Recollections of the Bond/Richards 1976 Southern Cross adventure

By Ian Richards

This article appeared in the HRA Winter 2022 Magazine and was based largely on Ian’s Recollections published in Auto Action immediately after the 1976 Cross, available here.

Following our convincing victory in the 1975 VRC in a Lancer (three wins and two seconds), the budget did not extend to another full season, so David decided to focus on the 1976 Southern Cross International Rally, at the time Australia’s premiere rally. In the months prior to the event the Lancer was rebuilt in an old rented tramways depot in Elsternwick, ensuring compliance with FIA Group 1 regulations, and closer to the event, the fitting of a new engine from Bob Riley’s Coltspeed operation in Sydney.

We may not have known it then, but the 1976 Cross is considered the pinnacle of the fifteen editions by virtue of the significant international involvement. A total of 34 of the 89 drivers were from overseas, and included five works Datsun 710s for Kallstrom, Aaltonen, Mehta, Walfridsson and Fury, works Lancers for Cowan, Ferguson and Stewart, works Escort RS1800s for Makinen and Clark, and a works BMW for Warmbold. Other locals included Colin Bond in the MHDT L34, the current Australian champion Ross Dunkerton in a 260Z, future champions Greg Carr in a Gerry Ball 710 and Murray Coote in a diminutive Datsun 1200, and future NZ champion Bair Robson in an Escort RS1800.

The stats on the 1976 Cross route were also impressive. The 2132 km of competitive stages was equal to more than three Classic Outback Trials, but in only four days, and mostly at night. Six stages were over 100 km, including the monster 215 km stage on the final night. The event centred on the resort town of Port Macquarie. Each day started with daylight stages followed by long nights such that we rarely got back to Port Macquarie before dawn. And while there were many wonderful roads on NSW’s north coast, there were also many rough and rocky stages that tested the reliability of cars to the fullest.

In the lead up to the event, David and head service man, Jim Nelms, trailered the Lancer to Sydney and David continued to work on it at Coltspeed, with several late nights that would be telling during the event. Our service effort was bolstered by Dick Gill and Garry Spence doing in-field service, which was often crucial when a problem arose. Ian joined the team at the last moment after completing an important university assignment in Melbourne while Ian’s parents provided catering support throughout the event to David, Ian and the service guys.

Day One

The event started 1 pm Saturday with a spectator stage around the Amaroo dirt circuit and down the hillclimb, which Ian recalls as the most frightening road in the event. Paul Paterson may agree, as Peter Janson dinged the front of the Lancer, losing quite a bit of time. Our time was respectable and most crews dropped the same points. This was the first Southern Cross to be timed to the second, but perversely, scored to the minute!

The four short stages on the Central Coast were always going to be largely irrelevant, but on the 13 km Mount Sugarloaf stage we had the first of quite a few punctures, and learned that our Yokohamas would need to be treated with some care on the often rocky roads. By the Stroud mealbreak a problem with our auxiliary fuel tank was evident, believed to be a pinched fuel line, and with insufficient time to refit the tank, we had to rely on our in-field service guys for refuelling between stages. This cost us 3 minutes in time penalties on the first night – time lost on transports was the same as on competitive stages!

The event began in earnest with the rugged 100 km Craven Myall stage, for which we hoped to have enough fuel, and we did – just! Our time was respectable despite a couple of spins, 8 minutes slower than Fury who was quickest. We realised that we had to set our own pace on this long event, and that the works cars could push hard over the rough stuff. We would typically be losing at least 5 second per kilometre to the likes of Fury and Cowan. But the carnage on this first real stage was considerable. We passed two cars on the road and many more stopped, including the other Bond who had distributor issues and later hit a stump. Greg Carr left the road while Mike Marshall hit a rock and bent the rear end. Warmbold’s BMW broke an axle, the shocks on Jim Laing-Peach’s Lancia failed, and Dunkerton had ignition problems then a broken exhaust. We had started the stage 25th on the road and emerged 14th. Among our rivals for the privateer award, Ian Hill, Murray Coote and Peter Janson had all dropped time, mostly with punctures.

The 68 km Wang Wauk stage was faster and smoother with all the top runners cleaning. It was one of several stages where Director, Dan White, employed a loop-the-loop arrangement with merging traffic at a passage control. All very well in theory, but at the merge we found ourselves in a drag race up a narrow road with Yoshio Iwashita in his 120Y, and he was not going to yield. We backed off and ate his dust for a while, losing a minute on the stage.

