The Singapore Airlines Rally, otherwise known as the 1977 London Sydney Marathon, ran between August 14 and September 28.
There were some similarities to the 1968 London Sydney Marathon, but this edition, the brainchild of Wylton Dickson, was loosely organised by a number of different people and automobile associations across the world. The majority of the route was in Australia where CAMS were ultimately responsible. The disparate nature of the various organisers resulted in some significant inconsistencies, including the presentation of route instructions and even regulations. The European and Turkish stages were well organised, but the Malaysian stages were organised at the last moment and the instructions were of poor quality. The Australian organisation could best be described as “loose”, and there were several significant errors in the route instructions. In the end, a series of protests and section cancellations, together with penalties for minor speeding offences, left many competitors dispirited.
What was not in doubt was the performance of Andrew Cowan and the Mercedes team. Cowan, together with Colin Makin and Mike Broad, won the event by almost an hour over their teammates, Tony Fowkes and Peter O’Gorman, who made some significant errors in Australia that reflected their exhaustion as a two man crew. Paddy Hopkirk with his crew of Mike Taylor and Bob Riley, brought some honour to the substantial Citroen team, placing third, one place lower than his fine second place in 1968. Another Citroen crewed by Claude Laurent and Jean Claude Ogier (who arguably should have won in 1968) were lucky to finish fourth. Their luck was that the Australian entered Peugeot 505 of Ross Dunkerton, Bob Watson and Roger Bonhomme had initially been placed fourth after various problems, including an hour lost with a gearbox change, but were demoted to fifth after the deletion of a key section and the imposition of speeding penalties.
The event attracted 81 entries, although it appears that as few as 70 actually started from London. It was substantially a Mercedes versus Citroen event with four Mercedes and four Citroens placing in the top ten. Other likely contenders were Zasada and Schramm in a Porsche, who suffered several suspension failures across Australia, eventually finishing 13th. A well funded Turkish team of two Renault 12s finished 16th and 24th. Four wheel drives were permitted and there were a number of Range Rovers and Jeeps, as well as the perennial Noriyuki Koseki (with Yoshi Takaoka and Hiroshi Okazaki) who finished 19th in a Subaru.
In the end, there were 47 finishers declared of which 16 had done the entire course. In addition to the fifth placed Peugeot, other Australians to finish were:
- Western Australians Ben Williams, Frank Johnson and Dick Matson brought their Mazda RX4 home in ninth
- Jim Reddiex, Barry Ferguson and Doug Stewart placing tenth in a Citroen
- Evan Green, John Bryson and Tom Leake eleventh in a Range Rover
- John Taylor, Jeremy Browne and Rob Hunt twelfth, also in a Range Rover
- Arthur Davis, John Latham and Rod Jones, 18th in a Datsun 180B
- Wes Nalder and Noel Richards 20th and first in Class A in a Corolla
- Wal Glass, Peter Flanagan and Paul Caddey 26th in a Torana
- Bob Holden and Ian Monk 30th in a Peugeot after a roll in WA
- Hank and Simon Kable 32nd in a Mazda 929
- Allen Hausler, Barry Allen and Doug Francis 33rd in a Leyland Terrier truck
- Greg Niicholson and Norm Sherlock, 34th in a Lancer
- Hans Tholstrup and John Crawford, 35th in a Moke
- Charles Roberts, Len Webb and Ray Brookes 38th in a Renault
- Ian Baxter and Mick Ellis, 40th in a Datsun 1600
- Brian Hilton and Barry Lake, 42nd in a Peugeot after blowing a head gasket in NT
- Gerald Bartlett, Geoff Eldridge and George Harris, 44th in a Citroen
