
