The 13th BP Rally, organised by the Light Car Club of Australia, was held from May 10 to 16. The Directors were Frank Kilfoyle, Mike Osborne and Graham Hoinville, with the ever present assistance of John Pryce.
Win for the new HDT in a wet but “Best Yet” BP
Ross Runnalls provides a summary (with some additional comments from Jeff Beaumont) …
Frank Kilfoyle, a three times BP winner took over the Director reins from Tony Theiler, with Pryce and Hoinville still on board as assistants. The course headed north and west after an absence of three years. Although wet and a real points stripper the event was well appreciated by crews.
More use was made of survey maps allowing for more technical navigation.
Harry Firth had taken up the role of managing the new Holden Dealer team, which had early success with Tony Roberts and Mike Osborne in a Torana as convincing winners and Colin Bond and Brian Hope moving up from the little Colt Fastback to a 350 Monaro finishing third. Bond and Roberts had won the most recent Bathurst 500 sharing a 350 Monaro.
Four NSW, five SA, two Tasmanian and 21 Victorian crews started the Trial Stage from Kerang at 3 am Thursday 14 May on the first of nine Divisions, ending with an overnight break at Bendigo (depart 10 am), followed by Sea Lake (depart 3.30 pm), overnight at Mildura (depart 9.20 am Friday), Nhill (depart 5.30 pm), Mt Gambier (depart 12.30 am Saturday), Hamilton (depart 10 am), St Arnaud (depart 5.15 pm), into Ballarat before midnight for a sleep (depart 10.30 am Sunday), to BP South Melbourne (depart 2 pm to Chadstone).
The first Division went well until the muddy Kamarooka forest on the outskirts of Bendigo, except for the fancied Watson/McAuliffe combination who lost 27. Lunn/Forsyth led at Bendigo down one point to Collier/Haas on two. They swapped positions enroute to Sea Lake, then dropped off the leader board through the tricky maze around Annuello andmanu unmapped tracks in the Kulkyne forest beside the Murray River. Roberts/Osborne hit the front at Mildura down 29, not to be headed, out in front of Bond/Hope on 73.
The Raak Plain and Galah took points off most, but repairs to the Torana at Nhill narrowed the lead. David Cuthbert / Andy Chapman found a closed gate at speed, without stopping, then spent ten minutes removing the wiry mess off the front of their Hunter.
The long run from Nhill to Mt Gambier tii in some black sandy tracks around Tantaloona, then back into Victoria and some boggy section near Dartmoor and Merino. Watson/McAuliffe fought their way back from their early troubles to overtake McLeod/Lock into third at Hamilton, and then into second at Ballarat after Bond had to stop and repair broken steering using their winch.
Sunday saw an unusually easy run to the finish, with little change to positions. With just an hour or so to the finish, Graham Alexander’s Torana cried enough, with damaged engine bearings and finally a broken con rod.
Holden with first and third won the Manufacturers Award, but narrowly from Datsun.
32 crews started and 26 finished.
