The Amateur 100 was held on September 1.

VRC Round 6 – VADC Amateur 100

Amateur 100 win gives Smith / Paterson second VRC title

Current Victorian champions Warwick Smith and Paul Paterson secured a narrow victory from the hard charging Brown brothers, Chris and Simon, in this VADC Amateur 100 Rally held in the Tooborac – Costerfield area.

Robert Frost was the Director, and 47 entries were received. But two entries were missing at the start, being John Armitage / Phil Rainer, and Peter Corkran / Ian Ellis, apparently due to car preparation issues.

Seventy kilometres of very tight daylight running were held in dry conditions.

As night fell, the Browns were in front, from Smith’s Lancer. This battle would continue throughout the whole event.

The night Division was delayed due to numerous kangaroos feeding along side most of the route. Once they were safely tucked away, rally running then got underway, with some serious map-reading sections with plenty of vias.

And road conditions became quite slippery. The Browns nudged off the road into a stump, with Bob Bird stopping to lend assistance, with minimal time lost for both crews. Unfortunately Bird / Boyd retired just after with a blown clutch, a poor reward for their previous efforts.

Further retirements were Nicholson / Price who collected a stump, then the Tassells blew a diff and Rob Dyer and Graham Wallis retired with crankshaft problems.

Spotlighters were also an issue, deciding that rally cars were better targets than wildlife!

The victory by Warwick Smith and Paul Paterson secured them a very well deserved 1979 Victorian Rally Championship Title, their second in row.