The Summer Safari was held on February 11.
1978 VCS Round 1 – PCCV Summer Safari
The opening round of this year’s Clubman series was the Summer Safari, run in the Mt Cole area and capably directed by Dave Cochrane and Graham Wallis. Forty Clubmen crews faced the starter at Ararat.
Quickest over the first dusty competitive was a group of five cars, including Mick Holding and Noel Cutter ( Datsun 1200 ), Ray Youlden / John Ellis ( Colt ), Peter Thompson and Ian McCallum and Lindsay Dale / John Wilkinson, both in Datsun 1600’s.
Well into the Mt Cole area saw Ric Kemp / Roger Lee ( Cortina ) go mapping and lose valuable time.
The end of division 1 saw Lindsay Dale and John Wilkinson just in front from the Mazda 1500 SS of Allen Roberts / David Johns, closely followed a further bunch, with the ultimate winners in eighth place.
A major issue at the Elmhurst Break was the unavailability of bowser petrol at the service station, combined with a hamburger shop that had just gone out of business !
Next was a great section over the Pyrenees Range, won by Ray Youlden in a Colt 1100
Then two map-reading sections around Chateau Remy kept navigators on their toes.
Ellis/Mackay were pushing very hard indeed, with a number of fastest times through the second division. They eventually hit the front and won the rally by just a single point, from the following three crews separated by a further single point.
Peter De Vaus / Nick Wright were putting up some competitive times in their Peugeot 404, against the horde of popular Datsun 1600’s.
Towards the end John Adams /Alex McCosh lost their lights in the Lancer and Peter Hurrey / David Geddes snapped a tie rod in their Toyota Celica.