We had no problems through to the Taree refuel, having taken it easy on the very rough 49 km Kiwarric stage where the young Swede, Per-Inge Walfridsson, rolled the 710 for the first of reportedly four times. Aaltonen also retired after hitting a bank and holing the radiator – he would return a year later to take Nissan’s first Cross victory. Two more stages remained until the respite of Port Macquarie, the second being 102 km through the maze of roads in the Kerewong and Lorne Forests. Our times were respectable, and we were placed 16th outright, 9 minutes ahead of Ian Hill and 12 ahead of Murray Coote. Out front only 4 minutes separated Fury, Cowan and Makinen.

Day Two

A one hour “flexi service” allowed the fuel feed problem to be sorted by our service guys while we slept for about 6 hours before the scheduled 2 pm restart. We were in good spirits as we tackled the first short daylight stage through Cairncross Forest, but some over-exuberance saw us run wide at a spectator point and bend a stub axle.

We pressed on nonetheless, making reasonable times until the third stage through Kalateenee Forest just south of Kempsey when we lost power. We limped through the stage dropping 18 minutes to our main rivals – we were shattered. The problem was quickly traced to the points in the distributor and we were on our way, doing reasonable times on the next two short daylight stages.

At the Utungan meakbreak it was decided to change the strut with the bent stub axle, but it was necessary to change the spring and we didn’t have a spring compressor. One was botted from another crew but despite the time available, we dropped another 18 minutes on the next transport after leaving late. Apart from the costly time penalty, we had now used almost an hour of our permitted 2½ hours late time, and by the end of the night we had a mere 15 minutes of late time left.

The second night started with a challenging 150 km stage through the Horseshoe Road area to Bellingen where we passed five cars and caught, but could not pass the sixth, New Zealander Blair Robson. We had recouped 8 minutes on Coote and 10 on Hill. It lifted our spirits and then came the infamous Gordonville Ford! This was on a transport section, but the locals were there in force, having dug out the ford so that everyone got stuck and had to pushed out by a drunk driving a tractor with old tyres on the scoop. It was kind of funny, but many cars, including ours, had damage to reversing lights. It was perhaps also the demise of the works Escorts who developed diff seal problems as the night wore on with Makinen retiring and Clark falling out of contention.

After Gordonville we used the areas around Coffs Harbour made famous by the modern WRC event, including the Bucca and Wedding Bells Forests where the roads were generally fast and smooth. We were taking the odd minute or two off Hill and Coote, and on the 62 km stage out to Dorrigo we took 4 minutes off both.

After a refuel in Bellingen came two more stages, a short 17 km one over Gladstone Peak and then a monster 79 km stage back into the Horseshoe Road area and across into the remote Thumb Creek Forest. It was a cracker and we took another 6 minutes from Coote and 8 from Hill. However, towards the end it was just daylight and when driving into the low sun David clipped a protruding log with the rear right. It bent the leaf spring, unwinding the eye. We were lucking to make it to the end and then had to nurse the car all the way back to Port, 120 km with the rear end drifting from side to side! We made it and were up to 11th outright, just one minute behind Ian Hill and two ahead of Murray Coote, despite our problems the previous afternoon. With the demise of the Fords, the event was now a two-horse race with Fury 3 minutes ahead of Cowan.

Day Three

The priority during our one-hour flexi-service was to replace the rear spring, but first we needed a replacement! Our service guys had to sort this while we slept! Dick knew a guy called Doug Hall who was up from Melbourne spectating in a Lancer with a similar spring configuration. Doug agreed and his car was cannibalised, Jim drove our Lancer to and from parc ferme to a nearby garage with a suitable hoist, and the job was done with only a minute spare. With Doug’s car disabled until a spare was sourced, he and his mate joined our service crew for the rest of the event!

The third afternoon started with two short stages then a lovely 77 km stage through the Kippara Forest. By the mealbreak in Kempsey we had moved ahead of Hill and pulled clear of Coote who had problems, perhaps a puncture.

The night was more compact with only five stages and very little transport. The first 85 km stage which meandered through Tan Ban and Ingalba Forests was OK, but the 53 km stage through the Newry Forest was rough and we punctured, as well as spinning. Both Hill and Coote picked up 6 minutes on us.

After the Bellingen refuel came another monster 125 km stage through the Horseshoe Road area. It was here that our event unravelled a bit, primarily due to tiredness. David was getting slower and slower, almost drifting off to sleep. Ian was no better and David stopped at one T-junction with no call, to find Ian sound asleep. It was not a good situation! We dropped 12 minutes to Hill and fell behind them.

After a brief service at Taylors Arm we seemed to recover a bit and only dropped 2 minutes to Hill on the next 50 km stage through the Nulla Five Day Forest. On the night’s final 114 km stage back through the Kippara Forest we seemed to regain our mojo and picked up a couple of minutes on Hill.

Fortunately we were back in Port before dawn and pleased to see our beds. But we had dropped to 20 minutes behind Hill, a margin that we were unlikely to overcome on the final night unless they had problems, which they didn’t. Overall, we were up to 10th outright, with Iwashita having retired with a blown engine. Fury maintained his 3 minute lead on Cowan with Ferguson, Kallstrom and Mehta in a close tussle for the final podium spot.

Day Four

We were feeling a lot more relaxed on the final day. The car was good, we’d had a good sleep, and we were out to hold position and have fun. There was a slim chance we could catch Hill. Four short daylight stages took us down to the Taree mealbreak, including the spectacular Middle Brother. The four top privateers, Hill, Coote, Janson and ourselves, basically set the same times and positions remained unchanged. Coote then lost time in service and dropped road position.

At Taree we learned of the challenges faced by our service crew whose ute, borrowed from Clark Chrysler in Melbourne, had basically dropped its automatic gearbox on the highway. After hitching a ride back to Port, Jim tried to rent a vehicle to no avail. Enquiries lead to a friendly local farmer who loaned them his ageing Hilux ute for $100 and a tank full of diesel. Problem solved! Well mostly – they apparently caused a bit of a traffic jam on the long climb up the Oxley Highway to the late night service point. The Clark Chrysler ute was eventually sent back to Melbourne on a car carrier!

The night began with the traditional run along Black Flat Lane where we picked up a minute on Hill. On the following 49 km stage up the Dingo Tops, we had a spin and stalled the car sitting precariously on the edge of a drop, then the starter motor wouldn’t engage. We flagged down Janson who was next and they gave us a push, but we lost several minutes. Next were two lovely stages of 29 km and 92 km around the Dingo Tops to the Oxley Highway, quickly followed by the shorter 15 km stage to service at Myrtle Scrub. The night was cool and damp and the clay-based roads sometimes treacherous. We treaded carefully and dropped another couple of minutes to Hill. It was in here near Elands that Kallstrom retired his 710 with engine failure, moving us up a position.

From the Oxley Highway we faced the daunting 215 km Mount Boss stage almost to Kempsey. The first half of this stage traversed high country in the upper reaches of the Hastings River. It was quite “pioneering” in places, with some boggy tracks across paddocks and a few gates to negotiate. Somewhere in here Cowan reportedly passed Fury when he took a wrong turn, probably taking the lead, but in the end it didn’t matter. We enjoyed the stage immensely, and soon after the mid-stage service at Forbes River we passed Fury’s stricken 710 with diff failure, so we knew were up to 8th. Cowan was then in the lead by a country mile, and would go on to win by a whopping 46 minutes from team-mate Ferguson who was a mere 2 minutes ahead of a hard charging Mehta who at least got a Datsun onto the podium. We dropped 30 minutes on the monster stage, 3 behind Hill and a massive 24 behind Cowan and Mehta (about 7 seconds per kilometre).

After Kempsey it was an uneventful run to the finish, albeit with four more stages, including 47 km through Bellengarra Forest and a 25 km stage through Broken Bago, traversing the jaw-dropping Rollover Road. The last three stages were in daylight, and we beat Hill on all of them, but in the end we were 27 minutes adrift, but 19 minutes ahead of Coote and 35 ahead of Janson.

We didn’t have a stated “top ten finish” goal for the event, but we were satisfied with eighth outright. We could easily do the “what if”, but all our main rivals also had problems of some kind. That was the nature of the Cross – long and tough, persistence and determination was rewarded. The speed of the works cars was awesome and as the results showed, the works Lancers were unbelievably strong and reliable. It was the last year of the Lancer domination, with seven in the top ten, but with the withdrawal of Mitsubishi, Nissan would take the last four Southern Cross Rallies. Meanwhile, David retired from competition and Ian took up competitive driving.